US government wants to exclude foreign students from Harvard - German academic community appalled

The US government's announcement to exclude foreign students from the elite Harvard University has caused disbelief and horror in the international scientific and research community.

This is not just an unprecedented attack on Harvard, but on all US universities, US economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). "By attacking Harvard, Trump wants to show that he can destroy the most prominent university in the US." The government's demands have completely undermined academic freedom and the university's autonomy. "Harvard was right to resist." The government has also already exerted pressure on Columbia University in New York, where Stiglitz teaches.

Warns of economic consequences: Nobel Prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz.

Source: imago

At the same time, the economist warned of the economic consequences: Stiglitz said there is a threat of a "reverse brain drain": the exodus of American scientists to Europe. "With restrictions on academic freedom, which the Trump administration apparently wants to impose, nothing can thrive in science," he explained. "Our technological leadership is based on our universities—both through the education they offer and the research that takes place there," the economist continued. "Weakening our universities is like shooting the United States in the foot."

While Trump has made the trade deficit a central pillar of his agenda, he overlooks the enormous value of the science and educational services the US sells abroad. "With his actions against Harvard, he has now officially announced that we are getting out of this business," Stiglitz criticized. "This will actually massively worsen the trade deficit."

Former Health Minister and Harvard alumnus Karl Lauterbach warned of serious consequences for the renowned educational and research institution in the US state of Massachusetts. "Harvard University's most important asset is its students. This asset is worth more than the university's assets," Lauterbach told RND. "With this punitive action, Trump is hitting the university at its most vulnerable point," the SPD politician continued.

Harvard's quality and reputation depend on attracting the best applicants from around the world to study there, explained Lauterbach, a graduate and visiting professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If these applicants change their minds, Harvard's star will fall."

"Harvard University's most important asset is its students. This asset is worth more than the university's assets," said former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach about the US government's plan to exclude international students from the elite Harvard University.

Source: Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa

Criticism also came from education policymakers. "It is appalling how the Trump administration is dismantling its own science system, thereby causing serious damage to its own country as well as to the international scientific community," Bettina Martin, President of the Conference of Science Ministers and Minister of Education and Research in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

Successful research and science are international, the SPD politician continued. Martin called Harvard University's decision to no longer accept foreign students and even to revoke the status of existing students an "attack on academic freedom," which is a cornerstone of every democratic society. "Research and teaching must not be a political football," she emphasized.

The President of the German Rectors' Conference (HRK), Walter Rosenthal, also expressed outrage. "The latest order hits home," the physician and pharmacologist told the RND. The plans are unjustifiable, would massively and sustainably endanger the performance of the US science system, and contradict the values ​​of a free society, he added.

The HRK President rejected the US government's justification that Harvard University is not taking decisive action against pro-Palestinian protests and tolerates antisemitic incidents on campus. The fight against antisemitism at universities is important, but "antisemitism is being used by the Trump administration to crack down on liberal, independent researchers and teachers, as well as their institutions," Rosenthal said. "German universities stand in solidarity with their American cooperation partners at universities and other academic institutions," he emphasized.

The President of the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers (DHV), Lambert T. Koch, expressed similar sentiments. He told the RND: "The move to revoke Harvard's authorization to accept international students represents a sad escalation of the anti-science attacks we have already experienced from the Trump administration." According to Koch, a core characteristic of free science is that international students can move freely within the research landscape. "Anyone who questions this—regardless of whether partially or extensively—makes themselves an enemy of free science," said the DHV President.

Even if the elite university were to take legal action against the Trump administration's plans, students and teachers would have to remain in disturbing uncertainty until the government's plans are possibly corrected, Koch warned.

“Europe and Germany must be serious and prepared to offer an attractive academic home to international talents who have to or want to turn their backs on the USA due to the anti-science policies of the Trump administration,” demanded the DHV President.