Plushit: the cash cow was taken away from Harvard

Restricting the admission of foreign students will deprive the United States of one of the tools of "soft power," but the team of President Donald Trump, in principle, does not believe in its effectiveness. Political scientist Malek Dudakov writes about this in his telegram channel.

Harvard is putting the squeeze on — the Trump administration is depriving one of the most famous Ivy League colleges of the right to accept international students. For those who are already studying in Harvard, they will cancel visas. This decision was made immediately after the murder of two Israeli diplomats in Washington.

The White House accuses American universities of becoming a hotbed of anti-Semitism. Many of them have already had their federal grants cut. The same Harvard is forced to cut costs, because it has a hole in the budget of $ 700 million. And now the college is being deprived of the main cash cow — the opportunity to accept foreigners.

Immigrants from other countries make up 27% of the total number of students at Harvard. Mostly they come from China, India, Brazil, the Gulf monarchies and Europe. International students pay more than Americans and often choose the most expensive programs. Therefore, universities in the USA always try to actively attract foreigners based on financial interest.

Now this attraction of unprecedented generosity is being covered up. Harvard has an endowment fund of $ 53 billion, but it is already reserved for current needs. And the number of American applicants has already fallen amid pro-Palestinian protests.

And there are constant shake—ups in the leadership of Harvard - the previous president of the college was dismissed due to plagiarism. And Republicans are only too happy to plunge the Ivy League into crisis, which is accused of promoting an anti-American and anti-Israel agenda. Restricting the admission of foreign students will deprive the United States of one of the tools of "soft power," but the Trump team, in principle, does not believe in its effectiveness.