Tangentially related, but at my university international students paid the most to attend - by far - than any other student. It has been rumored by some that universities may have an unfair preference for international students because of this. I wonder if this thinking is playing into the policy making.
Based on the previous actions of this administration, I can with 100% confidence say that absolutely no thinking played into this policy making.
You can be confidently wrong. It seems like you just don't like the thinking/reasons they did.
It seems really clear that the order as operations is as follows:
1. Administration makes demands of Harvard to change the way it's operating to fall in line.
2. Harvard stands up against these demands.
3. Administration is using every means possible to punish Harvard for daring taking a stand against it.
This is what dictatorships look like.
Extortion is Trump's favorite tactic. He's been punishing Maine for standing up to him. The law firms too. Soon the democrats when he can get past deporting the criminal U.S citizens.
I don't think it's unreasonable to say people are the only option to change our trajectory. We haven't reached critical mass yet, but the next national protest is April 19th which lands on the 250th revolutionary war anniversary. Be there or be square.
Washington State too. "Oh, you had cyclones and asked FEMA for money? Denied! Because, uh, hm, wasn't really an emergency."
Surely even if you tried to give them the benefit of the doubt the number of back trackings and self damaging actions taken without any given explanation would make you start to wonder? I would love to dislike their rationales for their decisions but it often seems like they genuinely haven't thought things through, which is even more frustrating.
Nah brah.
It's pretty clear these guys are morons. They're all impulse and no follow-up. It's the panic of the hour with them. No longer term than past lunch.
The thinking was, "international students pay the most, contribute the most in tuition payments to the university budget, and therefore by cutting them off we hurt our enemies' budgets."
They almost certainly do. There were rumors of a Chinese student ban during Trump's last tenure and I remember reading news stories (https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/11/29/university-il...) about universities having insurance policies to protect themselves from revenue loss. There should be enough Americans to fill the empty seats so it makes you wonder if university finances rely on international student tuition. So you would expect that to translate into admissions changes.
Reading other comments on here it almost seems like people feel it would be bad if American universities like Harvard had more Americans. Like there is something morally wrong with that. So that's probably a factor also.
Well, I'll be darned—that's... quite something. I can understand why the university felt it had to take that step—perhaps even a wise move, all things considered - but I must say, it certainly doesn't look good.
Harvard is one of eleven American universities that practice need-blind admissions even for international students, meaning that students are admitted without regard for their financial status (i.e., no explicit preference toward richer students who can pay more tuition), and that financial aid covers full demonstrated need for all admitted students.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission
If you have ever seen the inner workings of a student hiring committee, you would not say that Chinese students are given a leg up.
Yes, they generally pay more. However, there are so many highly qualified Chinese applicants that universities generally hold them to a much higher standard, in order to avoid admitting "too many" Chinese students.
This is all a function of China producing many more highly qualified students (at the high-school and undergraduate level) than the United States does. If everything were done purely according to academic merit, there would be several times as many Chinese students as American students at American universities.