British students to be barred from Turing exchange scheme following Trump visa ban
Tens of thousands of UK students are waiting to hear a decision on their funding applications for this year's Turing Scheme, which allows them to enrol at universities around the world for up to a year.
Those who applied to study at US colleges next year are expected to be turned down under White House plans, unless they have already received their visas.
It comes after Mr Trump ramped up his attack on American universities by ordering US embassies to halt all new visa interviews for prospective international students.
In a leaked cable shared on Tuesday, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, also demanded an 'expansion' of social media vetting for all student visa applicants.
The changes, which Mr Rubio said would come into effect 'in the coming days', will apply to student exchange visas as well as those for full-time international students.
A Whitehall source confirmed to The Telegraph that J-1 exchange visas required for the Turing Scheme were affected by the ban, but said some students may have already secured their visas for next year.
The UK Government will monitor the situation and is discussing potential implications with universities, The Telegraph understands.
British universities could still change the preferred destination for any Turing Scheme participants affected by the US ban. The Department for Education is responsible for Britain's study abroad programme, but individual universities must organise their students' applications.
More than 3,100 British students were offered placements in the US last year as part of the Turing Scheme, which replaced the Erasmus+ scheme after the UK left the EU-wide programme in 2020. The US was the third most popular location after Spain and France.
It means thousands of UK students could have their study abroad plans ripped up or be sent to different countries, while British pupils planning to start at US colleges full-time this autumn have had their plans thrown into chaos.
Prospective students can apply for full-time study visas up to a year in advance of their course start date, but many colleges send out admissions decisions in spring – meaning many may still be awaiting a visa interview.
The number of UK students at US universities has remained broadly stable over the past decade or so, while enrolments from other countries have soared. A record 1.1 million foreign students were enrolled at American universities last year, more than 10,000 of whom were British, according to the Institute of International Education.
However, top private schools have increasingly encouraged pupils to apply to Ivy League colleges in the past few years amid frustrations over UK universities' focus on state school admissions.
Eton College reportedly sent around a fifth of its leavers to American universities in 2022, with 50 pupils heading for top US destinations such as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale and Columbia.
Mr Trump has taken aim at many of those institutions and threatened to end their federal funding after accusing them of fostering anti-Semitism and adopting biased admissions policies.
The US leader has frozen around $3.2 billion of federal funding for Harvard in recent weeks, sparking a bitter tit-for-tat and multiple lawsuits from the oldest university in the US.
Turmoil in the US could, however, prove an unexpected boon for UK universities, which are grappling with a funding crisis fuelled by their drop in foreign student numbers.
A recent British Council report said British higher education could benefit from Mr Trump's re-election, with international students now more likely to seek out alternative English-speaking destinations.
The move could also intensify competition for places at some British universities, including Oxford and Cambridge.
Rohan Agarwal, the founder of UniAdmissions, said he was bracing for 'an even greater acceleration in demand for Oxbridge and other top UK institutions' if the Trump administration followed through with its visa crackdown.
A US State Department spokesman said it did not comment on internal communications, but that the Trump administration was focused on upholding the highest national security standards. The spokesman said the department would focus on prohibiting entry to the US for those who might pose a threat to America's security.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
18 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Musk vows to start a third party. Funding's no issue, but there are others.
