The Trump administration has revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students, meaning thousands must transfer to other universities or leave the US entirely.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which announced the action, said the Ivy League school had created an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus.
Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, also accused the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus”, but did not provide evidence for the claim.
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Trump’s $2bn row with Harvard explained
She has ordered her department to cancel Harvard’s certification in the student and exchange visitor programme “as a result of their failure to adhere to the law”.
She wrote on X: “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.
“Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”
DHS said in a statement: “This means Harvard can no longer enrol foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status.”
The university called the government’s action “unlawful” and said it “threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission”.
Almost 6,800 foreign students from more than 100 countries are currently enrolled at Harvard, making up more than a quarter of the university’s student body. The majority of them are graduate students.
Protesters called on Harvard to resist interference by the federal government. File pic: Reuters
This comes amid the Trump administration’s escalating battle with the university, which is accused of ideological bias and allowing antisemitism during campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
The White House froze $2.2bn (£1.6bn) of government funding for Harvard earlier this year after the school rejected a list of demands.
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Among the demands were that the university screen international students for those “hostile to the American values” and the end of all diversity, equality and inclusion programmes.
Harvard is now suing the Trump administration to get the federal grants reinstated, accusing the US government of violating its First Amendment rights with its “arbitrary and capricious” funding freeze.