Hong Kong targets top talent after ban on foreign students at Harvard University
Hong Kong's education bureau has called on universities to open their doors and attract talent, the bureau said, according to an emailed statement seen by Reuters, after the Trump administration last week notified Harvard its student and exchange visitor programme (SEVP) certification was "revoked" following a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigation.
The bureau also contacted the Harvard Club of Hong Kong to offer support for students who have been admitted to Harvard for further studies.
"We will continue to closely monitor the needs of students whose studies have been affected by the shifting global education landscape," the statement said, adding that support measures would be considered as part of the city's role as an "international education hub".
Hong Kong's University of Science and Technology announced an open invitation to international undergraduate and postgraduate students at Harvard University on Friday.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
"The university will provide unconditional offers, streamlined admission procedures, and academic support to facilitate a seamless transition for interested students,' it said in a statement that was first reported in PR Newswire.
The SEVP revocation means that the Ivy League university can no longer enrol international students, and existing foreign students must transfer to another college or lose their legal status.
DHS has accused Harvard of fostering antisemitism and liaising with the Communist Party of China on its campus.
Harvard is challenging the ban and has filed a lawsuit over the revocation. On Friday, a judge issued a temporary restraining order, with the next hearing scheduled for 29 May.
However, students could be in limbo while the legal battle is fought, and institutions around the world may see the ban as an opportunity to attract top talent.
Harvard has almost 7,000 international students enrolled in its 2024-2025 cohort, who make up around 27 percent of the total student enrollment.
Harvard and more than 150 universities fight back against Trump administration Read More »
Hong Kong has five universities in the top 100 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In recent years, however, its academic freedom has also been attacked, and mainland China has forced the territory to integrate patriotic themes into its studies.
Students from Asia make up more than half of all international students in the US, with just over 277,000 students coming from China in the 2023 to 2024 academic year.
Universities in the US have come under increasing pressure since US President Donald Trump took office and vowed to stamp out the pro-Palestinian campus movements across the country protesting against Israel's war on Gaza.
Trump has threatened dozens of institutions with "reviews", which could result in federal funding freezes. Several universities have already lost tranches of federal funding.
Hong Kong is not the first country seeking to lure top talent from the US to its shores.
Ireland's Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless obtained government approval to initiate a programme to attract global talent earlier this month.
Lawless is now working alongside the foundation, Research Ireland, to launch a programme to attract early-career researchers and established academics to Irish institutions.
The programme will focus on areas such as energy security, healthcare, life sciences, digital technologies and AI, food security, cyber security, semiconductors, and quantum technologies.
'In a time of uncertainty for the scientific community, Ireland remains firmly committed to investing in scientific excellence and upholding the core values of academic integrity and independence,' Lawless said in a press release.
Lawless said Ireland offered "stability, opportunity and excellence".
"We are committed to supporting Irish researchers at home and also to welcoming exceptional global talent who might now be questioning where they'll be able to further their work," he added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
29 minutes ago
- The National
Sensible statesman or 'Never here Keir'? Starmer buffeted by a year of headwinds
Not since Winston Churchill took power just as France was falling to Nazi Germany in 1940 has a British prime minister entered Downing Street to face such an onslaught of international turbulence. When he took power after victory in the July 4 election last year, both Germany and France's leaders were politically emasculated and US President Joe Biden's authority was tumbling. Then Donald Trump was elected president and the political landscape turned into disarray. In his first year in office, Keir Starmer, 62, has had to leverage Britain's modest authority on the international stage to find some form of normality in a world of wars in Europe and the Middle East. Weakened But the sensible global statesman persona has come at some cost, with a neglected domestic front weakening his authority, which in turn could damage his international standing. Even his own MPs are muttering about 'never here Keir' due to the machine-gun diary entries that have sent him abroad. That unintentional absence, on top of several misguided policies, has seen Labour's standing in the polls plummet, threatening its 'super majority' of 156 MPs and letting in the hard-right populist Reform party of Nigel Farage. The prime minister's authority with Labour MPs reached its lowest ebb on Tuesday after he had to heavily water down a welfare-reform bill to avert a rebellion by more than 120 members. The huge increase in support gained at the general election had already been curtailed by Mr Starmer's questionable stance, shortly after the October 7 Hamas killings, when he suggested that Israel had the right to withhold water to Gaza. Four of the new MPs entering the Commons were all Muslim independents, largely elected on a pro-Palestinian vote and all in former Labour seats. Tremors for that loss of popularity have been felt in the latest polling that extraordinarily suggests Reform would get the majority of seats, 271, if a general election was held today, with Labour second on 178, Lib Dems on 81 and the Conservatives fourth with just 46. Fresh start It all looked so different a year ago when The National watched as Mr Starmer, accompanied by his wife Victoria, walked into Downing Street and announced that he would restore level-headed government, fix the economy, spur house building and revive the NHS. There is a festering problem around Gaza, which I'm fearful people won't forget Jon Cruddas Minutes earlier his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, had departed, ending 14 years of Conservative rule that in the chaotic, mismanaged post-Brexit years had resulted in a decline in Britain's global standing. Labour had been handed a toxic legacy by the Tories, including a £20 billion black hole in finances, unchecked migration and a hollowed-out military and NHS. 