Sneak Preview: Universities Receive, React to Recent ‘Compact’
(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) Nine universities have until Oct. 20 to provide “feedback” to the Trump administration on their responses to an Oct. 2 document entitled Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education. According to the document, the compact “represents the priorities of the U.S. government in its engagements with universities. … Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits.”
The recipients of this proposed higher education compact are the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia (UVA). Department of Education officials sent letters and the compact to the universities on Oct. 1, with an Oct. 20 deadline for what they termed feedback.
The document states that its purpose is “to advance the national interest arising out of” the “unique relationship” between the federal government and American universities. The compact sets down approximately 10 priorities that must be agreed to by each university if it wants to continue to “benefit” from a close relationship with the federal government, according to the compact, including (1) access to student loans, grant programs and federalcompacts; (2) funding for research directly or indirectly; (3) approval of student and other visas in connection with university matriculation and instruction; and (4) preferential treatment under the tax code.
The compact’s 10 main provisions require each university to, among other things, agree that factors such as sex, ethnicity, race, nationality, political views, sexual orientation, gender identity or religious associations will not be considered in undergraduate or graduate student admissions or financial support decisionmaking; to freeze tuition rates for the next five years; and that “no more than 15% of a university’s undergraduate student population shall be participants in the Student Visa Exchange Program, and no more than 5% shall be from any one country.”
Further, the compact directs that universities “shall publicly post statistics about average earnings from graduates in each academic program and shall refund tuition to students who drop out during the first academic term of their undergraduate studies,” and the universities “maintain institutional neutrality at all levels of their administration." This mean that university employees generally, “in their capacity as university representatives, will abstain from actions or speech relating to societal and political events,” the document continues.
Most stakeholders, even those who strongly disagree with the intent of the compact, concur with one statement included upfront in the document: “American higher education is the envy of the world and represents a key strategic benefit for our nation,” including the American Association of Universities (AAU). In an Oct. 10 statement, AAU President Barbara R. Snyder said her members agree “with many of the general principles stated in the compact. … At the same time, we recognize and embrace the need for reflection, critical review and continuous improvement. We have significant concerns, however, about any compact or policy that could damage, compromise or depart from our nation’s competitive, merit-based system of research grant funding. That system has been the foundation for American leadership in science and innovation for decades.”
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
Join us for our following Thompson Grants event:
Federal Grants Forum | Nov. 11-12, 2025 | Orlando, Fla.
