(MENAFN) The University of Virginia announced on Friday that it will not endorse the Trump administration’s proposed initiative, titled the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.”

This decision makes it the fifth academic institution to decline participation in the initiative, which promises prioritized access to federal resources in return for implementing a collection of government-defined educational benchmarks and political limitations.

Acting president Paul Mahoney emphasized that the university “seeks no special treatment” and intends to maintain cooperation with federal authorities to find “lasting approaches to improving higher education.”

In a formal message addressed to Education Secretary Linda McMahon and additional high-ranking Trump administration personnel, Mahoney stated, “The integrity of science and other academic work requires merit-based assessment of research and scholarship.”

He added that “a contractual arrangement predicating assessment on anything other than merit will undermine the integrity of vital, sometimes lifesaving, research and further erode confidence in American higher education.”

The administration’s 10-page outline proposes advantages in federal funding to academic institutions that consent to specific terms.

These include freezing tuition fees for a period of five years, setting limits on international student admissions, banning race- or gender-based decisions in recruitment and admissions, and restricting faculty and staff from making political remarks on behalf of their institutions.

Alongside the University of Virginia, several other prestigious universities—Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Southern California—have also opted not to support the proposed compact.

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