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Even some of Musk's own supporters have expressed doubts about the direction he now plans to take, preferring that he stay focused on the business ideas that fueled his net worth of roughly $400 billion. Advertisement But as his improbable bid to buy Twitter and front-and-center role in the 2024 election showed, Musk has defied expectations before. If nothing else, he could make life difficult for lawmakers he says have reneged on their promise to cut spending. Advertisement 'Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!' Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he bought when it was still named Twitter, this week. 'And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.' Musk, who didn't respond to a request for comment, has already identified his next target: the reelection campaign of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), who opposes Trump's signature legislative package. Urged to support Massie by former GOP congressman Justin Amash, a Trump foe who declared himself an independent in a 2019 op-ed decrying the two-party system as an 'existential threat,' Musk replied, 'I will.' Representative Thomas Massie speaks to the media following a vote to stop a government shutdown at the Capitol on March 11. Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post Massie did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday about Musk starting a third party, but he posted a Fox News story about the chief executive's plans to donate to his campaign. 'An interesting thing just happened,' Massie wrote on X. With Trump already working to defeat Massie next year, the race in northern Kentucky appears to be the first to pit the two billionaires against each other. On Capitol Hill, where the Senate passed the massive tax and spending bill Tuesday afternoon, there were few signs of alarm about Musk. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), when asked by reporters Monday evening about Musk's threats to punish Republicans who vote for Trump's plan, said the billionaire is not top of mind at the Capitol. 'Doesn't matter, doesn't matter at all, no. It's not even been a conversation of ours,' he said. 'I mean, if we ran every time someone said something about our election, we'd live in fear the whole time.' Advertisement Senator Markwayne Mullin bounces a rubber ball through the Ohio Clock Corridor on Monday, on Capitol Hill. Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post Unless that someone is Trump. Two Republican lawmakers who have been at odds with Trump both said in rapid succession this week that they would not seek reelection. Rep. Don Bacon (Nebraska), who has taken issue with Trump's tariffs and policy toward Russia, announced his retirement Monday. The day before, Sen. Thom Tillis (North Carolina) said he would not seek a third term after Trump vowed to punish him for opposing his legislative package. That leaves Massie as one of the only points of Republican resistance in Congress to Trump's agenda. Musk's decision to cast himself as a potential third-party leader raises questions about his political vision. It has just been in the last few years that he has evolved from Democratic-leaning Trump critic to staunchly Republican Trump acolyte. Trump allies mocked his latest incarnation. 'I think it's the ketamine talking in the middle of the night,' said Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin, referring to media reports about Musk's drug use that he has denied. 'Trump is the Republican Party right now. He is the conservative movement. There's not a hankering for a third party with Elon Musk.' A Gallup poll last year found that 58 percent of U.S. adults agree that a third party is needed in the U.S. because the Republican and Democratic parties 'do such a poor job' of representing the American people. Support for a third party has averaged 56 percent since 2003, according to Gallup. History shows that third-party candidates are rarely victorious. Ross Perot, one of the most successful independent candidates for president in American history, received about 19 percent of the popular vote and no electoral college votes. Advertisement 'Third parties are traditionally spoilers or wasted votes,' said Lee Drutman, senior fellow at the New America think tank. 'But if Musk's goal is to cause chaos and make a point and disrupt, it gets a lot easier.' Ralph Nader's presidential bid in 2000 was a classic example of a disruptive campaign, Drutman said, contributing to an outcome so close that Republican George W. Bush prevailed over Democrat Al Gore only after the Supreme Court weighed in. Ralph Nader acknowledges his mother at an event at the National Press Club before watching the election night voting unfold. Lucian Perkins/TWP The trend in the U.S. toward increased political polarization also makes it more difficult for third-party candidates, Drutman said. When Perot ran in 1992, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush were both running as centrists, allowing Perot to argue that there wasn't much daylight between the two major parties. By contrast, the differences between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in the 2024 election were much more stark. America's political diversity also complicates matters, Drutman said. 'If there clearly was a party in the center that was more popular than the Democrats or the Republicans, then someone would have organized it by now,' he said. 