British students to be barred from Turing exchange scheme following Trump visa ban

Telegraph

5 days ago

British students are expected to be barred from spending a year at American universities under Donald Trump's sweeping visa ban.
Tens of thousands of UK students are waiting to hear a decision on their funding applications for this year's Turing Scheme, which allows them to enrol at universities around the world for up to a year.
Those who applied to study at US colleges next year are expected to be turned down under White House plans, unless they have already received their visas.
It comes after Mr Trump ramped up his attack on American universities by ordering US embassies to halt all new visa interviews for prospective international students.
Changes expected soon
In a leaked cable shared on Tuesday, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, also demanded an 'expansion' of social media vetting for all student visa applicants.
The changes, which Mr Rubio said would come into effect 'in the coming days', will apply to student exchange visas as well as those for full-time international students.
A Whitehall source confirmed to The Telegraph that J-1 exchange visas required for the Turing Scheme were affected by the ban, but said some students may have already secured their visas for next year.
The UK Government will monitor the situation and is discussing potential implications with universities, The Telegraphunderstands.
British universities could still change the preferred destination for any Turing Scheme participants affected by the US ban. The Department for Education is responsible for Britain's study abroad programme, but individual universities must organise their students' applications.
More than 3,100 British students were offered placements in the US last year as part of the Turing Scheme, which replaced the Erasmus+ scheme after the UK left the EU-wide programme in 2020. The US was the third most popular location after Spain and France.
It means thousands of UK students could have their study abroad plans ripped up or be sent to different countries, while British pupils planning to start at US colleges full-time this autumn have had their plans thrown into chaos.
Prospective students can apply for full-time study visas up to a year in advance of their course start date, but many colleges send out admissions decisions in spring – meaning many may still be awaiting a visa interview.
UK students in the US
The number of UK students at US universities has remained broadly stable over the past decade or so, while enrolments from other countries have soared. A record 1.1 million foreign students were enrolled at American universities last year, more than 10,000 of whom were British, according to the Institute of International Education.
However, top private schools have increasingly encouraged pupils to apply to Ivy League colleges in the past few years amid frustrations over UK universities' focus on state school admissions.
Eton College reportedly sent around a fifth of its leavers to American universities in 2022, with 50 pupils heading for top US destinations such as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale and Columbia.
Mr Trump has taken aim at many of those institutions and threatened to end their federal funding after accusing them of fostering anti-Semitism and adopting biased admissions policies.
The US leader has frozen around $3.2 billion of federal funding for Harvard in recent weeks, sparking a bitter tit-for-tat and multiple lawsuits from the oldest university in the US.
Turmoil in the US could, however, prove an unexpected boon for UK universities, which are grappling with a funding crisis fuelled by their own drop in foreign student numbers.
A recent British Council report said British higher education could benefit from Mr Trump's re-election, with international students now more likely to seek out alternative English-speaking destinations.
The move could also intensify competition for places at some British universities, including Oxford and Cambridge.
Rohan Agarwal, the founder of UniAdmissions, said he was bracing for 'an even greater acceleration in demand for Oxbridge and other top UK institutions' if the Trump administration followed through with its visa crackdown.
A US State Department spokesman said it did not comment on internal communications, but that the Trump administration was focused on upholding the highest national security standards. The spokesman said the department would focus on prohibiting entry to the US for those who might pose a threat to America's security.