US President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday said it had revoked Harvard University’s right to enrol international students, citing its “coordinated activity” with China’s Communist Party as a factor in the decision.
The move, which comes amid an escalating clash between Trump and the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university, was expected to affect almost 6,800 foreign students – more than a quarter of Harvard’s student population. Each year, anywhere from 1,800 to 2,300 Chinese students and scholars study at Harvard, according to its website.
“Effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor (Sevis) Programme certification is revoked,” US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the prestigious university.
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Sevis, managed by the Department of Homeland Security, is the main system that authorises students from foreign countries to study in America.
The decision means Harvard can no longer enrol foreign students and those who are already there must transfer or lose their legal status, Noem said.
The letter on Thursday, addressed to Maureen Martin of Harvard’s International Office, did not refer to China and focused primarily on Harvard’s treatment of Jewish students and activities related to the Israel-Gaza conflict.
But a press release on the Department of Homeland Security’s website referred explicitly to China’s Communist Party.
“Harvard’s leadership has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students,” it said.
“Many of these agitators are foreign students. Harvard’s leadership further facilitated, and engaged in coordinated activity with the CCP, including hosting and training members of a CCP paramilitary group complicit in the Uygur genocide,” it continued.
In a statement, Harvard described the action as punitive and posing a serious threat to the institution.
“The government’s action is unlawful,” it said. “We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the university – and this nation – immeasurably.”
Noem said Harvard had 72 hours to alter the fate of its international students, requesting that the school provide, among other items, records of illegal, “dangerous” and protest activity by foreign students from the past five years.
Last month, Noem wrote to Harvard seeking a similar list of records by April 30 and threatening to revoke the university’s ability to host foreign students if it did not comply.
The Homeland Security chief on Thursday called Harvard’s response to that request “insufficient”.
Around the time of her April letter, the Department of Homeland Security froze US$2.7 million in grants to the university.
And as part of a broader bid in his second presidential term to revamp private universities across the US that he says foster “radical left” ideologies, Trump has taken multiple hits at Harvard, criticising it for appointing high-profile Democrats to teaching and leadership positions.
Since the crackdown on universities began, some international students have seen their visas revoked, Sevis records terminated and described self-censoring to avoid being deported.
Noem’s letter on Thursday comes less than 24 hours after two Israeli embassy workers were shot to death in Washington by a suspect who reportedly chanted “free, free Palestine” at the scene.
It also coincides with intensifying congressional scrutiny of Harvard’s ties to China.
On Monday, John Moolenaar of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and Tim Walberg of the Committee on Education and Workforce wrote to the university requesting information regarding its relationship with Chinese entities “implicated in human rights abuses”.
Last year, Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, wrote Harvard criticising its treatment of students who protested against the Chinese government.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Trump immigration crackdown chills speech of foreign students, scholars in US
- Trump calls Harvard a ‘liberal mess’ in fresh attack on university
- Harvard University sues Trump over threats to cut US$2.2 billion in federal funding
- Former Harvard professor convicted over China ties joins Tsinghua University
- Canada moves up to No 2 for Hong Kong students going abroad, with easy migration pathways a major draw
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