Belgium’s Royal Palace said that Princess Elisabeth, who is first in line to the throne, is now waiting to find out whether she can return for a second year at Harvard, where she is enrolled in a graduate school program. Cleo Carney, the daughter of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, just wrapped up her first year as an undergrad at Harvard and could too be caught in the crosshairs. The Chinese government, meanwhile, publicly said Trump’s move to ban foreign students would harm America’s international image and credibility.
“If it came to pass, it would transform Harvard,” said Fernando Reimers, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “The Harvard that we recognize as Harvard today cannot be Harvard if it is not able to attract the most talented students, regardless of what passport they carry.”
Early Sunday morning, Trump continued his attacks on Harvard in a post on Truth Social, saying the school should tap into its $53.2 billion endowment rather than request federal funding, and also demanding the school turn over documentation about its foreign students.
The revocation of Harvard’s ability to enroll student visa holders is but the latest salvo in the pressure campaign by the Trump administration, which has accused Harvard of failing to combat campus antisemitism and engaging in illegal discrimination through its diversity efforts. The administration has also cut nearly $3 billion of Harvard’s federal research funding. Harvard has said it complies with the law.
But more than anything else, the ban on international students would severely undermine “what a modern research university is about,” Reimers said.
International students make up approximately one-quarter of Harvard’s student body, or nearly 6,800 students during the most recent academic year. The revocation would affect F-visas, typically used by students, and J-visas, which can be used by professors, researchers, or students, among others.
The sanctions could be a significant financial blow to the university if not reversed. Foreign students tend to pay a higher proportion of full tuition as they are generally not eligible for federal financial aid.
Many notable alumni have enrolled as foreign students, including Mark Carney, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, and former Mongolian president Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj.
Many foreign students see Harvard as a launching pad for their own success, with its unbridled access to coveted opportunities, connections to a network of powerful alumni, and a cultural melting pot of a campus, said Jamie Beaton, a Harvard alumnus from New Zealand who founded Crimson Education, a college admissions counseling company. This past year, 36 students who worked with the company got into Harvard for undergrad.
“These are people that are often bringing financial resources, they’re bringing ambition, they’re bringing talent,” said Beaton, noting that the typical prospective student probably spends about five years preparing with Crimson Education, named after the official color of Harvard.
“In my first week at Harvard, I met more kids that told me they wanted to become the US president than people that I’d met in my whole life in New Zealand who said they wanted to do politics. It represents liberated ambition,” said Beaton. “It represents a lot both for kids around the world, and for how we perceive America.”
Beaton said students he knows who were admitted to Harvard, and those currently attending, are nervous about the future but remain mostly optimistic that they will be able to find workarounds in the short-term.
Two universities in Hong Kong have already extended invites to affected students, noted Reimers. If the ban goes through, “we lose our edge as a hub for talent in the state, we will lose our economy,” he said.
“Obviously the administration is shooting the country in the foot and in the mouth,” he added.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com. Follow her @shannonlarson98.
