Trump threatens to ban Harvard from admitting foreign students
US President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to ban Harvard University from admitting foreign students if it does not agree to undergo checks on admissions, recruitment and political orientation
2' min read
2' min read
US President Donald Trump's administration has threatened to ban Harvard University from admitting foreign students if it does not agree to undergo checks on admissions, recruitment and political orientation. "If Harvard fails to demonstrate full compliance with its reporting requirements, the university will lose the privilege of enrolling foreign students," the US Department of Homeland Security wrote in a memo.
After bowing at the beginning of March to the Trump administration's demands that it cut $400 million in federal funding, Columbia University has backed down.
Columbia University also raises its defences
.Following the example of Harvard, the university at the centre of last spring's pro-Gaza protests pledged to "not allow the federal government to demand that it give up its independence and autonomy".
In a message arriving 12 hours after Harvard's stance not to bow to the administration's demands - which was followed by Washington's freezing of $2.2 billion in research funds - Columbia president pro tem Claire Shipman said she read the words of her Harvard colleague Alan Garber "with great interest" and added that New York University would "repel heavy-handed government interference that could damage our institution and undermine worthwhile reforms.
Shipman, a former CNN journalist, said that any arrangement in which federal officials dictated 'what we teach, what we research or who we hire' would be unacceptable.