'It's not like we've just been waiting for Elon Musk to show up.' Musk entered politics in earnest during the 2024 presidential election. Beyond his massive financial investment, Musk frequently appeared alongside Trump at rallies and cheered him on over X. But since Trump's win, Musk's experience in politics has been turbulent. Earlier this year, the billionaire and groups affiliated with him donated more than $20 million in a bid to help conservatives take control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In the final stretch of the campaign, Musk drew derision for wearing a foam cheesehead at a town hall and for directing his America PAC to pay registered voters for signing petitions. A couple of voters won $1 million prizes. Advertisement But even with the race flooded with Musk's cash, the conservative judicial candidate — whom Trump also endorsed — lost by a wide margin in April. Musk's personal presence in the race did his candidate harm, said Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin's Elections Research Center. Conservative voters appreciated Musk's money, but that wasn't enough to overcome negative perceptions of an ultra-wealthy outsider injecting himself into the state's politics, Burden said, adding that Musk's presence galvanized greater liberal turnout. 'A new party is going to benefit most from Musk if they can draw on his resources but keep him in the background,' Burden said. 'And if he can portray himself as an innovator and a tech entrepreneur — and somebody who is really contributing to the American economy and funding this new operation without being its front person — I think that's probably going to lead to the most success.' Musk floated his idea of a new party nearly one month ago on June 5, after days of criticizing the massive GOP tax bill as a measure that would burden the country with 'crushingly unsustainable debt.' 'Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?' Musk wrote, along with a poll. Since then, Musk has regularly posted about starting a new party and going after lawmakers who vote for the spending bill. 'If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,' Musk wrote Monday. Advertisement A person who has served as a sounding board for Musk, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, questioned Musk's ultimate strategy in undermining a party he had hoisted to victory beyond wanting 'to be in the driver's seat.' 'I agree our government is broken, but it's a tougher problem to fix than landing a rocket,' the person said. Paul Kane contributed to this report.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
House members in mad scramble back to DC to vote on Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill' after heading home for July 4
Members of the House of Representatives from both parties were forced to return to Washington, D.C. to vote on President Donald Trump's 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' after the Senate passed it, Politico reported. With Trump exerting great pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson to get the bill to his desk for a signing before the July 4 holiday, the House plans to vote on the bill as soon as possible. That triggered a mad dash back to the nation's capital and comes amid a Republican rift over the amended bill — which would force cuts to Medicaid and makes states shoulder more of the cost for food assistance while extending the 2017 tax cuts Trump signed. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace posted that she and her team would travel back from South Carolina by van. We have secured a van for a DC road trip tonight to make it in time for votes on BBB tomorrow. Hoah! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 — Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) July 1, 2025 'We have secured a van for a DC road trip tonight to make it in time for votes on BBB tomorrow,' Mace posted. Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is running for Illinois' open Senate seat, hosted a Zoom town hall as he drove 14 hours to Washington after his flight was canceled. We made it. Drove overnight from IL to vote NO on this Large Lousy Law. — Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) July 2, 2025 'We made it,' he said. 'Drove overnight from IL to vote NO on this Large Lousy Law.' By coincidence, Rep. Derek Tran of California wound up stranded in the Pittsburgh airport, so he and fellow Democratic Rep. Chris DeLuzio of Pennsylvania drove to Washington and hosted a virtual town hall as well. Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin posted how his flight was canceled because of thunderstorms, so he would drive to Chicago to make an early flight to Washington. The bill passed the House of Representatives narrowly last month, partially due to the fact that three Democratic members of Congress had died. House Speaker Mike Johnson has scheduled a vote for the morning. The vote comes after the Senate conducted a marathon 27-hour vote-a-rama before passing the bill by a 51-50 margin with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie in the Senate. Three Republicans--Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine and Thom Tillis of North Carolina--opposed the bill. But many House members have criticized the bill. During a House Rules Committee hearing, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who criticized the bill last month but nonetheless voted for it, said the Senate 'failed' with the bill. Plenty of Republican members also fear the cuts to Medicaid could disproportionately hurt their constituents.
Wall Street Journal
18 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
What the Halt in U.S. Weapon Supplies Means for Ukraine
The Trump administration's withholding of critical Patriot interceptor missiles and other weapons from Ukraine is a body blow to the embattled country's efforts to withstand Russia's mounting and increasingly deadly aerial assaults. Even before the decision, Kyiv was struggling to counter Russian technology, tactics and troop numbers. Russia is already deploying maneuverable ballistic missiles, able to avoid the vaunted Patriot air-defense system's radar, and launching record numbers of drones to bombard Ukraine every two or three nights. A halt in the supply of interceptors from the U.S. will heap further pressure on Ukraine.
