Xinhua Agency, San Francisco, October 10 (Reporters Wu Xiaoling and Yang Ling) The Massachusetts Institute of Technology sent a letter to the Ministry of Education on the 10th, saying that the school disagreed with the Trump administration's previous request that some universities in the United States sign agreements containing specific terms, saying the agreement would restrict university freedom of speech and independence.

"American leadership in science and innovation depends on open competition for independent thinking and excellence," said the university's president, Sally Kornbluth, in the letter. "MIT personnel are happy to compete with the best without preference. Therefore, they cannot support proposed solutions to higher education problems." She said the premise of the agreement runs counter to the university's core belief that science funding should be based solely on scientific merit.

The Trump administration sent a letter to the first nine U.S. universities on Sunday night, asking the university to sign the agreement to prioritize federal funding. The agreement includes: requiring the university to prohibit consideration of racial, gender and other factors when recruiting staff and accepting students; limiting the international undergraduate student admission rate to not more than 15 percent; requiring students to apply for the U.S. University Admission Test (SAT) or similar academic proficiency test; and containing 10 points such as curbing the phenomenon of high student scores.

The nine universities include Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Austin, University of Arizona, Brown University and University of Virginia. MIT became the first university to reject the agreement.