British students at Harvard report ‘growing anxiety' over US government attacks

The Guardian

23-05-2025

British and international students at Harvard report 'growing anxiety' over their fate, as the Trump administration's latest attack on the university could see them forced to disrupt their studies and careers.
On Thursday, the administration said it would revoke Harvard University's eligibility to enrol international students, which was later temporarily frozen by a US federal judge on Friday.
Harvard lists 252 UK students enrolled on courses, including undergraduates and postgraduates, with those wanting to continue their studies having to transfer to other universities if the US government succeeds in barring all international students from the Ivy League campus.
Meanwhile, students who have been accepted on courses at Harvard starting this autumn would be forced to go elsewhere.
Sam Nicholson, from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire, who has spent the year at Harvard, said he has been left in limbo, unsure of his visa status and an internship in Washington DC he has lined up for the summer.
'There's a lot of anxious chatter on text messages. A lot of people have already left campus and gone home for the holidays so many people are in an information vacuum, through no fault of the university's.
'There's a lot of speculation about what this really means for us, whether it's an 'Art of the Deal' [move], put something extreme on the table and then walk it back, or if this is the reality,' Nicholson said.
He added there had been uncertainty circulating since the Trump administration first threatened Harvard and other universities with sanctions earlier this year, but that the latest crackdown, affecting all international students, still came as a surprise.
'This is so unprecedented, if you'd have told any of us, when we were told we would have this fortunate year at Harvard, that all international students would be banned, just months ago it would have been inconceivable.
'There was always this sense of: that won't actually happen.'
Nicholson now hopes that Harvard's court challenge will provide some clarity, with his internship tied to his student visa status.
'If there's any message I'd take from this year, it's that any longstanding assumptions you might have about the world or life, throw them out the window. Life is an uncertain thing,' he said.
The restriction – first revealed on Thursday – would even affect those on prestigious awards funded by the Kennedy Memorial Trust, commemorating the former US president John F Kennedy.
Adam Roble, who like Nicholson spent the year at Harvard on a Henry Fund fellowship but returned to the UK earlier this week, said he had sensed 'growing anxiety' among international students.
'Yesterday and today our group chats were going off – I'm in a fortunate position now that I've finished my programme but I feel for those who are halfway through and staying for longer. A mate of mine, he's on a two-year programme and he's just finished the first year – what's he going to do?
'They say you have to transfer to another institution or your visa is invalid. But it's really hard to transfer at short notice, there are deadlines that have passed. The uncertainty that it has created for people's futures, they are in limbo,' he said.
Roble said the Trump administration's initial attacks on Harvard had sent shock waves through the campus.
'I was particularly surprised about how fast things were moving, and how in the midst of everything else that was going on in the world, anyone could be sent packing in a moment's notice.
'A particular turning point was when they essentially snatched Rümeysa Öztürk off the streets at Tufts [a university in Boston], which is very near to Harvard, it's only about 20 minutes away. I've been down similar streets to those. You almost think, am I really in America?'
Roble said he feared for the long-term impact, not just on the international students affected but also on US students.
'It's unfair for the students themselves but it's unfair for America as well. British and international students bring so much to America and American university campuses.
'Even the semester when I was teaching American democracy to a class full of American students, I think they really enjoyed that, they gave glowing feedback. We contribute a lot and the administration should stop being so shortsighted in that regard.'