Harvard University loses another $93m in federal grants

The Trump administration has cut another $A93 million in funding for one of America’s most prestigious Ivy League universities.

The US Department of Health and Human Services is terminating $A93 million in federal grants to Harvard University, saying the Ivy League institution failed to address antisemitic harassment and ethnic discrimination on campus.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen or ended federal grants and contracts for the university worth nearly $US3 billion ($A4.7 billion) in recent weeks.

Since taking office in January, Trump has sought to use federal research funding to overhaul US academia, which he says has been gripped by anti-American, Marxist and “radical left” ideologies.

The administration has accused Harvard of continuing to consider ethnicity when reviewing student applications and of allowing discrimination against Jews as a result of the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled American campuses last year.

New York’s Columbia University has also been targeted over alleged antisemitism.

“Due to Harvard University’s continued failure to address anti-Semitic harassment and race discrimination, HHS is terminating multiple multi-year grant awards … over their full duration,” the health department said in a post on X on Monday.

Harvard University did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based institution has previously said that it “cannot absorb the entire cost” of the frozen grants, and that it was working with researchers to help them find alternative funding.

It is also suing the Trump administration over its decision to cut grants.

Earlier this month, the university settled a high-profile lawsuit by an Orthodox Jewish student who said Harvard was ignoring antisemitism on campus.

The settlement came four months after Harvard promised additional protections for Jewish students, as it resolved two lawsuits claiming it was a hotbed of antisemitism.

Reuters