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TOKYO: Universities around the world are seeking to offer refuge for students impacted by US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on academic institutions, targeting top talent and a slice of the billions of dollars in academic revenue in the United States.
Osaka University, one of the top-ranked in Japan, is offering tuition fee waivers, research grants and help with travel arrangements for students and researchers at US institutions who want to transfer.
Japan’s Kyoto University and Tokyo University are also considering similar schemes, while Hong Kong has instructed its universities to attract top talent from the United States. China’s Xian Jiaotong University has appealed for students at Harvard, singled out in Trump’s crackdown, promising “streamlined” admissions and “comprehensive” support.
Trump’s administration has enacted massive funding cuts for academic research, curbed visas for foreign students — especially those from China —and plans to hike taxes on elite schools.
Trump alleges top US universities are cradles of anti-American movements. In a dramatic escalation, his administration last week revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol foreign students, a move later blocked by a federal judge.
Masaru Ishii, dean of the graduate school of medicine at Osaka University, described the impact on US universities as “a loss for all of humanity”.
Japan aims to ramp up its number of foreign students to 400,000 over the next decade, from around 337,000 currently.
Jessica Turner, CEO of Quacquarelli Symonds, a London-based analytics firm that ranks universities globally, said other leading universities around the world were trying to attract students unsure of going to the United States.
Germany, France and Ireland are emerging as particularly attractive alternatives in Europe, she said, while in the Asia-Pacific, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and mainland China are rising in profile.
Switching schools
Chinese students have been particularly targeted in Trump’s crackdown, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledging to “aggressively” crack down on their visas.
More than 275,000 Chinese students are enrolled in hundreds of US colleges, providing a major source of revenue for the institutions and a crucial pipeline of talent for US technology companies.
International students — 54 per cent of them from India and China — contributed more than $50 billion to the US economy in 2023.
Critical period
Trump’s crackdown comes at a critical period in the international student application process, as many young people prepare to travel to the US in August to find accommodation and settle in before the term starts.
Dai, 25, a Chinese student based in Chengdu, had planned to head to the US to complete her master’s but is now seriously considering taking up an offer in Britain instead.
Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2025
