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.
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The move, which comes amid an escalating clash between Trump and the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university, is 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.
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.