'The inheritance was abysmal and that needs replaying,' said Labour's policy thinker Jon Cruddas, who retired as an MP at the election. John Slinger, who became an MP for the first time last year, suggested that a 'poisoned chalice was quite deliberately bequeathed by the Tories', impeding Labour's ability to grow the economy without resorting to tax rises. That, agreed another Labour backbencher, was 'cunning, did us damage and we've paid a political price'. Ultimately most people in Labour would acknowledge that 'they haven't got everything right' but it had faced circumstances 'more challenging than any government in living memory', said Joe Dromey, general secretary of the Labour-leaning Fabian Society. 'It has been a very tumultuous situation especially since the re-election of Donald Trump, with the geopolitical order being turned on its head and unleashing of trade wars.' Rioting While absorbing the economic shock of what the Tories left behind, Mr Starmer was jolted into dealing with his first crisis. After the murders of three girls at a Taylor Swift dance class, the country exploded in a series of anti-migrant riots. That was three weeks after Labour came to power. Most commentators agreed Mr Starmer handled the crisis well, resolving another Conservative inheritance of overcrowded prisons by rapidly clearing space for the 200 or so convicted rioters. If it seemed things settled for a while then the political power battle between his chief of staff, former civil servant Sue Gray, and others in Downing Street culminated in the former's departure in October. There were other early speed bumps such as revelations about 'freebies' given to ministers, which in Mr Starmer's case was for accepting director's box tickets to Arsenal football matches, suits and glasses. Gaza mood change Those early controversies subsided only to be replaced by the hastening global crisis and the Gaza situation in particular. Labour looked to position itself as tougher on Israel than the Conservatives, which had shown lukewarm support, by introducing a modest arms embargo, agreeing to not oppose international arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and restoring UNWRA aid funding. That placated some MPs for some months, as did the January ceasefire, but with Israel embarking on its revised security plan for Gaza and recommencing military action in March the mood in parliament 'dramatically changed', said Mr Slinger. 'With civilian suffering on a totally unacceptable scale the actions we've taken have become more condemnatory and the Israeli government doesn't like it, but the way they're acting now in Gaza, you just cannot have humanitarian suffering on that scale,' he added. But that change has come too late for some party stalwarts. Mr Cruddas warned that Labour's initial stance had 'damaged the credibility of the moral character of the government'. 'There is a festering problem around Gaza, which I'm fearful people won't forget, and it's not just about our relationship with Muslim voters it's a wider question of our ethical approach to what's been happening across the Middle East,' he said. Labour's Gaza position had 'created a rupture with Muslim voters', the back bench MP source said, which was why independent MPs such as Shockat Adam won their seats. The majority of MPs in the Commons now support UK recognition of a Palestinian state, Mr Adam told The National, 'yet the government doesn't seem to listen'. He also described the UK's sanctioning last month of two Israeli cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, as 'tokenistic gestures' in a government's stance that was 'extremely disheartening and disappointing'. Trump sweeteners Surprisingly to some, despite having no previous experience, Mr Starmer has added polish to his reputation through his international work. Labour was savvy enough to sweeten Mr Trump before his election win and since then the Prime Minister has trodden a careful path to avoid both sycophancy and confrontation. That allowed Britain to become the first country to sign a trade deal with America, although potential US tariffs remain a concern. 'He's proven to be smart and agile in not getting boxed in, in a very difficult international environment,' said Mr Cruddas. 'He's played that quite well.' Despite opposing politics, Mr Starmer had 'surprised quite a few people' with his constructive Trump relationship that 'paid off' with the trade deal, added Mr Dromey. An example of that came when Mr Starmer delicately navigated the potential maelstrom fallout of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's White House confrontation with Mr Trump in February. He was behind some form of reconciliation that has secured continued US backing for Ukraine and, with Mr Starmer's urging, greater Nato-wide support for defence spending. Trade deals have also been struck with India and the EU that will help the economy and defence is receiving significant uplift, albeit at the cost of the international aid budget. U-turn But domestic disquiet is growing among Labour MPs deeply concerned at welfare payment cuts and the axing of winter fuel payments to pensioners. These have resulted in government U-turns which can have an eroding effect over time on a prime minister's authority. That was also not helped by the 'narrative of decline and defeatism' of the government blaming the Tories for the UK's dire state, said Mr Cruddas. 'Talking down the country is not helpful, he needs to be much more positive and assertive,' he advised. But Mr Slinger argued that their policies will see the economy grow and that people's anger being 'exploited by Reform will dissipate'. His backbench colleague suggested that even after a year in office 'most governments are unpopular … it's the nature of things.' Mr Starmer has until August 2029, at the latest, to improve his fortunes if he wishes to win a second term.
