Los Angeles: The University of Southern California (USC) has become the latest top-tier university to reject President Donald Trump’s Higher-Education Compact, a federal initiative offering privileged access to research funding in return for adopting the administration’s conservative educational framework.
In a formal statement released Thursday, USC Interim President Beong-Soo Kim said the institution “respectfully declines” the offer, joining a growing list of universities including the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that have rebuffed the proposal.
In a letter addressed to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Kim expressed deep concern that linking federal research benefits to ideological compliance could erode the principles upon which American higher education is built.
“While the Compact aims to strengthen academic performance, tying its benefits to a specific political agenda would, over time, undermine the very values of free inquiry and intellectual excellence that the program claims to promote,” Kim wrote.
He further emphasized that the success of American research institutions rests on their independence from political influence, warning that the proposal risks turning universities into “extensions of partisan policymaking rather than engines of discovery and truth.”
Kim’s letter also drew comparisons to nations where academic systems have suffered under government control. He noted that countries lacking “America’s commitment to freedom and democracy” have demonstrated how excellence declines when academic priorities are dictated by political agendas rather than “free, meritocratic competition.”
USC’s stance echoes a broader resistance from major research universities that have expressed unease about federal attempts to influence campus governance and research direction through funding incentives.
The Trump administration’s Higher-Education Compact, unveiled earlier this year, promised increased federal grants, reduced regulatory oversight, and streamlined access to innovation funds for institutions agreeing to align with the administration’s “American values framework.”
However, the initiative has faced criticism from academic leaders and faculty groups who argue that it threatens university autonomy and could create a divide between politically compliant and independent research institutions.
With USC’s decision, a pattern of rejection is emerging among the nation’s leading universities signaling a rare, unified stance by academia against what many see as an attempt to politicize education policy.
The White House has yet to comment on USC’s decision, but Education Department officials previously described the Compact as a “voluntary partnership” aimed at ensuring that taxpayer-funded research aligns with “national priorities.”
For USC and its peers, however, the message remains clear: academic integrity and open inquiry cannot be negotiated, even in exchange for expanded federal support.
As Kim concluded in his letter, “The pursuit of knowledge must remain free from political constraint. That is the foundation of every great university and of our democracy itself.”