WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration escalated its standoff with Harvard University on Thursday, revoking the school’s ability to enroll international students.

The government told Harvard’s thousands of current foreign students that they must transfer to other schools or they will lose their legal permission to be in the U.S.

The move could significantly affect the university, which enrolls nearly 6,800 international students, most of them in graduate programs. Those students may now have to scramble to figure out their next steps.

The Department of Homeland Security took this latest step because Harvard failed to comply fully with requests to produce records about its foreign students, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a letter. Noem accused Harvard of “perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.'”

Harvard said the action is unlawful and undermines the school’s research mission.

Here’s what to know about how this decision affects international students and what legal authority Noem has to take the step.

Does the government have authority over Harvard’s enrollment?

The U.S. government has authority over who comes into the country. The Department of Homeland Security oversees which colleges are part of the Student Exchange and Visitor Program. On Thursday, DHS said it would remove Harvard. The program gives colleges the ability to issue documentation to foreign students admitted to their schools. Then, the students apply to obtain visas to study in the United States.

Will Harvard’s current international students be allowed to graduate?

Students who completed 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 U.S.

Will admitted students be able to enroll at Harvard in the fall?

No, not unless the government changes its decision or a court steps in. For now, Noem said Harvard could restore its status as a host institution for foreign students if it complied with a list of demands within 72 hours. Those demands include requests for a range of records, such as disciplinary records for international students, plus any audio and video recordings of protest activity.

Harvard previously had failed to provide those records, Noem said. The university said Thursday it was working to provide guidance to affected students.

Has the government ever done this before?

The government can and does remove colleges from the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, making them ineligible to host foreign students on their campus. However, it’s usually for administrative reasons outlined in law, such as failing to maintain accreditation, lacking proper facilities for classes, failing to employ qualified professional personnel — even failing to “operate as a bona fide institution of learning.” Other colleges are removed when they close.

“I’ve never seen it revoked for any reason besides the administrative issues listed in the statute,” said Sarah Spreitzer, vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education, an association of universities. “This is unprecedented.”

How else has the Trump administration targeted Harvard?

Harvard’s battle with the Trump administration dates to early April. The storied institution became the first elite college to refuse to comply with the government’s demands to limit pro-Palestinian protests and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion policies. That kicked off a series of escalating actions against Harvard. Various federal agencies, including DHS and the National Institutes of Health, have cut their grant funding to Harvard, significantly impacting research projects conducted by faculty. Harvard has sued the administration, seeking to end the grant freeze.

The administration first threatened to revoke Harvard’s ability to host international students back in April. Trump also has said Harvard should lose its tax-exempt status. Doing so would strike at the school’s ability to fundraise, as wealthy donors often give to tax-exempt institutions to lower their own tax burdens.

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from cutting off Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students, an action the Ivy League school decried as unconstitutional retaliation for defying the White House’s political demands.

In its lawsuit filed earlier Friday in federal court in Boston, Harvard said the government’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”

“With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission,” Harvard said in its suit. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”

The temporary restraining order was granted by U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs.

The Trump administration move has thrown the campus into disarray days before graduation, Harvard said in the suit. International students who run labs, teach courses, assist professors and participate in Harvard sports are now left deciding whether to transfer or risk losing legal status to stay in the country, according to the filing.

The impact is heaviest at graduate schools such as the Harvard Kennedy School, where almost half the student body comes from abroad, and Harvard Business School, which is about one-third international.

Legal and higher education advocates weren’t surprised by the court’s swift decision in favor of Harvard. Among them is Nick Akerman, a former Watergate prosecutor. He said Trump is looking to exploit the powers of the White House to punish political enemies, much as Richard Nixon did.

“I think it’s absolutely outrageous, totally illegal, unconstitutional and is only being done because Donald Trump wants to seek retribution against Harvard,” Akerman said. He believes Harvard will prevail in court “easily.”

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C., . said a win in court will be important not only to American universities, but also to thousands of international students who, as recently as Thursday morning “were wondering if they were going to have a place to go to school.”

Advertisement

But even if Harvard does beat back Trump’s challenge, both Akerman and Mitchell said the damage has been done. They believe this case will chill academic freedom across the country, because many schools lack Harvard’s resources to fight back against this unusual punitive action by a U.S. president.

“It makes little sense for the Trump administration to be cutting off what Harvard provides to the U.S. and rest of the world,” Mitchell said.

Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.

Harvard’s campus was quiet Friday. With graduation just days away, many students had already left for summer break. The ones who lingered picked up their gowns, headed to the gym or grabbed a bite at the dining hall. Crews of workers set up chairs and tents for graduation.

