Page 60 - EW January 2025

International News

UNITED STATES embraces the promise and prospects of global talent and of
Imminent Trump clampdown immigration… now we have to ensure that we’re maintain-
ing our competitive advantage.”
Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation professor of prac-
tice in international education at Harvard University, warns
that a severe decrease in international student recruitment
would compound challenges colleges already face. Declin-
ing domestic enrolments, increasing costs and dwindling
appreciation of the value of higher education could result
in colleges most dependent on tuition funding facing “near-
term extinction,” he warns.
However, Fanta Aw, chief executive of Nafsa, the Asso-
ciation of International Educators, says she doesn’t expect
a fall in international enrolment because many other parts
of the world were also at “inflection points”. “We know that
we’re going to need to be very proactive on lots of fronts,”
President-elect Trump: student visas impact risk says Dr. Aw. “We also know that even in areas where there
will be vehement disagreements, there is still some common
US UNIVERSITIES ARE BRACING themselves ground that is possible.”
for four years of “playing defence” on internation-
al students against the anti-immigration policies UNITED KINGDOM
expected in president-elect Donald Trump’s second term. Southampton U gets going
His first four years in power offer some clues as to what
might be in store: he tightened visa issuance, attempted THE FIRST BRITISH UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
to block international students on online courses from in India, set to open next year (2025) will offer a
remaining in the US during the pandemic, and proposed “comprehensive” programme of courses in a bid
limiting student visas for citizens from certain countries. to admit thousands of students over the next decade. The
“Together, these measures created a clear message: the University of Southampton received approval last August
US wasn’t exactly rolling out the welcome mat for interna- to establish a branch in the world’s most populous country,
tional students, and this perception likely dampened inter- with a new campus planned for development in Gurugram,
national student enrolment,” Maia Chankseliani, associate a city on the outskirts of Delhi.
professor of comparative and international education at Andrew Atherton, Southampton’s vice-president of in-
the University of Oxford, told Times Higher Education. ternational and engagement, says getting to this stage has
During Trump’s four years in office, international student been relatively quick. In November 2023, Indian authori-
enrolment declined, while delays in student visa process- ties published regulations outlining rules for foreign institu-
ing increased, as did denial rates for the crucial H-1B visa. tions looking to set up campuses in the country. According
Dr. Chankseliani says there is a real risk that Trump’s to Prof. Atherton, the university submitted an application
anti-immigration rhetoric around the border would impact in January 2024 and went through a “robust” interview
student visas. “Even though student visas serve a different process in April — the same month that India’s mammoth
purpose than other visa categories, the rhetoric and poli- General Election began.
cies could easily bleed over, particularly if student mobility “It was a tough process to go through, but they moved
is viewed through a security lens rather than a soft power, quickly,” he says. “Real hats off to India, because they put
international development, or economic lens,” she says. She clear regulations in place. They took us through a robust
believes that students from countries seen as geopolitical process. Other universities went through it and didn’t get
rivals by the US could be most impacted by a second Trump approval.”
term, with China likely at the forefront of this. Southampton which already operates a campus in Ma-
Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ laysia, has made opening new bases around the world part
Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, says of its core strategy. It comes as stricter immigration poli-
Trump’s policies “adversely impacted international stu- cies hamper some UK universities’ overseas student recruit-
dents and certainly created some chilling effects”, warning ment, with many suffering financially as a result.
that “xenophobic” rhetoric can have real impact. With other Speaking to Times Higher Education, Prof. Atherton in-
countries, such as the UK, Australia and Canada, clamping sists that the new campus is not a money-making venture,
down on international students in differing ways, Dr. Feld- with the India branch expected to focus on research as well
blum says the US could soon experience something similar. as teaching, particularly into topics relevant to south Asia,
“It would have been great to have an administration that including air quality and food security. However, he says

60 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2025