TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - United States President Donald Trump's administration has banned Harvard University from accepting foreign students, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In a post on X on Thursday, as reported by Al Jazeera, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that the Trump administration was "holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus."
"It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enrol foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments," she said.
"Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused."
In a letter to the university administration, Noem said the University Student Exchange Program certification has been revoked. The program is overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Investigative Unit, which falls under the agency led by Noem.
In addition to not accepting foreign students, the prestigious campus requires foreign students to "transfer to another university in order to maintain their non-immigrant status," according to the letter.
Harvard called the action "unlawful" and "retaliatory action," in a statement.
"We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the university – and this nation – immeasurably," the university said.
The action marks an escalation amid a wider impasse between the university, which refuses to agree to a list of demands related to its diversity program and response to pro-Palestinian protests, and the Trump administration.
The Trump administration has responded with three rounds of federal funding cuts and grants, totaling more than US$2.6 billion. The latest occurred on Monday. Harvard is currently filing a lawsuit accusing the government of violating the U.S. Constitution in its actions.
Earlier this week, Harvard President Alan Garber urged alumni to provide their support and donations to the university.
"The institution entrusted to us now faces challenges unlike any others in our long history," wrote Garber in an email, where he launched the President's Priority Fund and the President's Research Fund.
Both funds are intended to address the gap left by the fund cuts.
According to immigration lawyer Leon Fresco, the steps taken by the Trump administration will be a financial blow to the school and a "major problem" for foreign students.
"If these foreign students are unable to attend the university, they will get their tuition money back that they have paid to the university for the upcoming semester," he told Al Jazeera, adding that Harvard relies on that money for the coming year.
Fresco noted that there is a clear legal path to challenge the revocation of its foreign student exchange program.
"If the foreign students cannot attend the university, they get their tuition payments back that they’ve already paid to the university for this upcoming semester," he said. "It can’t be a politically ideologically based revocation, that doesn’t exist in the regulations."
Previous Threats
In April, Noem first threatened to revoke Harvard's certification for the Student Exchange Program, which is required for the educational institution to accommodate students with certain types of visas.
She gave the Harvard administration a deadline of April 30 to provide detailed notes on what she called "illegal and violent activities" of foreign students on campus, citing federal laws that require academic disclosure, registration, and disciplinary actions.
Harvard Crimson reports that the university then said it had provided the information requested to the institution, although it did not disclose further details.
The threats came amid broader tough actions by the Trump administration against pro-Palestinian protests at various universities across the U.S., which federal officials widely described as "anti-Semitic". A label rejected by the organizers, according to Al Jazeera reporter Kimberly Halkett.
"The Trump administration has been clamping down hard on Harvard and other colleges, including Columbia University, over what the administration says is ‘anti-Semitism’ that exists on the campuses, and that really seems to be the spark that kind of ignited this," Halkett reported from Washington, DC.
"The president put in place a joint task force at the start of his administration to address this, but opponents say this task force evolved to include everything from clamping down on hiring practices to curriculum changes at universities," she said.
"Trump himself has accused universities of fomenting ‘anti-Trump’ ideology."
According to federal data, there were 7,417 approved campuses for the Student Exchange Program in the U.S. in 2023. The agency stated that, based on federal law, they can review approved schools at any time.
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