Hit by massive funding cuts and a crackdown on student protesters, Columbia University is under fire from US President Donald Trump, putting the world of higher education on tenterhooks.

The arrest of student activist Mahmoud Khalil has crystallized concerns over freedom of speech under the Republican leader's administration -- and fueled warnings that Trump is out to quell dissent.

Khalil, a US permanent resident with Palestinian roots, recently earned a graduate degree from the prestigious Ivy League school in New York.

But he was detained in early March by plainclothes immigration agents over his role in the student movement protesting Israel's war on Gaza.

Trump has vowed Khalil's detention is the first in a line of arrests to come.

Columbia's student movement has been at the vanguard of protests that have exposed deep rifts over the war.

Activists call them a show of support for the Palestinian people. Trump condemns them as anti-Semitic, and says they must end.

The president has cut $400 million in federal funding from Columbia -- including research grants and other contracts -- on the questionable grounds that the institution has not adequately protected Jewish students from........

© International Business Times