Tag: ability

  • Trump administration revokes Harvard’s ability to enroll international students

    Trump administration revokes Harvard’s ability to enroll international students

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    Dive Brief:

    • The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Thursday pulled Harvard University’s authorization to enroll international students, dramatically escalating the already-tense battle between the Trump administration and the Ivy League institution. 
    • The agency accused Harvard of creating a “toxic campus climate” by accommodating “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators.” Kristi Noem, head of the department, also accused the university of “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”
    • The move, which the university on Thursday called unlawful, endangers the visas of Harvard’s international students, as they must transfer to another college or they will lose their legal status. Almost 6,800 international students attended Harvard in the 2024-25 academic year, making up 27.2% of the university’s student body, according to institutional data.

    Dive Insight:

    In April, DHS threatened to revoke Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification if the university did not comply with an extensive records request about its “foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities” by the end of the month. International students studying in the U.S. can only attend colleges that are SEVP-approved.

    But DHS’ threat against Harvard, while substantial, was largely sidelined from public attention amid the Trump administration’s vast interruptions and cuts to the university’s federal funding. 

    That includes the Trump administration’s decision to freeze $2.2 billion of Harvard’s funding the same day the university publicly rebuked the government’s demands for academic, hiring and enrollment changes. 

    Since then, Harvard has sued the federal government over the withheld funding, arguing it is being used “as leverage to gain control of academic decisionmaking” and has “nothing at all to do with antisemitism” and compliance with civil rights laws as the Trump administration claims. 

    The university now faces another attack on its financial well-being: the loss of tuition revenue from international students.

    “It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,” Noem said in a statement Thursday.

    In an email Thursday, a Harvard spokesperson called DHS’ actions unlawful and said the university’s international students and scholars enrich it 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,” the spokesperson said.

    Last month, Harvard’s undergraduate admissions office notified prospective international students that they may want to have a “backup plan” in place amid DHS’ threats, The Harvard Crimson reported. To that end, the university began allowing them to accept admission to both Harvard and another non-American institution.

    However, Harvard still bans international students from accepting spots at other U.S. colleges. In addition to legal reasons, the university said “the situation at Harvard might be replicated at other American universities,” according to the Crimson.

    Noam signaled her willingness to do just that.

    “Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country,” she said Thursday, arguing that Harvard had “had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing” and refused.

    Free speech advocates immediately panned DHS’ decision.

    “The administration seems hellbent on employing every means at its disposal — no matter how unlawful or unconstitutional — to retaliate against Harvard and other colleges and universities for speech it doesn’t like,” the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said in a statement Thursday.

    FIRE also called DHS’ wide-ranging records request from Harvard “gravely alarming.” 

    “This sweeping fishing expedition reaches protected expression and must be flatly rejected,” the organization said.

    SEVP, a bureaucratic program not typically in the national limelight, gained attention as DHS under President Donald Trump abruptly canceled scores of visas held by international students studying in the U.S.

    These revocations, often enacted by the agency without warning or explanation, have prompted numerous lawsuits against DHS. 

    On April 25, the Trump administration doublebacked and reinstated the canceled visas, the exact number of which is unknown. The move came after judges in more than 50 lawsuits issued temporary injunctions against the visa cancellations, according to Politico.

    However, just days later, the Trump administration shared a policy expanding the authority of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to terminate educational visas through Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, the records management system run by SEVP.

    Under the policy, evidence of an international student’s failure to comply with the terms of their legal status — not proof or “clear and convincing evidence” — would be enough for ICE to revoke it, according to guidance issued Thursday by the law firm Hunton.

    The guidance also noted that the new policy did not address the federal government’s practice of terminating students’ visas without notifying them — meaning they may still have their legal status pulled without either them or their colleges being informed.

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  • Will Harvard lose its ability to enroll foreign students?

    Will Harvard lose its ability to enroll foreign students?

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    Dive Brief:

    • The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday threatened to pull Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students if the Ivy League institution does not comply with an extensive record request by April 30. The agency also canceled $2.7 million in grants to the university.
    • Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump reupped his calls for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status and all federal funding. This all comes just days after the Trump administration’s antisemitism task force announced it was freezing over $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts to Harvard.
    • The federal onslaught follows Harvard’s refusal to comply with a list of unprecedented demands from the Trump administration, which university leadership called an overstep of authority — an assessment with which free speech and higher education experts have agreed.

    Dive Insight:

    The federal Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism first turned its attention on Harvard last month. The task force announced a review into $9 billion of the university’s federal funding and claimed that Harvard has not done enough to protect Jewish students from harassment. However, it did not publicly cite specific incidents or allegations, and some free speech experts and Israeli academics argue the administration is weaponizing antisemitism concerns.

    Days after announcing the review, federal officials delivered Harvard a laundry list of ultimatums, including changes to academic programming and “meaningful governance reforms.” If the university complied, it had a chance — but no guarantee — to continue receiving federal funding, the task force said.