Only the helicopters circling overhead and the cameras set up at the gates made it clear that the day was somehow different.

When asked about the Trump administration’s move to block international students from attending Harvard, many preferred not to share their thoughts, but those who did expressed disbelief and concern.

Jorge Mata Otero is a masters student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Originally from Mexico, he started studying in the U.S. on a student visa before becoming a naturalized citizen.

Half of the students in his program are international students, many of whom are his close friends, he said. And the anxiety and frustration is palpable.

“They were really concerned,” he said. “I know what it feels like to have that anxiety.”

Unsure of what to do, people messaged each other on group chats Thursday night to share information, he said. They’re worried they would have to transfer, and unsure if it was even possible.

Mata Otero said that if he was still on a student visa he wouldn’t be sitting in the common room of his residence talking to a reporter.

“I would try to keep a low profile,” he said. “I would be scared, to be honest, scared in my room. Not even going around campus.”

The Department of Homeland Security announced the action Thursday, accusing Harvard of creating an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus. It also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, contending the school had hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024.

Harvard President Alan Garber earlier this month said the university has made changes to its governance over the past year and a half, including a broad strategy to combat antisemitism and “other bigotry.” He said Harvard would not budge on its “its core, legally-protected principles” over fears of retaliation. Harvard has said it will respond at a later time to allegations first raised by House Republicans about coordination with the Chinese Communist Party.

The threat to Harvard’s international enrollment stems from an April 16 request from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who demanded that Harvard provide information about foreign students that might implicate them in violence or protests that could lead to their deportation.

Harvard says it provided “thousands of data points” in response to Noem’s demand. Her letter on Thursday said Harvard failed to satisfy her request, but the school said she failed to provide any further explanation.

“It makes generalized statements about campus environment and ‘anti-Americanism,’ again without articulating any rational link between those statements and the decision to retaliate against international students,” the suit said.

Harvard’s lawsuit said the administration violated the government’s own regulations for withdrawing a school’s certification.

Along with its impact on current students, the administration’s move blocks thousands of students who were planning to attend Harvard for summer and fall classes.

Harvard said this puts it at a disadvantage as it competes for the world’s top students. Even if it regains the ability to host students, “future applicants may shy away from applying out of fear of further reprisals from the government,” the suit said.

If the government’s action stands, Harvard said, the university would be unable to offer admission to new international students for at least the next two academic years. Schools that have that certification withdrawn by the federal government are ineligible to reapply until one year afterward, Harvard said.

The government can and does remove colleges from the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, making them ineligible to host foreign students on their campus. However, it’s usually for administrative reasons outlined in law, such as failing to maintain accreditation, lacking proper facilities for classes, or failing to employ qualified professional personnel.

Noem said Harvard can regain its ability to host foreign students if it produces a trove of records on foreign students within 72 hours. Her updated request demands all records, including audio or video footage, of foreign students participating in protests or “dangerous” activity on campus.

The lawsuit is separate from the university’s earlier one challenging more than $2 billion in federal cuts imposed by the Republican administration.

With reporting from WBUR’s Anthony Brooks and Emily Piper-Vallillo, and Associated Press writer Annie Ma.

MEANS FOR THE CAMPUS. OVERALL, THIS IS A GREAT UNIVERSITY BECAUSE IT IS AN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY. HARVARD STUDENT MARK ADCARE SAYS THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S LATEST MOVE AGAINST THE UNIVERSITY CREATES UNCERTAINTY FOR FOREIGN STUDENTS AND BEYOND. SO THIS IS NOT ONLY GOING TO AFFECT INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS, IT’S GOING TO AFFECT THIS WHOLE INSTITUTION. AND IT MIGHT NOT BE THE SAME IF IT GOES THROUGH HOMELAND SECURITY TRYING TO REVOKE HARVARD’S ABILITY TO ENROLL INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND DEMAND CURRENT ONES, TRANSFER FORMER HARVARD PRESIDENT LAWRENCE SUMMERS SAYS THE MOVE WILL HURT THE COUNTRY. THIS IS SETTING AMERICA BACK. IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE A LARGER STRATEGIC GIFT THAT WE COULD GIVE CHINA THAN ALIENATING THE MOST TALENTED YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. HARVARD IS PUSHING BACK WITH A LAWSUIT, WRITING WITH THE STROKE OF A PEN, THE GOVERNMENT HAS SOUGHT TO ERASE A QUARTER OF HARVARD’S STUDENT BODY WITHOUT ITS INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS. HARVARD IS NOT HARVARD RIGHT NOW. THERE ARE HARVARD MEDICAL STUDENTS ON ROTATION IN HOSPITALS ALL ACROSS GREATER BOSTON. IF THEY’RE TOLD THAT THEY HAVE TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY, THAT’S GOING TO HAVE A BIG IMPACT. THE ADMINISTRATION ALLEGES HARVARD’S NOT DOING ENOUGH TO COMBAT ANTI-SEMITISM. PRESIDENT TRUMP TODAY POINTING TO CAMPUS PROTESTERS AND MATH SKILLS. WE DON’T WANT TROUBLEMAKERS HERE. BUT HOW DO PEOPLE THAT CAN’T WHEN WHEN HARVARD COMES OUT WITH A STATEMENT THAT THEY’RE GOING TO TEACH SOME OF THEIR STUDENTS REMEDIAL MATH? THAT’S BASIC MATH. THAT’S NOT THE DEAL. NOW, THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF HARVARD HILLEL TELLS ABC NEWS THAT SOME OF THE STUDENTS THAT WOULD BE IMPACTED BY THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S ORDER ARE FROM ISRAEL ADVOCATING FOR JEWISH ISSUES AND CAUSES HERE ON CAMPUS

