Trump bans Harvard foreign students, university calls action unlawful • FRANCE 24 English

Trump bans Harvard foreign students, university calls action unlawful • FRANCE 24 English

Well, the Trump administration has revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalation uh with the Ivy League school. The Department of Homeland Security announcing the decision, saying the students must transfer to other schools or leave the country. The 6,84 students account uh for a quarter of the student body at Harvard. Most are graduate students coming from more than 100 countries. While not directly funded by the government like public universities, private universities like Harvard often rely on federal programs and grants for research and student aid. For more on this, I am joined by our international affairs editor, Philip uh Philip, first of all, remind us about this battle between Trump and Harvard. Why is he so angry? Right. Well, um, what we’ve seen in the past few hours, uh, William, is really a dramatic or drastic, uh, escalation in the standoff between Donald Trump, the Trump administration, and Harvard University. Basically, he’s furious because he’s told Harvard, uh, that he wants them to submit to a government oversight over over the university, over admissions, and the bringing in of foreign students. There’s also uh the administration asking for uh checks on what they say is anti-semitism in in the university. They want videos sent in at protest marches so that they can check who’s taking part in those. Uh and they’re against what they say is the woke liberal ideology that they say is being preached at at Harvard and they want that stopped. Uh and they want to stop uh diversity and inclusion programs. And the other point that they brought up the the administration is that they say that Harvard University is coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party although there is no um proof that that is actually the case. Now you mentioned that the number of students um foreign students in Harvard. There are uh about 6,700 uh international students who were at the university in 2024. Uh the price per student is about $60,000 a year. So you can imagine if those students are all absent, that’s going to really bring down the funding for Harvard with the absence of those foreign students. Uh and they make up about 27% of the entire number of students on the campus. What they’re being told is they have to leave immediately or they have to try to enroll in other universities. If they can’t do that, they will be deported back to their country of origin. So this has come extremely bad moment for those students, those foreign students I call the others who are just getting to their end of year exams. Uh and the situation in Harvard itself has sort of been described the past few hours as real really panic taking taking a grasp there. And how has Harvard uh responded? Well, they are determined not to give in to what the Trump uh administration has said it’s calling for. Uh there is certainly I think a feeling amongst the the directors of Harvard that they they are not going to do that. This is a statement by the Harvard spokesperson Jason Newton. The government’s action is unlawful. We’re fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host international students and scholars who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich university and this nation immeasurably. Uh that is basically the reply. Uh back in April when this all started, uh the Trump administration were already began arguing with Harvard who said they were not going to give into those demands. They froze $2.2 $2 billion worth of funding for Harvard. Uh this is the next step. Uh those foreign students are basically saying, well, what’s happening to us is that we’re being used as a bargaining chip. We’re in the middle of all this between the Trump administration on one side and uh the the directors of Harvard on the other. Uh and we’re an easy target because we are part of what the United States uh is fighting against. That’s to say foreigners coming into the country. They want everybody out. So that’s why they’ve chosen the foreign students. So where do you think all of this will end up? Well, I think that uh there are two possibilities. is either Harvard gives in uh which looks pretty unlikely. The Trump administration in the voice of Christine Noam who’s the Homeland Security Secretary has said Harvard could restore its status as a host institution for foreign students if it complied with the list of demands coming from the Trump administration within 72 hours. That looks pretty unlikely from that statement we just saw uh from uh the uh spokesperson for Harvard saying that what the Trump administration was doing was u unlawful. Uh it looks pretty certain that this is going to end up in court. Um so what will happen is that uh the they will they will appear before a district judge in uh district court judge in Boston. They will ask for a temporary restraining order to stop that legislation from going through. then a preliminary injunction to halt the order which will last throughout the case in a bid to keep this off for the time being so that uh those foreign students can remain on uh in Harvard. This is the first time this has ever happened before in the US where the administration’s directly intervene in university to stop it from uh taking the decisions that it feels are the right decisions. What we’re seeing here is really an an attack against democracy. Uh a tyrannical approach from the Trump administration and that’s why Harvard has said it’s not going to stand for it. All right, Philip, thank you very much. Philip Tur, Frenchman for international affairs editor.

The Trump administration has revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school. The dept of homeland security announced the decision, saying the students must transfer to other schools or leave the country. The 6,800 foreign students account on Harvard’s campus account for more than a quarter of the student student body. For more, FRANCE 24’s International affairs editor, Philip Turle.
#harvard #foreignstudent #ivyleague

🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen
🔴 LIVE – Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN

🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/

Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen
Follow us on X: https://f24.my/Xen
Bluesky: https://f24.my/BSen and Threads: https://f24.my/THen
Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen
Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen
Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen