Could foreign student ban hit other universities too?

Harvard gets a brief reprieve while the legal battle unfolds

- BY STEPHEN N. R. Senior Asociate Editor

Harvard may be the first, but it likely won't be the last. US President Donald Trump's renewed crackdown on foreign students, triggered by Harvard's refusal to share conduct records with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is sending shockwaves through elite US campuses.

With Trump hinting that the crackdown could extend to other top universities like MIT, Yale and Stanford, international students and university legal teams alike are bracing for what could become a sweeping federal campaign.

DHS recently tried to revoke Harvard's certification under the Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP), which allows the university to admit foreign students. If the ban takes effect, nearly 7,000 students — 27 per cent of the 2024-2025 student body — could be barred from enrolling or even face deportation.