In USA, Columbia University has agreed to pay 221 million dollars to settle claims from the Trump administration that it failed to adequately address anti-Semitism on campus.
The settlement will unfreeze most of the 400 million dollars in federal grants previously withheld. The New York-based university will also regain access to billions dollars in current and future funding.
The University said the agreement affirms reforms introduced in March, including enhanced campus safety and revised disciplinary procedures. The deal also requires Columbia to uphold merit-based admissions and end programs that allegedly promoted race.
The deal, agreed on Wednesday, comes after sweeping university campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza during the spring and summer of 2024 and this year were criticised as veering into anti-Semitism.
In February, the government cut $400m in federal research funding for Columbia in a bid to force its administrators to respond to alleged harassment of Jewish students and faculty.
The unprecedented agreement marks a victory in Trump’s efforts to exert greater control over higher education, including campus activism, and could offer a framework for future deals with other universities.
Columbia has agreed to pay $200m to the government over three years, as well as making a separate $21m payment to settle claims by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In exchange, the “vast majority” of the frozen $400m in federal funding will be reinstated, the university said. Columbia will also regain access to billions of dollars’ worth of current and future grants under the deal.