My Take | US kicking out foreign students to the benefit of China and others
Hong Kong and the mainland are among those hoping to lure refugees from Harvard and other top universities scared away by Trump crackdown
It’s long been the dream of every ambitious Chinese parent to send their children to study at Harvard University. Now, many are no doubt having second thoughts. What’s the point of investing millions in your child’s education if he or she could be ejected from the United States at the whim of an erratic president?
Inexplicably, Donald Trump has declared war on the nation’s most prestigious higher education institutions, not just Harvard. But this time, it doesn’t just stop at cutting federal funding or ending their tax-exempt status.
The administration has moved effectively to ban Harvard from enrolling international students. This means revoking the certification of the university’s student and exchange visitor programme. The ban is being contested in court.
If the US Department of Homeland Security has its way, current international students at Harvard must either transfer elsewhere or leave the country. It has cited the university’s alleged “coordinated activity” with the Communist Party of China and allegedly pervasive antisemitism on campus. However, the move is also part of Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown. The department has asked Harvard to provide extensive personal data from every international student, including their coursework and visa application information, including any misconduct or illegal activity.
All that may not be a problem confined only to one elite institution. Other top universities are worried that if it can happen to Harvard, it can happen to any of them.
But what’s America’s loss may be the world’s gain, and not the least China’s. Practically every few weeks, there is a report of another star academic relocating to the country. But now, more top students may find the mainland, and Hong Kong, rather congenial. Another effect is that more gifted Chinese students may find studying at top domestic universities safer than going over to an increasingly hostile, not to say racist, America.
Like other foreign places, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and University of Hong Kong, two of the city’s top education institutions, are among five local universities rolling out the red carpet for student refugees from Harvard and perhaps other equally prestigious institutions from the US.