Trump Bans Harvard From Accepting Foreign Students, Chinese Citizens Dominate

Harvard Campus, Boston, Massachusetts/UNSPLASH/Pascal Bernardon

JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump revoked the Harvard University's permission to accept foreign students. The Trump administration is also forcing foreign students at this time to move to another campus or lose their legal status.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem ordered the department to stop the Harvard University Student Program and Student Exchange certification which applies to the 2025-2026 school year.

As reported by Reuters on Friday, May 23, Noem accused the university of "provoking violence, antisemitism, and communicating with the Chinese Communist Party."

In response to the government's decision, Harvard said the actions taken by the Trump administration were illegal and a form of retaliation.

The decision marks a significant increase in Trump's government campaign of the elite Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has emerged as one of Trump's most prominent institutional targets.

The move came after Harvard refused to provide Noem's requested information about several foreign student visa holders at Harvard.

Harvard registered nearly 6,800 international students in the 2024-2025 school year, which is 27% of its total registration, according to university statistics.

In 2022, Chinese citizens are the largest foreign student group, with 1,016, according to university data.

After that, there were students from Canada, India, South Korea, England, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and Japan.

"It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to accept foreign students and benefit from higher tuition fees to help add to their billions of dollars worth of endowment funds," Noem said.

In his letter to the university, Noem gave Harvard "the opportunity" to regain his certification by handing over a large number of records about foreign students within 72 hours, including videos or audio of their protest activities in the last five years.