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If President Donald Trump doesn’t want Harvard international students, many foreign governments and universities are willing to take them along with their talents that helped make the United States a global technology and scientific leader.
The future of international students at the oldest, wealthiest, and most famous universities in the United States is uncertain after the Trump administration announced a ban on admissions from the 2025-26 grade.
After Harvard refused to take over extensive data on international students, Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem said the school is responsible for “violence, anti-Semitism and coordination with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”
Harvard sued the move, calling it illegal, and put it on hold for two weeks on Friday by a federal judge in Boston. If the Trump administration wins, new international students will be forbidden from registering at Harvard University, and current international students will be forced to transfer elsewhere or lose their legal status.
US universities, including Harvard, rely heavily on international students, who often pay far more tuition than their American classmates. Many of them will remain in the US where the US, China and other countries are responsible for major breakthroughs in strategically important areas such as artificial intelligence, where they are trapped in fierce competition.
Trump’s campaign against Harvard is a “terrifying policy error” that could undermine the world’s leading role the US has played in research and development since World War II, Simon Margison, a professor of higher education at Oxford University, told NBC News on Monday.
The recession of international students will affect the “talent pipeline” and revenues of American universities, while also benefiting US competitors, he said. “China will be much more attractive to students and researchers in the Global South than before,” he said, adding that “Western Europe will also benefit greatly.”
While Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric has already sparked anxiety among international students at U.S. universities, there have been deep financing cuts and efforts to intervene in the university’s internal businesses. Visas for hundreds of students have been revoked, but the Trump administration has sought to expel others more than pro-Palestinians or other activism.
At Harvard, more than a quarter of the approximately 25,000 student organization comes from overseas, and the looming ban has caught up with students from over 140 countries, including the future Queen of Belgium.
Harvard University’s largest group of overseas students, about 20%, come from China. This was the top source of international students in the US before it was overtaken by India last year.
The number of Chinese students in the US is declining. The 2023-24 academic year has decreased to approximately 277,000 compared to over 372,000 in 2019-20.
Chinese scholars were also kicked out by the China Initiative, the national security program from Trump’s first term that elicited racial profiling accusations. Many of them have moved their research to universities in China.
In response to Harvard’s ban, Beijing said that US-China education cooperation is “mutually beneficial” and “protects the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese students and academics overseas.”
“China has consistently opposed the politicization of education exchanges,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said during a regular briefing in Beijing on Friday. “That kind of action by the US only undermines its own image and international credibility.”
Izzy Shen of London. (Personally courtesy of Izzy Shen)
Izzy Shen, 23, a Harvard student from Beijing, said her visa application was denied hours after Trump’s Harvard ban.
“I didn’t think it would be that fast,” said Shen, who had already marked “approved.”
Shen, who was recognized as a master of Harvard’s design engineering program, said she was “relatively optimistic” and that the situation would “become more clearer” after Thursday’s injunction.
Duo Yi, who has enrolled in Harvard Kennedy School’s doctoral program for public policy, said they are exploring other options amid growing uncertainty around admissions. Trump is “simply too unpredictable,” she said. “There’s no way to know what direction his future policies will take.”
Foreign governments and universities are not waiting to plead with Harvard students spurred by Trump. On Hong Kong’s Chinese territory, authorities have urged universities to take positive action “attract the best talent.”
Hong Kong’s “doors are wide open” and “students facing discrimination and unfair treatment in the United States,” city leader John Lee said Tuesday.
Hong Kong has four universities in the top 100 top global universities rankings for US News & World Reports, which Harvard University is the top, but experts say academic freedom in Beijing’s former British colony is being eroded in 2020.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said on Friday that Harvard University’s undergraduate and graduate students, as well as students who confirmed their admission offers, were welcomed to study instead.
Europe also invited scientists to worry about funding cuts and research freedom under Trump, and tried to launch a $570 million initiative called “European Choice” this month.
Although she did not mention Trump by name, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen emphasized “free and open research” in a speech promoting initiative at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
“As the threat rises around the world, Europe will not compromise on that principle,” she said. “Europe must remain a home of academic and scientific freedom.”
Despite concerns about the Harvard ban, Alex Zen, an overseas education consultant based in a city in Guangzhou, south China, said American universities are the best option for many Chinese students.
“The rich still want to go to the US for education,” Zen said.
This story first appeared on nbcnews.com. More from NBC News:
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