Blocked from Harvard, the world's star students weigh staying in Asia and Europe

If President Donald Trump doesn’t want international students at Harvard, there are plenty of foreign governments and universities happy to take them.

HONG KONG — If President Donald Trump doesn’t want international students at Harvard, there are plenty of foreign governments and universities happy to take them — along with their talents that have helped make the United States a global tech and scientific leader.

The future of international students at the oldest, richest and most renowned university in the U.S. is uncertain after the Trump administration announced a ban on their enrollment starting in the 2025-26 academic year.

After Harvard refused to turn over extensive data about its international students, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the school was being held accountable for “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”

Harvard has sued over the move, calling it unlawful, and on Friday a federal judge in Boston put it on hold for two weeks. If the Trump administration prevails, new international students would be barred from enrolling at Harvard while current ones would be forced to either transfer elsewhere or lose their legal status.

U.S. universities including Harvard rely heavily on international students, who often pay far more in tuition than their American classmates. Many of them end up staying in the U.S., where they have been responsible for major breakthroughs in strategically important fields such as artificial intelligence where the U.S., China and other nations are locked in intense competition.