 "Students holds a sign during a rally in front of the US Department of Education in Washington, DC. Since Trump's return to power, he has waged war against many universities making it unsafe for foreign students. AFP")
For millions and millions of international students, studying in a US university is the pinnacle of their educational life. Many consider it the first step in achieving their ‘American Dream’. However, since the return of Donald Trump to the White House this January, many foreign students, including Indians, seeking higher education in the US are reconsidering their decision, and looking at other options.
This comes as several US universities have come under siege, facing funding cuts, as well as the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation drive, prompting waves of fear and confusion at schools across the country.
Trump’s war on universities
In his second term as US president, Donald Trump has cracked down on US universities. He has threatened the country’s most elite colleges such as Brown, Columbia, Princeton, Northwestern and Harvard with funding freezes.
Trump and his allies contend that some of these institutions have become bastions of anti-semitism and ideological indoctrination. And since March 13, he has gone after seven universities, pausing their funding.
For instance, Trump has suspended $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University . The Trump administration has also informed Brown that it could lose up to $510 million in federal funding. The Trump administration has linked its decision to claims that Brown is not doing enough to address antisemitism on campus.
Cornell University is also facing the risk of losing at least $1 billion in federal support, while Princeton University has said that dozens of its grants have been suspended and that $210 million in federal funds is at risk.
Trump has also suspended $2.2 billion in grants to Harvard University and another $60 million freeze in government contracts after the college refused to comply with the US president’s demands. Moreover, on Tuesday (April 15), Trump even threatened to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status.
Dozens of other schools are under also scrutiny, largely by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and are aware that some of their federal funding is imperiled.
While the Trump administration has maintained that the crackdown is to target the growing anti-semitism, critics note that the hostility has deeper roots —conservatives in the US have been suspicious of higher education, disturbed by affirmative action admissions programmes, high tuition costs, the liberal views of professors and the proliferation of DEI initiatives on campuses.
As New York Times reports, many conservatives say their views have been marginalised in lecture halls, and regard top schools as incubators of so-called wokeness. They have said they want universities to emphasise academic programs that will lead students to the kind of jobs that are essential to the economy.
For foreign students, this is a huge concern. That’s because funding cuts could result in fewer professors willing to take risks in research, and a stifled intellectual environment.
Cancelling student visas and deporting them
Apart from targeting elite schools, the Trump administration has also begun targeting hundreds of foreign students, terminating their visas as well as their legal status.
Think Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil , who was detained last month over his role in pro-Palestinian protests. The student has been held at a Louisiana detention centre since March 8, when immigration officers told him he was being deported for taking part in protests against the war in Gaza.
There’s also the case of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk , who was arrested by immigration authorities and whose visa has been revoked. Her crime, as the US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin claimed, was to “engage in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organisation that relishes the killing of Americans”.
But Khalil and Ozturk aren’t alone. According to an Associated Press report, at least 600 students at more than 90 colleges and universities have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated in recent weeks. And advocacy groups collecting reports from colleges say hundreds more students could be caught up in the crackdown.
What’s even more concerning for international students is that officials are cancelling students’ status directly . This is unlike the past when legal statuses were updated after colleges told the government the students were no longer studying at the school.
One such instance was when the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that visas and immigration statuses for nine of its international students and researchers were revoked without any prior warning or explanation.
“Since April 4, nine members of our community — students, recent graduates and postdocs — have had their visas and immigration status unexpectedly revoked,” wrote university president Sally Kornbluth, adding that it remained “extremely concerned” about the broader implications.
“These actions are interfering with the normal functioning of MIT,” Kornbluth said. “They diminish our ability both to serve the nation and to attract the world’s finest talent.”
There’s also a heightened fear among international students as some Republicans have proposed a new bill, which looks at eliminating an important work programme — the Optional Practical Training — that allows foreign students to stay in the US and pursue their dreams. If passed, it could adversely impact foreign students.
Interest dips in US colleges, increases for Canada
Immigration attorney Clay Greenberg noted in a Science.org report, “The Trump administration’s actions are putting fear in the hearts of hundreds and hundreds of students who shouldn’t be having to deal with this at this time.”
And owing to such circumstances, Canadian universities are seeing a spike in interest from not only students from across the world but also Americans. Canadian universities like the University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Toronto, and University of Waterloo are experiencing an increase in applications and interest from American students.
According to The Guardian, UBC’s Vancouver campus saw a 27 per cent boost in graduate applications from US citizens by March 1 compared to the whole 2024 cycle. The institution even reopened admissions for a short time this week for some programmes, so more US applicants could join by September 2025.
The University of Toronto also saw a higher number of US applications than normal. At the University of Waterloo, US web traffic has increased 15 per cent since September 2024, and more American students tour the campus in person, reports claim.
Officials note that the rising interest in Canadian colleges comes owing to Trump’s policies, which include monitoring of social media activity of foreign students, and reduction of federal funding to colleges.
For many, fears outweigh the benefits
With federal funding cuts and visa cancellations, educators in the US worry that the country may no longer be a viable option for international students.
Foreign students are already worried if they’ll be able to get visas, travel freely, pursue research or even express an opinion. “It has a chilling effect,” said Clay Harmon, executive director of AIRC, a membership organisation focused on recruiting and enrolling international students. “Even if there’s no direct consequence or direct limitation right now, all of this cumulatively produces an impression that the US is not welcoming, it’s not open or that you may be in some kind of danger or jeopardy if you do come to the US.”
Akshay Chaturvedi, founder and CEO of Leverage Edu, was also quoted as telling the Times of India, “Students are asking more questions than before about immigration policies, job prospects, and the broader political climate. The US is still seen as a top destination, but there’s a growing need for clarity around long-term pathways.”
With inputs from agencies