Zawya
33 minutes ago
- Zawya
Republicans muscle Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill through Congress
WASHINGTON - The 218-214 vote amounts to a significant victory for the Republican president that will fund his immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent and deliver new tax breaks that he promised during his 2024 campaign. It also cuts health and food safety net programs and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives. It would add $3.4 trillion to the nation's $36.2 trillion debt, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Despite concerns within Trump's party over the 869-page bill's price tag and its hit to healthcare programs, in the end just two of the House's 220 Republicans voting against it, following an overnight standoff. The bill has already cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by the narrowest possible margin. The White House said Trump will sign it into law at 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) on Friday, the July 4 Independence Day holiday. Republicans said the legislation will lower taxes for Americans across the income spectrum and spur economic growth. "This is jet fuel for the economy, and all boats are going to rise," House Speaker Mike Johnson said. Every Democrat in Congress voted against it, blasting the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would leave millions uninsured. "The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires," House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an eight-hour, 46-minute speech that was the longest in the chamber's history. Trump kept up the pressure throughout, cajoling and threatening lawmakers as he pressed them to finish the job. "FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!" he wrote on social media. Though roughly a dozen House Republicans threatened to vote against the bill, only two ended up doing so: Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a centrist, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a conservative who said it did not cut spending enough. MARATHON WEEKEND Republicans raced to meet Trump's July 4 deadline, working through last weekend and holding all-night debates in the House and the Senate. The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday in a 51-50 vote in that saw Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote. According to the CBO, the bill would lower tax revenues by $4.5 trillion over 10 years and cut spending by $1.1 trillion. Those spending cuts largely come from Medicaid, the health program that covers 71 million low-income Americans. The bill would tighten enrollment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments - changes that would leave nearly 12 million people uninsured, according to the CBO. Republicans added $50 billion for rural health providers to address concerns that those cutbacks would force them out of business. Nonpartisan analysts have found that the wealthiest Americans would see the biggest benefits from the bill, while lower-income people would effectively see their incomes drop as the safety-net cuts would outweigh their tax cuts. The increased debt load created by the bill would also effectively transfer money from younger to older generations, analysts say. Ratings firm Moody's downgraded U.S. debt in May, citing the mounting debt, and some foreign investors say the bill is making U.S. Treasury bonds less attractive. The bill raises the U.S. debt ceiling by $5 trillion, averting the prospect of a default in the short term. But some investors worry the debt overhang could curtail the economic stimulus in the bill and create a long-term risk of higher borrowing costs. On the other side of the ledger, the bill staves off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of this year, when Trump's 2017 individual and business tax cuts were due to expire. Those cuts are now made permanent, while tax breaks for parents and businesses are expanded. The bill also sets up new tax breaks for tipped income, overtime pay, seniors and auto loans, fulfilling Trump campaign promises. The final version of the bill includes more substantial tax cuts and more aggressive healthcare cuts than an initial version that passed the House in May. During deliberations in the Senate, Republicans also dropped a provision that would have banned state-level regulations on artificial intelligence, and a "retaliatory tax" on foreign investment that had spurred alarm on Wall Street. The bill is likely to feature prominently in the 2026 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to recapture at least one chamber of Congress. Republican leaders contend the bill's tax breaks will goose the economy before then, and many of its benefit cuts are not scheduled to kick in until after that election. Opinion polls show many Americans are concerned about the bill's cost and its effect on lower income people. (Reporting by Bo Erickson, Richard Cowan and David Morgan Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal and Jasper Ward Writing by Andy Sullivan Editing by Scott Malone, and Alistair Bell)
Al Etihad
an hour ago
- Al Etihad
China urges caution - and speed - on assisted-driving technology