Advertisement Federal judge swiftly blocks Trump administration decision to bar foreign students from Harvard Share Copy Link Copy

Less than 24 hours after the Trump administration revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, the institution filed a lawsuit, and a federal judge swiftly blocked the action. “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the lawsuit states.”We don’t want troublemakers,” President Donald Trump said. The temporary restraining order stops the government from pulling Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which allows the school to host international students with visas to study in the U.S.The administration’s action follows a threat issued last month, when the administration also took aim at Harvard’s tax-exempt status.In the lawsuit, Harvard argues that the Trump administration’s action is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause and the Administrative Procedure Act. Additionally, Harvard argues that the decision violates government regulations. “It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” the lawsuit states. “Right now, Harvard Medical students are on rotation across greater Boston. If they’re told they have to leave the country, that’s going to have a big impact,” said Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey. First-year student Marc Hvidkjaer said the removal of international students creates uncertainty for the entire institution. “It’s not just going to affect international students. The whole institution might not be the same if it goes through,” he said.International student Fangzhou Jiang said he felt “a mixture of shock to devastation, frustration and uncertainty. Anxiety.” Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.In announcing the action on Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security said Harvard has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus. Without offering evidence, it also accused Harvard of coordinating with the Chinese communist party.”This means Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status,” the agency said in a statement.”With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the University and its mission. Harvard’s certification is essential for each of Harvard’s thousands of international students to lawfully remain in this country while they complete coursework, obtain degrees, and continue critical research,” Harvard’s lawsuit states.All of this is part of an ongoing series of escalations in the feud between Trump’s administration and the university. Trump announced earlier this month that he intended to revoke tax-exempt status from Harvard and previously froze billions in federal funding. More than 80 members of the university’s faculty pledged to donate 10% of their pay for up to one year to support the legal battle filed over the funding issue. As the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, changes to the tax-exempt status could have a costly impact on what Harvard is taxed on its famously large, $53 billion endowment.Despite the temporary restraining order, thousands of students are considering whether to transfer elsewhere or risk being in the country illegally. It could wipe out a quarter of the university’s total student body, while halving some of its graduate schools and threatening students who work as lab researchers and teaching assistants. Some sports teams would be left nearly empty.Yet the future consequences pose the greatest threat. If the government’s action stands, Harvard would be banned from admitting new international students for at least two school years. Even if it regains its place as a global magnet, top students may shy away for fear of future government reprisals, the school said in its lawsuit.In its court filing, Harvard listed some of its most notable alumni who enrolled as foreign students. The list includes Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia; Empress Masako of Japan; and many leaders of major corporations.”This is setting America back,” said former Harvard president Lawrence Summers. “It’s harder to imagine a larger strategic gift that we could give China than alienating the most talented young people in the world.”If the government’s action stands, Harvard said, the university would be unable to offer admission to new international students for at least the next two academic years. Schools that have that certification withdrawn by the federal government are ineligible to reapply until one year afterward, Harvard said.Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Meghana Sanagaram was celebrating her grades for the spring semester of her graduate program at Harvard University on Wednesday.

By Thursday, she was no longer sure about the future of her degree at all.

“It is disheartening to internalize that all those evenings and nights I stayed up working for those grades, while being a mom, among other things, may have been for nothing — and not because of something I did,” Sanagaram, 32, who lives in Whitehorse, told CBC News.