    In response, Harvard became the first well-known institution to rebuke the Trump administration’s demands. Alan Garber, president of Harvard, said the task force’s desired oversight oversteps its authority and infringes on the university’s constitutional rights.

    “No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” he said in a Monday statement. 

    Upon Garber’s defiance, the task force froze billions of the university’s federal funding and made further demands, including that it “audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity.”

    On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Harvard was “bending the knee to antisemitism” under “its spineless leadership.”

    The department is now demanding that the university hand over “detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ illegal and violent activities” by the end of the month or immediately lose its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.

    International students studying the U.S. cannot attend a college that is not SEVP approved.

    The program has gained national attention in recent weeks as waves of foreign students studying in the U.S. have had their visas revoked, often without warning or explanation. DHS is facing several lawsuits over its actions.

    In 2024-25, 6,793 international students attended Harvard, making up 27.2% of the university’s enrollment, according to institutional data.

    “If Harvard cannot verify it is in full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students,” DHS said in a statement.

    Following Harvard’s condemnation of federal interference attempts, Trump ratcheted up his criticism of the university online.

    “Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges,” he said in a Wednesday social media post. “Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

    In a separate post, he said that Harvard should “be Taxed as a Political Entity.” 

    The Internal Revenue Service is reportedly making arrangements to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, according to CNN.

    It’s not clear that the Trump administration would have gone easier on Harvard had it complied.

    Columbia University, another Ivy League institution, agreed to a similar round of task force demands following the cancellation of $400 million in federal contracts and grants. The task force praised the university’s compliance but has yet to publicly reinstate its funding. The Trump administration also reportedly began pursuing a consent decree against Columbia, which would give the federal courts increased oversight of the institution.

    Columbia has since followed Harvard’s lead. In a Monday statement, its newly-appointed acting president said the university “would reject heavy-handed orchestration from the government that could potentially damage our institution and undermine useful reforms that serve the best interests of our students and community.”

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  • Trump threatens Harvard’s ability to host int’l students 

    Trump threatens Harvard’s ability to host int’l students 

    US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem has written a “scathing letter” to Harvard University, demanding it submits records of international students’ “illegal and violent activities” by April 30, or face losing its eligibility to enrol student visa holders.

    In Noem’s April 16 statement, she accused Harvard’s “spineless leadership” of “bending the knee to antisemitism” and “threatening national security”. 

    “Harvard’s position as a top institution of higher learning is a distant memory,” she added, cancelling two department of homeland security (DHS) grants worth USD $2.7 million on the basis that the university was “unfit to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars”.  

    DHS is threatening to strip Harvard of its Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, which allows colleges and universities to issue forms to admitted international students to use in their US visa applications. 

    The punitive measures are the latest in a dispute between Trump and the country’s oldest university, which saw USD $2.2bn in federal funding frozen after it rebuffed government demands, including reporting on international students and ending DEI policies. 

    What’s more, President Trump threatened on April 15 to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status over its “radical ideology”. 

    The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights

    Alan Garber, Harvard University

    Last year, Harvard hosted 6,793 international students, totalling over 27% of the entire student body.  

    Across the country, more than a million international students attend US colleges every year, contributing $50bn to the economy, as previously reported by The PIE News. 

    The DHS letter – seen by the Harvard Crimson student newspaper – accused Harvard of creating a “hostile learning environment” for Jewish students and reminded the university it was “a privilege to have foreign students attend Harvard University, not a guarantee”.  

    Refusing to submit to the government’s previous demands, Harvard president Alan Garber said the university was committed to tackling antisemitism but maintained it would not “surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights.”  

    “[The administration’s prescription] violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority,” Garber wrote in a message to the community.  

    In light of the recent escalation over SEVP certification, the university has maintained its position that it will not cede to government control, according to the Washington Post.  

    Alongside enhanced scrutiny of teaching, the government is requiring that Harvard reports on international students “supportive of terrorism or antisemitism” and those “hostile to American values”, ban all clubs supporting Palestine, and ban mask-wearing on campus, among other measures.  

    The directives largely stem from two of Trump’s early Executive Orders relating to “protecting the US from terrorism” and “combatting antisemitism”, which have led to over 1,320 international student visa revocations as of April 16, according to Inside Higher Ed.  

    Of this figure, 12 Harvard students and alumni have had their visas cancelled, though the university was not made aware of the rationale behind the revocations.  

    Student visas have been revoked for a variety of reasons, including some minor traffic infractions. Most of the high-profile cases involve students that participated in pro-Palestinian activism.  

    Challenges to the Trump administration have gained traction in recent weeks, with 19 states and 86 institutions supporting a legal challenge against the government’s revocation of student visas, led by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).  

    Former President Obama, a Harvard alum, expressed his support for the university in a post on X, describing the government’s funding freeze an “unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom”, urging other institutions to “follow suit”.

    Meanwhile, hundreds of Yale faculty members have published a letter asking its leadership to legally challenge “unlawful demands that threaten academic freedom and university self-governance”.

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