Cap foreign students at 15%, max 5% per country: Trump to US universities

Trump administration memo orders US colleges to cap foreign undergraduates at 15%, linking compliance to federal grants and penalties

US colleges have been told to restrict the number of international undergraduates they enrol to just 15% of their total student body under a new White House directive. The 10-point memo, circulated by the Trump administration this week, also specifies that no more than 5% of students can come from any single country.

 

Brown University confirmed receiving the memo in a post on X, formerly Twitter, joining eight other institutions named by officials. Letters were sent to Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia.

 

 

What the memo contains

 

According to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal and other US-based media outlets, the memo sets out ten directives by Trump administration:

 

1. Cap international undergraduate enrolment at 15%

2. Limit students from any one country to no more than 5%

3. Ban the use of race or sex as factors in hiring and admissions

4. Freeze tuition for five years

5. Require applicants to take the SAT or an equivalent test

6. Address grade inflation across courses

7. Promote viewpoint diversity among students, faculty, and staff

8. Revise or remove institutional units viewed as hostile to conservative ideas

9. Screen foreign students for alignment with “American and Western values”

10. Share information about foreign students, including disciplinary records, with the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department

 

The section on viewpoint diversity calls for universities to revise governance structures and, in some cases, “transform or abolish institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”

 

Federal funding and penalties

 

The memo links compliance with access to federal grants. “Universities that rely on foreign students to fund their institutions risk, among other things, potentially reducing spots available to deserving American students,” the document states.

 

Those that sign on will receive “multiple positive benefits,” including “substantial and meaningful federal grants,” according to a letter addressed to university leaders. The Justice Department will monitor compliance, with institutions that fall short facing the loss of these benefits.

 

Wider push on higher education

 

The move is the latest step in the administration’s efforts to reshape American higher education. Over recent months, it has threatened to withdraw federal funding from high-profile universities unless they make concessions on combating antisemitism and changing diversity policies.

 

In July, Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million to settle an investigation into alleged discrimination law breaches. Earlier this year, the administration froze about $2 billion in federal funding to Harvard University, claiming it failed to act against antisemitism on campus. That freeze was struck down by a federal judge last month.

 

Brandon L Wolfe, a North Carolina-based enterprise strategy architect, warned in a LinkedIn post that the memo could change the academic landscape. “To say that the implications are far-reaching is an understatement. Universities risk mission dilution, loss of academic freedom, and reputational damage if stakeholders perceive that political compliance outweighs intellectual independence,” he wrote.

 

Wolfe drew on the words of Justice Robert Jackson, noting: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official… can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.”

 

He added, “Higher education needs to push back in a uniform way IF this isn’t what they want. Corporations may want to join in because the same thing is happening with them as well to secure business deals.”