The Trump administration dealt a major blow Thursday by announcing it was revoking Harvard University’s ability to enrol international students like Sanagaram.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered the department to terminate the Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effective for the 2025-26 school year, the department said in a statement. It’s also forcing existing students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status.

The move also strips the university of its authority to sponsor F- and J- visas for international students and scholars for the 2025-26 academic year, Harvard noted in an online statement.

The move was a response to Harvard’s refusal to provide information it sought about foreign student visa holders and could be reversed if the university relents, the Trump administration has said. Harvard is suing, calling the revocation a “blatant violation” of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and other federal laws in a complaint filed in Boston federal court Friday.

Later on Friday, a judge issued a temporary restraining order freezing the policy. But the Trump administration can appeal the ruling.

And for now, confusion abounds over what this means for the thousands of international students — including Canadians — enrolled at the prestigious Ivy League school in Cambridge, Mass.

Sanagaram says Thursday’s announcement from the Trump administration feels misguided and unsettling given that international students are in the U.S. legally, contribute significantly to the U.S. economy, and “add immense value to academic institutions.”

“[It] felt like a political warpath with little regard for what that meant to thousands of students, their dreams, their investment, and in many cases, years of life’s work,” she said.

Meghana Sanagaram is pictured with her daughter in Whitehorse. The Harvard student says she has no idea what’s going to happen with her degree. (Meghana Sanagaram)

Canada has largest share of international Harvard undergrads

Harvard enrols almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries.

The largest share, 1,390 students, come from China, according to Harvard’s enrolment factbook. But Canada isn’t far behind, in second place with 751 students enrolled in 2024. And when it comes to undergraduates alone, the largest proportion of international students come from Canada by far.

The largest share of students (176) were enrolled at Harvard College for an undergraduate degree, followed by 139 enrolled in the Graduate School of Arts and Science, and 132 students enrolled in extension programs for adult learners.

The rest were spread between Harvard’s various professional programs, such as its business, medical, public health and law schools.

Many world leaders and their children have attended or are attending the Ivy League school, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. His daughter is also reportedly a current student.

While we don’t know how many new students accepted for studies in 2025 could be affected, last year, 18 per cent of new admissions into the undergraduate program were international students.

‘A generational disruption’

And by now, many of those Grade 12 students who received admission letters have already accepted and started making plans, said Connor Bitter, who graduated from Harvard in 2018 and now works as an education consultant to help other students apply to elite international universities.

“This is more than a policy change. This is, for a lot of the students I work with, truly a generational disruption,” Bitter told CBC News from Toronto.

Many of the students he works with come from families who have put a significant investment into the education of their children, Bitter said. And the students have made a significant time investment themselves, working toward the goal of getting into Harvard for years.

Even just applying is a “full-time job investment” in the fall, he added. And now, to find out that door has potentially closed?

“It is the most devastating news that a Grade 12 who has worked their entire life to get into Harvard can receive.”

WATCH | Canadian Harvard student unsure how to get back into U.S.: Canadian Harvard student says he’s not sure how to re-enter U.S. Duration 1:08 Montrealer Marco Avina, a PhD candidate at Harvard University, says his immediate concern is how he’s getting back into the U.S. after travelling abroad, now that the Trump administration has ordered the school to terminate its Student and Exchange Visitor Program.

‘Very much in trouble’

Marco Avina, a PhD candidate at Harvard, says his immediate concern is how he’s getting back into the U.S. at all. Avina, who is from Montreal, has been in Croatia for the past two weeks on vacation and plans to re-enter through JFK airport on June 1.

Typically he would enter the United States as a J-1 research scholar, Avina said, but now he’s not sure what to do.

“I don’t know if my apartment that I have in Cambridge, if I will have to vacate that and go back to Montreal or if I can expect to have an accommodation in Cambridge for the long term,” he said in a Zoom interview.

Marco Avina, a Canadian PhD candidate at Harvard, says he’s not even sure how to re-enter the U.S. right now. (Marco Avina)

Avina says he’s lucky that at least his work won’t be lost, as he can work on his research remotely.

“But … there are people who are tied to Harvard in, in more concrete ways than I am. And those people are very much in trouble right now.”

In a statement posted online Friday, Harvard president Alan Garber said Trump’s action “imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfil their dreams.”

Harvard will continue to support its international students as it fights the decision, Garber added.

Harvard University has sued the U.S. government over President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke the Ivy League school’s ability to enrol international students.

A U.S. judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from revoking Harvard University’s ability to enrol foreign students, a move that ratcheted up White House efforts to conform practices in academia to President Donald Trump’s policies.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic president Barack Obama, issued the temporary restraining order freezing the policy.

