The Administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education, leaked to the press, offers schools preferential funding if they follow certain rules. Schools that agree to meet the Trump benchmarks would be eligible for “multiple positive benefits,” and “substantial and meaningful federal grants.”
Some rules are common sense. The memo specifies that universities in the compact must end the use of race or gender preferences in hiring or admission on campus. This is the law. Also sensible is embracing so-called institutional neutrality so schools don’t take sides in social and political issues unrelated to the university. Professors can opine in their private capacity, but the history department can’t dictate a certain view of the Arab-Israel conflict.
The memo encourages a “vibrant marketplace of ideas,” and that can’t be said often enough. Many schools are making good efforts to address progressive monoculture, including left-leaning faculty rosters. Kudos to schools like the University of Texas, which has created a school of Civic Leadership, and others like Vanderbilt that have hosted events to emphasize a return to free-speech principles. The Trump compact seems to have backed off attempts to dictate faculty hiring, a welcome development.
Where the compact goes too far is with its demand that schools freeze tuition for five years and cap the enrollment of international students at 15%. Mitch Daniels proved at Purdue that tuition can be frozen over several years, but this should be up to the schools themselves.
And where does the 15% cap on foreign students come from—a dartboard? International students are a source of full-freight tuition for many schools. Students from overseas were 26% of the University of Southern California student body in 2025. Limiting tuition and international students at the same time could leave schools with a budget shortfall.
Brian McGill and Sara Randazzo:
The compact acknowledges the crushing debt many college graduates face and seeks ways to alleviate the burden. Universities signing on would have to “commit to freezing the effective tuition rates charged to American students for the next five years.” The sticker price of tuition, room and board at some universities can now reach near $100,000.
Few college students pay such a high price. The average published price for tuition and fees at public four-year schools for those living in-state was $11,610, according to the College Board, a number that has actually decreased slightly over the past decade when inflation is taken into account. At private schools, the published average was $43,350, up 4% over a decade in inflation-adjusted dollars.