Fresh attack on Harvard intensifies chaos for international students in US

Students will need to move schools to keep legal status, as US universities reel from funding cuts and Trump orders

The Trump administration’s announcement on Thursday that it would revoke Harvard University’s eligibility to enroll international students marked the most severe escalation yet in its weeks-long showdown with the university. The move, which the university challenged in court on Friday, would force more than 6,000 currently enrolled students to transfer to other universities or lose their legal status, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Education advocates denounced the administration’s latest attack against Harvard as a gross overreach that they warn will damage US students as well.

A full accounting of the impact of Trump’s policies won’t be possible until the fall, when universities are required to report their matriculation data. But a global survey of universities published earlier this month shows some early signs, including graduate student enrollment that dropped 13% this spring, while a separate analysis of student visas showed a 14% drop in the number of visas issued so far this year.

Those trends will only be compounded by billions in funding cuts that have already destabilized research institutions and risk sending talented students elsewhere, analysts warn.

“It certainly adds to the stress of a prospective or current international student who, in addition to worrying about immigration policy, has to worry about whether they will have uninterrupted funding if they’re doing a PhD,” said Julia Kent, vice-president, best practices and strategic initiatives, at the Council of Graduate Schools, a group promoting graduate education and research. She noted that some foreign students were so anxious about the administration’s campaign against foreign students that they feared driving their cars.

“It’s creating a climate of chaos and uncertainty.”