{"id":39550,"date":"2025-05-24T11:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T11:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=39550"},"modified":"2025-05-25T15:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T15:37:16","slug":"harvard-fights-to-keep-enrolling-international-students-4-essential-reads-about-their-broader-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/harvard-fights-to-keep-enrolling-international-students-4-essential-reads-about-their-broader-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard fights to keep enrolling international students \u2013 4 essential reads about their broader impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Corey Mitchell<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal judge in Boston on May 23, 2025, temporarily blocked a Trump administration order<\/a> that would have revoked Harvard University\u2019s authorization to enroll international students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The directive from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and resulting lawsuit from Harvard have escalated the ongoing conflict<\/a> between the Trump administration and the Ivy League institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also the latest step in a White House campaign to ramp up vetting<\/a> and screening of foreign nationals, including students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Homeland Security officials accused Harvard<\/a> of creating a hostile campus climate by accommodating \u201canti-American\u201d and \u201cpro-terrorist agitators.\u201d The accusation stems from the university\u2019s alleged support for certain political groups and their activities on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early April, the Trump administration terminated the immigration statuses of thousands of international students<\/a> listed in a government database, the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System. The database includes country of citizenship, which U.S. school they attend and what they study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barring Harvard from enrolling international students could have significant implications for the campus\u2019s climate and the local economy. International students account<\/a> for 27% of the university\u2019s enrollment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are four stories from The Conversation\u2019s archive about the Trump administration\u2019s battle with Harvard and the economic impact of international students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. A target on Harvard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t the first time the Trump administration has targeted the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House has threatened to end the university\u2019s tax-exempt status<\/a>, and some media outlets have reported that the Internal Revenue Service is taking steps in that direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is illegal to revoke an entity\u2019s tax-emempt status<\/a> \u201con a whim,\u201d according to Philip Hackney<\/a>, a University of Pittsburgh law professor, and Brian Mittendorf<\/a>, an accounting professor at Ohio State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore the IRS can do that, tax law requires that it first audit that charity,\u201d they wrote. \u201cAnd it\u2019s illegal for U.S. presidents or other officials to force the IRS to conduct an audit or stop one that\u2019s already begun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several U.S. senators, all Democrats, have urged the IRS inspector general to see whether the IRS has begun auditing Harvard or any nonprofits in response to the administration\u2019s requests or whether Trump has violated any laws with his pressure campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hackney and Mittendorf wrote that the Trump administration\u2019s moves are part of a larger push to exert control over Harvard, including its efforts to increase its diversity and its response to claims of discrimination on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Young
University of Michigan students on campus on April 3, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Bill Pugliano\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2. International students help keep \u2018America First\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has long been the global leader in attracting international students. But competition for these students is increasing as other countries vie to attract the scholars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent story for The Conversation, David L. Di Maria<\/a>, vice provost for global engagement at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, wrote that stepped-up screening and vetting of students could make the U.S. a less attractive study destination<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Di Maria wrote that such efforts could hamper the Trump administration\u2019s ability to achieve its \u201cAmerica First\u201d priorities related to the economy, science and technology, and national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump administration officials have emphasized the importance of recruiting top global talent. And Trump has said that international students who graduate from U.S. colleges should be awarded a green card with their degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that international students launch successful startups at a rate that is eight to nine times higher than their U.S.-born peers. Roughly 25% of billion-dollar companies in the U.S. were founded by former international students, Di Maria noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. A boost to local economies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, international students have a tremendous economic impact on local communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If these global scholars stay home or go elsewhere, that\u2019s bad economic news<\/a> for cities and towns across the United States, wrote Barnet Sherman<\/a>, a professor of multinational finance and trade at Boston University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the money they spend on tuition, food, housing and other other items, international students pump money into the local economy, but there are additional benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On average, a new job is created for every three international students enrolled in a U.S. college or university. In the 2023-24 academic year, about 378,175 jobs were created, Sherman wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Greater Boston, where Harvard is located, there are about 63,000 international students who contribute to the economy. The gains are huge \u2013 about US$3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Rising number of international students<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The rising number of foreign students studying in the U.S. has long led to concerns about U.S. students being displaced by international peers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unease is often fueled<\/a> by the assumption that financial interests are driving the trend, Cynthia Miller-Idriss<\/a> of American University and Bernhard Streitwieser<\/a> of George Washington University wrote in a 2015 story for The Conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A common claim, they wrote, is the flawed assumption that \u201ccash-strapped public universities\u201d aggressively recruit more affluent students from abroad who can afford to pay rising tuition costs. The pair wrote that, historically, shifting demographics on college campuses result from social and economic changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s context, Miller-Idriss and Streitwieser maintain that the argument that colleges prioritize international students fails to account for the global role of U.S. universities, which help support national security, foster international development projects and accelerate the pace of globalization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation\u2019s archives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corey Mitchell<\/a>, Education Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Corey Mitchell, The Conversation A federal judge in Boston on May 23, 2025, temporarily blocked a Trump administration order that would have revoked Harvard University\u2019s authorization to enroll international students. The directive from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and resulting lawsuit from Harvard have escalated the ongoing conflict between the Trump administration and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":39551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292,46,295,10,296,4,38],"tags":[224,2275,61,16445,2661,687,1083,885,891,886,860,10325,1602,8466,1085,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39550"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39552,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39550\/revisions\/39552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}