4 July 2025 09:14 BEIJING (REUTERS)China's automakers are outpacing foreign rivals in their push for assisted-driving technology, eager to woo motorists hungry for rapid Beijing has a nuanced message for its rising stars: move fast - but be this week have been finalising new safety rules for driver-assistance systems as Beijing sharpens scrutiny of the technology following an accident involving a Xiaomi SU7 sedan in March. That incident killed three occupants when their car crashed seconds after the driver took control from the assisted-driving Chinese officials want to prevent carmakers from overselling the capabilities of such systems, they are also threading the needle between innovation and safety to ensure their automakers don't lose out to US and European clear regulations for assisted-driving tech without slowing its advancement could give China's industry an edge over global competitors, analysts say. This approach is in stark contrast to the US market, where companies pursuing autonomous cars have expressed frustration that the government has not implemented a regulatory system to validate and test the Muessig, auto industry lead at Accenture Greater China, said China's regulators and industries have long followed former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's "feel the stones to cross the river" philosophy. The expression means to steadily explore new, uncertain technologies, which "has proven very successful for this market," he Chinese regulations allow systems that automatically steer, brake and accelerate under certain conditions while requiring the driver to stay engaged. For that reason, marketing terms such as "smart" and "autonomous" are new rules will focus on hardware and software designs that monitor a driver's state of awareness and their capacity to take control in do this, regulators enlisted Chinese automaker Dongfeng and tech giant Huawei to help draft new rules and have sought public input over a month-long period, ending the same time, government officials are pressing Chinese automakers to rapidly deploy even more-advanced systems, known as Level 3 assisted-driving, which allow drivers to take their eyes off the road in certain situations. Level 3 is the midway point on the industry's autonomous-driving scale, from basic features like cruise control at Level 1, to self-driving capability under all conditions at Level Chinese government had tapped state-owned Changan to be the first automaker to begin Level 3 validation tests in April, but the plan was paused after the Xiaomi crash, said a source familiar with the regulatory planning still hopes to resume such tests this year and approve the country's first Level 3 car in 2026, the source Ministry of Industry of Information Technology and Changan did not respond to requests for comment. Xiaomi has said it is cooperating with a police investigation into the systems are seen by industry analysts as the next big battleground in China's hyper-competitive car the past decade, Level 2 systems have proliferated in China, including Tesla's Full Self Driving system, as well as the Xiaomi feature involved in the March crash. The capability ranges from basic vehicle following on highways to handling most tasks on busy urban roads, under driver have pushed down hardware costs to levels that allow them to offer Level 2 features at little or no extra cost. China's No. 1 automaker BYD has rolled out its "God's Eye" assisted-driving software for free across its entire product line-up. More than 60% of new cars sold in China this year will have Level 2 features, according to an estimate from research firm RaceIn its push for assisted-driving technology, and ultimately fully self-driving cars, Beijing is seeking to help homegrown carmakers just as it supported China's rapid rise to become the world's electric-car year, China's government lined up nine automakers for public tests to advance the adoption of self-driving their Level 3 push, Chinese regulators also are upping the regulatory ante by holding automakers and parts suppliers liable if their systems fail and cause an accident. Legislation passed in Britain last year adopted a similar approach to the Shanghai auto show in April, several companies touted progress toward rolling out vehicles with Level 3 capability. Tech giant Huawei said it is ready to introduce a Level 3 system for highways after simulated testing of more than 600 million kilometers. It showed a video of drivers and passengers singing karaoke as the car drove Zeekr brand debuted the luxury SUV 9X, featuring Level 3 software the automaker said is ready for mass production in the third quarter if regulations allow. Zeekr is also applying to be part of a second batch of automakers to undergo government Level 3 validation traditional automakers at the Shanghai auto show such as Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen said they were pushing their most advanced assisted-driving features but stopped short of crossing the Level 3 liability line. Getting there is a challenge as they are already at a cost disadvantage against their Chinese rivals, analysts CTO Markus Schaefer told Reuters that while chip and computing power prices have fallen, the additional safety required for Level 3 will cost much more. "It's a moving target," Schaefer said.
