Acting on President Donald Trump’s order, the US administration has revoked Harvard University’s authorization to enroll international students.
AS per media reports, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced in a statement that Harvard is no longer permitted to admit foreign students, and those currently enrolled must either transfer or face the loss of their legal status.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem directed the department to terminate Harvard’s certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, citing the university’s refusal to provide conduct records for international students as requested by DHS last month.
Noem, in a letter to Harvard on Thursday, accused the University of “perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ practices.”
“Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country,” the Homeland Security statement said.
Harvard has become ground zero for the Trump administration’s clash with elite US universities as it seeks to influence some campus programming, policies, hiring, and admissions by threatening to cut off federal benefits. Trump officials say they are trying to banish anti-Semitism following contentious campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war and root out DEI practices they decry as “illegal and immoral discrimination.”
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.
