The Trump administration brushed aside decades of precedent when it ordered Columbia University to oust the leadership of an academic department, a demand seen as a direct attack on academic freedom and a warning of what’s to come for other colleges facing federal scrutiny, the Associated Press reports.

Federal officials told the university it must immediately place its Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department under “academic receivership for a minimum of five years”.

According to AP, the demand was among several described as conditions for receiving federal funding, including $400 million already pulled over allegations of anti-Semitism.

“It’s an escalation of a kind that is unheard of,” said Joan Scott, a historian and member of the academic freedom committee of the American Association of University Professors, was quoted as saying.

“Even during the McCarthy period in the United States, this was not done.”

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