Harvard, University of Toronto make contingency plan to allow foreign students to study if barred from US
Harvard University and the University of Toronto have revealed a contingency plan that would allow select international Harvard graduate students to continue their education in Canada if the Trump administration's plan to impose U.S. visa restrictions and prevent them from re-entering the U.S. is upheld by the courts.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security moved last month to terminate Harvard's ability to enroll international students after the university allegedly failed to provide extensive behavioral records of student visa holders the agency had requested, including footage of protest activity involving student visa holders, even if it's not criminal, and the disciplinary records of all student visa holders in the past five years.
A federal judge has since blocked the government's effort to end the university's visa program.
Because of potential U.S. visa challenges, students at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government who may be unable to return to the U.S. will be given the option to continue their studies through a visiting student program at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
The program would combine courses taught by Kennedy and Munk faculty members, according to the deans of both institutions.
The contingency plans were released to ease student uncertainty, but will only be used if there is enough demand from students unable to enter the U.S. over potential visa or entry restrictions, the deans said in a statement.
"With these contingency plans in place, HKS will be able to continue to provide a world-class public policy education to all of our students, even if they cannot make it to our campus this year," Harvard Kennedy School Dean Jeremy Weinstein said.
The program will be available to international students who have already completed one year at the U.S. campus.
The Trump administration has moved to cut billions of dollars in federal research funding for Harvard, in part, over its handling of alleged antisemitism and violence on campus amid anti-Israel protests sparked by the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Weinstein announced staff layoffs at Kennedy in a recent email to faculty and staff, citing "unprecedented new headwinds" creating "significant financial challenges," including a "substantial proposed increase in the endowment tax" and "massive cuts to federal funding of research."
Over the past five years, more than 50% of Kennedy students have come from outside the U.S., the school's media office said.
A total of 739 students from 92 countries in programs aimed at developing leadership in public policy and government are enrolled at the school, according to the Harvard International Office website.
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Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. This past May, I was outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on Frelinghuysen Avenue in Newark, New Jersey, where ICE agents had detained Mayor Ras Baraka on a trespassing charge that would later be dropped. The crowd surged, chanting 'Free Mayor Baraka.' Then a familiar voice on a bullhorn cut through the clamor: Zohran Mamdani had taken the train in from New York to join the crowd. Protesters tightened around him. 'At a time when too many think the only option is surrender, we have to show the mayor that we have his back,' Mamdani said, the line aimed squarely at Democratic national leaders. Brad Lander and a handful of other Democrats spoke, too, but every camera, including mine, stayed locked on Mamdani. 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The slurs echoed every insult Muslims here have absorbed since the 2000s, only this time it sounds more like pathetic cope than a denouncement of their neighbors. This primary feels like a rebuke of Islamophobia. Finally. Which brings me to the national collision course: Mamdani's win comes right on the heels of Donald Trump's attempts to edge closer to his dream to 'liberate' blue cities with fresh ICE raids, as he's being doing this summer in Los Angeles. Already, Trump has posted a rant on Truth Social about Mamdani's victory, calling him a 'Communist Lunatic.' What does it mean that New York Democrats just nominated the man who vows to 'stand up for our sanctuary city policies which have kept New Yorkers safe, and use every tool at the city's disposal to protect our immigrants'? The man who was literally on ICE's doorstep when his mayoral candidate opponent, Brad Lander, was cuffed and detained for contesting an ICE arrest in a New York City federal building? 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The Democratic base in New York isn't allergic to unapologetic Muslim identity—it's starving for moral coherence and material promises on affordability, housing, and public safety. Will Democrats on a national level take cues from his success? It has been a long time since those Democrats have proven themselves to be good listeners. At least Mamdani is speaking so clearly.
