Hong Kong targets ‘top talent' as Harvard faces international student ban
Last week the Trump administration revoked Harvard's Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effectively banning the university from accepting foreign students. A US federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the government from enforcing the ban, which would have reportedly forced students currently enrolled and not graduating this year to transfer to another institution or lose their legal status and visa.
Harvard has launched legal action, but it has done little to assuage concerns among students thrown into limbo. Experts have warned the US the ban could be a boon for foreign institutions looking to attract talent.
On Monday Hong Kong's education bureau said it had 'promptly called on all universities in Hong Kong to introduce facilitation measures for those eligible with a view to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of students and scholars, and to attract top talent'.
The Hong Kong Science and Technology University announced on Friday an open invitation to any affected foreign students, offering a place to those forced to leave Harvard as well as those with confirmed offers.
'The university will provide unconditional offers, streamlined admission procedures, and academic support to facilitate a seamless transition for interested students,' it said.
Hong Kong is home to five of the world's top 100 universities, according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, however in recent years they have been made to integrate national security and patriotic themes into studies, after China's ruling Communist party tightened its grip on the semi-autonomous city.
More than 2,000 students from Asia are currently enrolled at Harvard, with an unknown number accepted and waiting to start.
'A lot of people in east Asia have some sort of fantasy and feel the prestige of Harvard,' said Taiwanese student Chu, who asked that his real name not be published.
Chu was expecting to start a Masters in Science in August, and has already paid about $3,000 in visa and accommodation fees, and deferred his hospital residency for a year
'I either stick with Harvard or I just go back to my residency training,' he said. 'There's no other alternative I have.'
In a lawsuit filed against the Trump administrations attempted ban, Harvard said the move would immediately blunt its competitiveness in attracting the world's top students.
'In our interconnected global economy, a university that cannot welcome students from all corners of the world is at a competitive disadvantage', it said, adding foreign students were 'a key factor' in the college maintaining its standing in academia.
The vast majority of Harvard's foreign students – about 1,200 currently studying – are from China. On China's Xiao Hong Shu app, a Chinese masters student from Sichuan, said she had given talks to campus classmates about unequal access to education in her home country.
'As a fresh graduate studying abroad in the US for the first time, I've overcome a lot to get here,' she said. 'But when the hammer came down today, it was the first time I truly realised just how small I am.'
A spokesperson for China's ministry of foreign affairs, Mao Ning, said on Friday that China 'opposed the politicisation of educational cooperation', and warned the move would 'harm the image and international standing of the United States'.
On the social media platform Weibo, a series of related hashtags, including 'Trump is destroying Harvard', saw more than 200 million interactions, including many viewing it as the latest skirmish between the US and China. Among the reasons cited by the Trump administration for revoking Harvard's program was an accusation that it fostered 'coordinating with the Chinese Communist party on its campus'.
Additional research by Jason Tzu Kuan Lu and Lillian Yang
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