The Trump administration can appeal the ruling.

The move on Thursday was a response to Harvard’s refusal to provide information it sought about foreign student visa holders and could be reversed if the university relents, the Trump administration has said.

Are you a Canadian attending Harvard University? How will the Trump administration’s move to bar foreign students affect you and your studies? We’d like to hear from you. Send an email to ask@cbc.ca

In a complaint filed in Boston federal court earlier on Friday, Harvard called the revocation a “blatant violation” of the U.S. Constitution and other federal laws, and said it had an “immediate and devastating effect” on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.

“With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard’s student body, international students who contribute significantly to the university and its mission,” Harvard said.

“It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” the 389-year-old university located in Cambridge, Mass., added.

Trump has already frozen several billion dollars in federal grants to Harvard in recent weeks, leading the university to sue to restore the funding. The administration has accused the school of not doing enough to curb antisemitism following pro-Palestinian protests that have emerged in the past two years.

Whereas some other institutions, including fellow Ivy League school Columbia University, have reached settlements after the Trump administration made similar threats, Harvard has resisted through legal objections.

In an editorial published early Friday and entitled “Harvard’s international students are people — not pawns,” the school’s Crimson newspaper wrote: “We have to wonder: How does sending Jewish students from abroad home — including Israelis — root out antisemitism? … What could be more anti-American than banishing potential immigrants who have come to our country to learn and contribute to our society?”

Princess Elisabeth is shown at Buckingham Palace in London on May 5, 2023, with her father, King Philippe. The Belgian princess just completed her first year in a Harvard master’s program. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Many world leaders and their children have attended the Ivy League school, including from Canada.

Belgium’s Royal Palace said Friday it would follow the developments, as its Princess Elisabeth has just reached the midpoint of Harvard’s two-year Public Policy master’s degree program.

Hong Kong school looks to capitalize

The most recent order from the Trump administration also accused the university of co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Chinese nationals made up one-fifth of Harvard’s foreign student intake in 2024, the university says, and some students were rushing to seek legal advice in the wake of Thursday’s bombshell from the White House.

“I think the Chinese community definitely feels like a more targeted entity compared to other groups,” Zhang, a 24-year-old studying for the PhD in physics, told Reuters.

“Some friends gave me advice that I should try not to stay in my current accommodation if things escalate, because they think it’s possible that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent can take you from your apartment,” said Zhang, who did not give his first name for security reasons.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning is shown speaking during a regular briefing held in Beijing on Friday. The ministry slammed the Trump administration’s action, saying it will undermine the U.S. (Liu Zheng/The Associated Press)

The U.S. action “will only damage the image and international credibility of the United States,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday, while vowing to “firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests” of its students overseas.

The number of Chinese international students in the United States has dropped to about 277,000 in 2024 from a high of around 370,000 in 2019, driven partly by growing tension between the world’s two biggest economies over trade, the COVID-19 pandemic and other issues.

During the first Trump administration, the Justice Department went to bat for Asian students, arguing that they were being discriminated against as a result of Harvard’s admission policies. The Supreme Court largely agreed that was the case.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV questioned whether the U.S. would remain a top destination for foreign students, and said it might become necessary for international students to consider other options “when policy uncertainty becomes the norm.”

On Friday, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology sought to capitalize, saying it would provide “unconditional offers, streamlined admission procedures, and academic support to facilitate a seamless transition” for affected students.

Harvard students seek advice

Back at Harvard, the most anxious among the Chinese students at the university are those with summer jobs as research assistants tied to their visa status, crucial for future PhD applications, said Zhang Kaiqi. The master’s student in public health had been prepared to fly back to China, but changed his mind, with students being advised not to leave the country and wait for official announcements from the school, according to information students were sharing in WhatsApp groups.

As tension has ramped up in recent years between China and the United States, Chinese families have increasingly sent their children to study at universities in other English-speaking countries, such as Australia and Singapore.

Demonstrators rally on Cambridge Common in a protest on April 12 calling on Harvard leadership to resist interference at the university by the federal government in Cambridge, Mass. The Trump administration’s latest salvo directed at the school was quickly met with a lawsuit. (Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters)

Pippa Ebel, an independent education consultant in the southern city of Guangzhou, said while the order did not entirely shut the door to U.S. higher education, it was “likely to be a final nudge towards other destinations.”

“It’s not going to be a complete turnaround, but a hardening of Chinese parents’ existing concerns,” said Ebel, who authored a report on Chinese students for British education think-tank HEPI.