Foreign students seek to quit Harvard amid Trump crackdown

CAMBRIDGE: Harvard University has been flooded with requests from foreign students to transfer to other institutions as US President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to ban it from hosting international scholars, a staff member said Wednesday.

“Too many international students to count have inquired about the possibility of transferring to another institution,” Maureen Martin, director of immigration services, wrote in a court filing.

Trump has upended the United States’ reputation among foreign students, who number around one million, as he presses a campaign against US universities he sees as obstructing his “Make America Great Again” populist agenda.

He has blocked Harvard from hosting international scholars in a maneuver being challenged legally, targeted non-citizen campus activists for deportation, and most recently suspended student visa processing across the board.

The president’s crackdown has prompted “profound fear, concern, and confusion” among students and staff at the elite university, which has been “inundated with questions from current international students and scholars about their status and options”, Martin wrote.

More than 27 percent of Harvard’s enrollment was made up of foreign students in the 2024-25 academic year, according to university data.