Image showing students wearing graduation caps. For representational purposes.
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The Donald Trump administration’s directive to US embassies to pause new student visa interviews would hurt the US as much as the students who are targeted by the decision. The suspension of visas is intended to give time for the authorities to screen the political leanings of the applicants – this is ostensibly to prevent left-wing, anti-Semitic, pro-Palestine students or those with ideas that do not agree with the administration’s views from entering the US campuses. It is part of the administration’s targeted campaign against groups including immigrants. The US would, perhaps, be impacted more than the individual students who might in any case be able to do their studies elsewhere. It is estimated that there are about one million foreign students in the US who are spread over its universities doing undergraduate, graduate, and research courses.
America’s universities became centres of excellence because of the influx of large numbers of foreign students. The opportunity for an exchange of ideas, the freedom of thought, the dynamism and mutual understanding that come from diversity, the respect for dissent, and the spirit of innovation that prevailed in the universities contributed to their rise. They also promised development and entrepreneurship because of the close links they have with the industrial establishment. Some of the ideas that moved the world and created great companies and institutions were incubated in America’s universities. There is hardly a year when a Nobel Prize does not go to a researcher in an American university. The universities form the basis of a great part of the intellectual, cultural, industrial, and economic strength of America. This ecosystem will be under threat with the change in their character that Trump is trying to effect.
The US is not doing a favour to foreign students when they are admitted to its universities. According to some estimates, they added about $44 billion to the US economy in 2023-2024. Some universities may find it difficult to survive without foreign students. Trump may have more than one aim. One is to control the universities, as seen by his action against Harvard. Another is to curb the inflow of foreign students. The third is to ensure that there is no dissent and protest on the campuses. The norms will be extended to and enforced in the greater society and America may soon return to McCarthyism. The loss will be America’s. Students will soon find other options and new educational hubs will emerge. Countries such as India also have an opportunity to leverage the situation to expand and improve their higher education landscapes.