Trump says Harvard should cap foreign students at 15%

NEW YORK – US President Donald Trump said Harvard University should cap foreign student enrolment at 15 per cent, ratcheting up his effort to force policy changes at the elite institution. 

“I think they should have a cap of maybe around 15 per cent, not 31 per cent,” Mr Trump said on May 28 at the White House.

“We have people who want to go to Harvard and other schools; they can’t get in because we have foreign students there.”

Mr Trump’s comments introduced a specific goal after he sought last week to

block Harvard entirely

from enrolling foreign students.

It is part of a broader push by his administration against Harvard and other academic institutions to force policy changes on everything from admissions to hiring, an effort officials say is aimed at cracking down on anti-Semitism tied to protests against Israel’s war in Gaza. 

Harvard has emerged as a prime target for Mr Trump, whose administration has

frozen more than US$2.6 billion (S$3.4 billion) in federal research funding

for the school. He is also waging a campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and what conservatives say is left-wing bias on US college campuses. 

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Mr Trump’s goal for foreign-student enrolment.

Harvard has

sued the government

over the funding cuts, and the school won a temporary court order blocking the government from enforcing the ban on foreign students.

At Harvard, nearly 6,800 students – 27 per cent of the entire student body – come from other countries, up from about 20 per cent in 2006, according to university data. Harvard has said its international population on campus comprises more than 10,000 people, which includes fellows or others attending for non-degree programmes and their dependants.

“I want to make sure that the foreign students are people that can love our country,” Mr Trump said on May 28.

Foreign students are a key source of revenue for US universities including Harvard since they mostly pay full tuition, although Harvard offers financial aid for international undergraduates.

The President has also repeatedly called for Harvard to lose its tax-exempt status, which would have serious financial implications for the university, even with a US$53 billion endowment that makes it the richest US school. The administration is also

moving to cancel all remaining federal contracts

with the university.

Mr Trump on May 28 compared Harvard unfavourably to another Ivy League institution, Columbia University, which he said was working with him on “finding a solution”.

“Harvard has to understand the last thing I want to do is hurt them. They’re hurting themselves. They’re fighting,” Mr Trump said, adding that Columbia has been “very, very bad – what they’ve done, they’re very anti-Semitic and lots of other things – but they’re working with us on finding a solution”.

“But Harvard wants to fight, they want to show how smart they are, and they’re getting their ass kicked,” he continued. BLOOMBERG