President Donald Trump’s administration has offered the University of Texas at Austin preferential treatment in federal funding in exchange for capping international student enrollment, adopting a stricter definition of gender and implementing a five-year tuition freeze.
The letter, titled “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” was sent to UT Austin, along with eight other schools across the U.S. The Trump administration has asked the universities to cap foreign enrollment at 15% and ban the use of race and gender in the admission process, even though UT Austin has complied with anti-DEI laws since 2024.
In addition to capping and restricting race-based admission, universities would also have to end grade-based inflation, refund students who dropped out within the first year, crack down on protests, stay politically neutral and restructure their governance to prohibit anything that would “punish, belittle and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” as stated in the letter.
The letter was sent to UT Austin, University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University.
The letter is part of President Trump’s initiative to reshape post-secondary education, which the administration believes is minimized on college campuses. Within just a year, the administration has gotten universities to align athletic policies with the administration’s goals to limit transgender involvement in sports, restrict student protest and cut $5.2 billion in research grants.
The Trump administration has promised universities that sign the letter expanded access to federal grants, looser restraints on overhead costs and assurance that the letter serves as a paper trail proving universities’ compliance with federal civil rights law. In the past, the administration has used federal civil rights investigations to halt funding to universities.
Senior Policy Strategist in the White House May Mailman told the Wall Street Journal that the administration does not plan to limit funding to only universities that sign the compact. However, schools that sign the compact will get priority in receiving federal funding.
“Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forgo federal benefits,” the compact described.
UT System Board of Regents Chair Kevin Eltife expressed his enthusiasm for the offer.
“We enthusiastically look forward to engaging with university officials and reviewing the compact immediately,” Eltife said in a statement. “The University of Texas system is honored that our flagship — the University of Texas at Austin — has been named as one of only nine institutions in the U.S. selected by the administration for potential funding advantage.”
Although UT Austin seems open to complying with Trump’s requests, the faculty has voiced concerns about the administration’s demands. Professor of Education David DeMathews says that the compact could limit academic freedom and discourage top talent from attending UT.
“This puts the system in peril, potentially, depending on how universities respond to it,” DeMatthews said in an interview with KUT.
If UT Austin signs the letter, the university would be required to guarantee compliance with the letter each year, with any violation subjecting the university to repaying federal funds and suspension of the compact. The administration has given the nine universities until Oct. 20 to respond to the compact.
