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Hundreds of British students face expulsion from Harvard University after an “appalling” and “vindictive” decision by Donald Trump to ban the institution from overseas recruitment.
The White House revoked the university's ability to enrol international students on Thursday in a major escalation of Trump’s war on the college.
Current foreign students, including hundreds of Britons, will have to transfer to other colleges or lose their legal right to stay in the US.
The move has triggered a furious backlash on this side of the Atlantic and led to calls for Keir Starmer and Britain’s ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson, to tell President Trump not to make UK students ‘victims’ of his politics.
Former education secretary Nicky Morgan was among senior politicians lining up to slam the move, calling it “chilling”.
Harvard, which has almost 6,800 foreign students, more than a quarter of its student body, has hit back, saying the ban is illegal and amounts to retaliation.
Trump has been in conflict with the university for months, after it became the first to openly defy White House demands amid claims it had been taken over by ‘woke’ ideas.
Making the announcement, the US Department of Homeland Security accused Harvard of creating an unsafe environment on campus by allowing "anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators" to assault Jewish students. It also claimed the university was cooperating with the Chinese Communist Party.
Former Labour Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills John Denham told The Independent the prime minister and Lord Mandelson should intervene.
He said: “It's going to be a traumatic experience for any students who are forced to leave the States and who thought that they were going to go next year. It’s a terrible thing to happen students and an appalling thing for a government to do”.
He added: “Our government should be saying you can't go around treating people like this. If people have complied with the rules… simply to force them to leave your country because you have an argument with a university is not the way that we expect our citizens to be treated.
“These are young people between about 18 and 24, depending on whether they're undergraduates or going to do postgraduate degrees. You cannot make individual young people the victims of your politics in that way. And I think the government should say that very, very clearly, to Trump. And Peter Mandelson has got this really good relationship with the White House that we read about. I think Peter Mandelson should be in there, on behalf of the British government, making this very clear.”
Former education minister Robin Walker said the ban on foreign students “seems a very vindictive” decision, which would be harmful “to US interests (and) more of a power play and playing to the gallery than pursuing serious policy”.
Ex- business and skills secretary Vince Cable slammed the move as “absurd and dangerous” and said it was “another sly move to punish Harvard for standing up to him.”
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
English (US) ·