 "The Donald Trump administration in the US stepped up its clash with Harvard University by stripping the school of its right to admit international students. File image/Reuters")
Most students in the United States and even abroad dream of getting admission at Harvard University. However, the Donald Trump administration’s new move could lead to many just having to dream of enrolment at the elite university.
That’s because on Thursday (May 22), the US government said it is halting Harvard University’s ability to enrol international students . Moreover, it has ordered existing international students at the university to transfer or lose their legal status.
This move marks the latest escalation between the famed educational institution and the Trump government. Harvard has already filed a lawsuit against the US president for cutting federal grants.
Trump’s latest move against Harvard prompted a strong response — the Ivy League University deemed the move as “unlawful”, adding that it is a retaliatory action that threatens “serious harm” to the university.
But what does all this mean for a foreign student, especially an Indian at Harvard? We get you the full picture.
What is Trump’s latest action against Harvard?
On Thursday, the Trump administration notified Harvard University that it would be halting its ability to enrol international students and also ordered existing international students at the university to transfer or lose their legal status.
Shortly later, the US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, “Harvard can no longer enrol foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L Noem posted a copy of the letter the department had sent to Harvard. In it Noem said: “I am writing to inform you that effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification is revoked.”
“The revocation of your Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification means that Harvard is prohibited from having any aliens on F- or J-nonimmigrant status for the 2025-2026 academic school year. This decertification also means that existing aliens on F- or J- nonimmigrant status must transfer to another university in order to maintain their nonimmigrant status,” Noem continued.
She later said in a statement, “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enrol foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”
Why has the Trump administration taken this move?
As per the Trump administration, the move to terminate Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP) certification, which allows US universities to admit international students, is owing to the university’s refusal to turn over the conduct records of foreign students requested by the DHS last month.
Moreover, the government added that the university has allowed for “anti-American, pro-terrorist” foreigners “to harass and physically assault individuals… and obstruct its once-venerable learning environment.”
Noem even accused the university of working with the Chinese Communist Party by hosting and training members of its paramilitary group.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson was later quoted telling CNN, “They (Harvard) have repeatedly failed to take action to address the widespread problems negatively impacting American students and now they must face the consequences of their actions.”
She further added, “Harvard has turned their once-great institution into a hot-bed of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators.”
What does this mean for the foreign students at Harvard?
If the US government holds firm on its move to curtail foreign students at Harvard, it would change the entire landscape of the university. The university has an enormous foreign student population. Data shows that Harvard has 9,970 people in its international academic population, with 6,793 international students, comprising 27.2 per cent of its enrolment, in the 2024-25 academic year.
Of this, Harvard’s official website says that anywhere between 500 to 800 Indian students and scholars are part of the university every year. Right now, 788 students from India are enroled at the university.
Noem has stated that students who complete their degrees this semester will be allowed to graduate. Noem’s letter said the changes would take effect for the 2025-2026 school year. Harvard’s Class of 2025 is expected to graduate next week. However, students who have yet to complete their degree need to transfer to another university, Noem said, or they’ll lose their legal permission to remain in the US.
Does this hurt Harvard and other US universities?
As much as the move hurts foreign students, it also hits Harvard’s pockets. Losing international students would be a financial hit, as most often those enrolled from outside the country pay full tuition fees.
The fees for Harvard for the 2025-2026 year is $59,320 (Rs 51 lakh). This goes up to nearly $87,000 (Rs 74.8 lakh) when boarding and lodging is added. International students tend to pay larger shares of education costs compared with other students.
It also has implications for the broader Massachusetts economy and a regional ecosystem that thrives off the university’s existence, Bloomberg reported. The media outlet explained that international students don’t just pay tuition to Harvard; they also spend money on restaurants and other activities and many of them stay in the area to work at the state’s prestigious hospitals, research institutions and biotechnology companies.
Additionally, it sends a message to other universities and if applied to other universities will eventually hurt the American economy. That’s because more than one million international students attend colleges in the US, contributing nearly $44 billion to the US, said NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
What do students and educators say about the latest move?
The administration’s move to restrict foreign students at Harvard has prompted strong reactions from students as well as educators. “Many of us have worked our entire lives to get to a university like Harvard, and now we need to wait around and see if we might have to transfer out and face difficulties with visas,” said rising junior Karl Molden, who is from Austria, to CNN.
Leo Gerdén, an international student from Sweden, called the announcement “devastating” in the university newspaper Harvard Crimson. “Every tool available they should use to try and change this. It could be all the legal resources suing the Trump administration, whatever they can use the endowment to, whatever they can use their political network in Congress,” Gerdén said, adding: “This should be, by far, priority number one.”
Faculty — former and present — also expressed shock over the move. Harvard economics professor Jason Furman called the measure “horrendous on every level.”
“It is impossible to imagine Harvard without our amazing international students. They are a huge benefit to everyone here, to innovation and the United States more broadly,” Furman told CNN. “Higher education is one of America’s great exports and a key source of our soft power. I hope this is stopped quickly before the damage gets any worse.”
Pippa Norris, an author and Paul F McGuire lecturer in comparative politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, also concurred. In a report in The Guardian, she is quoted as saying that Trump “is basically cutting off international knowledge to American students, he is reducing soft power, and therefore weakening America … And for me personally, it’s going to mean tremendous problems in terms of teaching.”
She continued: “Imagine that you’ve come, you’ve spent a lot of money and resources to come to Harvard, and you’ve got in, and your second or third year of the undergraduate degree, or the second year of your master’s degree, and [they] say: ‘Well, I’m sorry, you know, you’re not going to be able to study here next year.’ I mean, it’s devastating.”
Harvard’s administration has also slammed the move, with its spokesperson Jason Newton saying, “We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University — and this nation — immeasurably. We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”
What comes next?
For now, there’s a whole lot of uncertainty. The Department of Homeland Security has given Harvard 72 hours to turn over the requested records in order to regain certification. In the meantime, students have begun a scramble, determining whether they should leave the country or transfer to another.
Many predict that the move will prompt a legal challenge. Harvard has already filed a suit against the Trump administration over attempts to dictate changes to its admissions and hiring practices.
With inputs from agencies