Politics
Impact of Trump Harvard International Student Ban on Global Education | Updatix News
Trump Harvard international student ban
HONG KONG— There are many other nations and colleges that are willing to accept overseas students, along with their skills that have contributed to the United States’ position as a global leader in science and technology, if President Donald Trump is not interested in them attending Harvard.
The Trump administration imposed a ban on international enrollment beginning in the 2025–2026 academic year, casting doubt on the future of international students at the oldest, wealthiest, and most prestigious university in the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Harvard was being held responsible for “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus” after the university declined to provide copious amounts of data about its international students.
Harvard filed a lawsuit against the move, claiming it was illegal, and a federal court in Boston put it on pause for two weeks on Friday. Current international students would be compelled to transfer elsewhere or lose their legal status if the Trump administration wins, and future students would not be allowed to enroll at Harvard.
International students, who frequently pay significantly higher tuition than their American counterparts, are a major source of enrollment for American universities, such as Harvard. Many of them choose to remain in the United States, where they have contributed to significant advancements in strategically significant domains like artificial intelligence, where China, the United States, and other countries are engaged in fierce competition.
Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at the University of Oxford, told NBC News via email Monday that Trump’s campaign against Harvard is a “treatable policy error” that might jeopardize the United States’ position as a global leader in research and development since World War II.
According to him, a decline in foreign enrollment would hurt American universities’ “talent pipeline” and revenue while helping their rivals in the United States. He predicted that “Western Europe will also gain significantly” and that “China will become much more attractive than before to students and researchers from the Global South.”
In addition to significant financial cuts and attempts to meddle in colleges’ internal affairs, Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric was already causing anxiety among international students attending American universities. The Trump administration has jailed and attempted to deport students due to their pro-Palestinian and other action, while hundreds of students have had their visas revoked.
Over 25% of Harvard’s 25,000+ students are international, and students from more than 140 nations, including the future queen of Belgium, have been affected by the impending ban.
China, which was once the largest supplier of international students in the United States before being surpassed by India last year, accounts for 20% of Harvard’s total number of international students.
Disruptions from the Covid epidemic and rising U.S.-China tensions have caused the number of Chinese students in the U.S. to decline, from over 372,000 in 2019–20 to over 277,000 in the 2023–24 academic year.
The China Initiative, a national security initiative during Trump’s first term that sparked allegations of racial profiling, also turned off Chinese academics. Many of them have relocated to Chinese universities to conduct their study.
Beijing responded to the Harvard ban by claiming that educational collaboration between the United States and China is “mutually beneficial” and will “protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students and scholars overseas.”
At a routine briefing in Beijing on Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning stated, “China has consistently opposed the politicization of educational exchanges.” “The United States’ actions will only harm its own reputation and credibility abroad.”
Hours after Trump’s Harvard ban, 23-year-old Beijing-born Izzy Shen said her visa application was denied.
According to Shen, whose application had already been stamped as “approved,” “I didn’t expect it to be so fast.”
After Thursday’s injunction hearing, Shen, who was accepted into Harvard’s Master of Design Engineering program, said she was still “relatively optimistic” and that things would “get clearer.”
Due to increasing doubts regarding her enrollment, Duo Yi, who was accepted into Harvard Kennedy School’s doctoral program in public policy, claimed she is currently looking into other choices. She claimed that Trump is “just too unpredictable.” “I am unable to predict the course of his future policies.”
Universities and governments throughout the world are not waiting to court the Harvard students that Trump turned away. Authorities in Hong Kong, China, have called on academic institutions to engage proactively “to attract top talent.”
Hong Kong’s top leader, John Lee, stated on Tuesday that the city’s “doors are wide open” to “any students who face discrimination and unfair treatment in the U.S.”
Four institutions in Hong Kong are listed in the top 100 of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global institutions Rankings, with Harvard at the top. However, experts claim that since Beijing enacted a national security law in 2020, academic freedom in the 7.5 million-person former British colony has declined.
Harvard undergraduates and postgraduates, along with those who have received confirmed admission offers, are welcome to enroll at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology instead, the university announced on Friday.
With the launch of a $570 million effort this month called “Choose Europe,” Europe has also attempted to entice academics who are concerned about funding cuts and research independence under Trump.
In a speech promoting the program at Paris’ Sorbonne University, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed “free and open research” without specifically mentioning Trump.
“Europe will not compromise on its principles as threats arise globally,” she declared. “Europe must continue to be the birthplace of scientific and academic freedom.”
American institutions continue to be the top choice for many Chinese students, according to Alex Zeng, an overseas education consultant based in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, despite worries about the Harvard ban.