The administration in Washington DC has already withdrawn government funds from the prestigious university, but is now proceeding with its demands. The move is the latest in a series of similar cases.
Earlier in the week, the rector Julio Frenk announced that government grants of $584 million, equivalent to over 5.5 billion kronor, have been stopped – a decision he calls "devastating".
"Would destroy"
James B Milliken, chairman of the California state university system – of which UCLA is one – says on Friday that he has been informed of the demand for equivalent to 10 billion kronor and regrets the decision.
"Earlier in the week, we offered to initiate a dialogue with the Department of Justice to be able to protect the university and its crucial research. As a non-private university, we are custodians of taxpayers' resources and a payment on this scale would totally destroy our country's best public university system", he says in a written statement.
Columbia reached a settlement
Earlier this year, UCLA reached a settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who had sued the university for allowing pro-Palestinian demonstrators to block their way to lecture halls in 2024.
The university is the first non-private one to be affected by the Trump administration's sanctions, which have also been directed at, among other things, the prestigious university Harvard.
In July, Columbia University reached a settlement with Donald Trump's government. The university in New York will pay over $220 million, nearly two billion kronor, to regain its government research funding. In return, Columbia gained access to over $400 million in research funding. Also in that case, government support was stopped after the Trump administration described a failure by the university to combat anti-Semitism, including related to pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.
The agreement has been said by the government to be used as a model for similar settlements with other universities accused of anti-Semitism.
