EXCLUSIVE: Trump Gives Universities Another Opportunity to Join His Effort to Restore Higher Education

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—President Donald Trump is extending the deadline for universities to sign the higher education compact, giving preferential funding to schools that agree to certain terms, The Daily Signal first reports.

The Trump administration is offering universities additional time to ensure maximum participation and accommodate universities that have been responsive and cooperative, an administration official told The Daily Signal.

The White House had originally asked schools for initial signatories “no later than November 21, 2025.”

The administration remains committed to the original principles proposed in the compact, the official said.

On Oct. 1, the White House invited nine elite universities to sign a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” in order to gain preferential federal funding. They had until Nov. 20 to send suggested revisions.

But Trump expanded the invitation beyond the University of Arizona, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas, University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. 

The administration encouraged any university committed to implementing “commonsense principles, like student equality, financial responsibility, merit-based hiring, and civil discourse, to engage with the administration,” according to a White House official.

Highlights of the 10-point compact include provisions capping international students at 15% of the undergraduate student body; banning race-based admissions and faculty hiring; “abolishing institutional units” hostile to conservative ideas; preventing disruptions caused by student protests; adopting policies banning employees from making political statements on behalf of the university; and adopting biological definitions of sex.

The news follows the White House’s first in a series of education roundtables. 

The topic of Wednesday’s roundtable, led by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, was “Administrative Bloat and Low-Value Programs: How US Universities are Failing American Families and How They Can Reform.”

Attendees discussed the “wasteful and low-value academic programs leading to higher tuitions and worse outcomes for students.”

“Let me be blunt: American families are losing faith in postsecondary education, and they have a right to. It’s not because they don’t value education or because their children have suddenly lost a desire for learning and discovery,” McMahon said. “It’s because everyday Americans are realizing how many universities operate like machines that take in wide-eyed freshmen and churn out indebted graduates, many of them holding degrees that do not pay off.”

The roundtable worked on identifying ways “universities can make reforms to cut administrative bloat and deliver high quality academic programs and a better return on investment for students and families.”

Roundtable members included McMahon; Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent; a White House representative; Casey Sacks, president of BridgeValley Community and Technical College; Erin Valdez of the University of Austin; Kimberly Fletcher of Moms for America; Michael Bettersworth of Texas State Technical College; and Ray Rodrigues of the State University System of Florida.