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US government bars Harvard from enrolling international students; current students required to transfer

Global Times

By Global Times Published: May 23, 2025 10:22 AM

The US Donald Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard University's certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), effectively barring the institution from enrolling new international students, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the decision, saying that this decision serves as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country, and such privilege has been revoked due to Harvard's repeated failure to comply with federal law, Xinhua said.

In response, Harvard issued a statement calling the administration's action unlawful and harmful, according to Xinhua.

CNN said such decision could impact more than a quarter of Harvard's heavily international student body, who have been flung into anxiety and confusion by the announcement.

Professors warn a mass exodus of foreign students threatens to stifle the academic prowess of the institution even as it battles against the administration for its ideological autonomy, CNN reported.

The New York Times said the move intensifies the administration's attempt to upend the culture of higher education by directly subverting the ability of one of the nation's premier universities to attract the best and brightest students from all over the world.

That capability, across all of academia, has long been one of the greatest sources of academic, economic and scientific strength in America, the NTY said.

The Department of Homeland Security said the action applied to current and future students, NYT reported.

"Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students, and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status," the US media report said, citing a news release from the department.

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, the AP News said.

The Trump administration's clash with Harvard, the nation's oldest and wealthiest university, has intensified since it became the first to openly defy White House demands for changes at elite schools it has criticized as hotbeds of liberalism and antisemitism, the AP News said.

The federal government has cut $2.6 billion in federal grants to Harvard, forcing it to self-fund much of its sprawling research operation. The US president has said he wants to strip the university of its tax-exempt status, according to the AP News.

But the university's leadership argues many of the requests, including an "audit" of the "viewpoint" of its students and staff, go far beyond the role of the federal government and may violate Harvard's constitutional rights, CNN said.

The AP News said students who completed their degrees this semester will be allowed to graduate, and US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a letter that the changes would take effect for the 2025-26 school year. Harvard's Class of 2025 is expected to graduate next week, according to the AP News.

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, according to the AP News.

"I'm supposed to graduate in exactly a week and I'm definitely quite nervous," a Harvard undergraduate student from Canada was quoted as saying in a report by the NPR.

The student did not want to be identified because she fears retaliation from the US government, and went on to say, "This does a lot more than threaten our education. This has made international students feel like outsiders at Harvard, when it's actually the opposite situation. We bring cultural perspectives and research contributions that strengthen the university," according to the NPR report.

"I was shaken by this news today and still haven't recovered. I feel both angry and heartbroken," a Chinese postdoc from Harvard said in a post shared on social media.

Such a wonderful place, such an excellent school and academic environment — so casually trampled on. Such a great group of international students and visiting scholars — taken hostage like this. It's utterly shameless and despicable beyond words, the Chinese student said.