Five years into his Ph.D. program, Sudipta Saha, a Harvard University student from Canada, looked with disbelief at the Trump administration\u2019s notice for foreign students at the university to transfer or leave the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Transferring the last year before his program ended is a nearly impossible option, and Harvard, though it is fighting the administration’s efforts in court, has offered little guidance, Saha says.<\/p>\n
This nightmare turned reality could just be beginning for more than a quarter of Harvard’s student body, even with a court striking down the Trump directive, as many international students fear the president will not give up so easily.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The idea that I could … not be able to finish my Ph.D. after putting in so much work, including not just research work, but as graduate students, we also do teaching, tutoring and research assistant work as well. The prospect that they could all go to waste was pretty depressing,” Saha told The Hill.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Trump has aggressively sought to punish Harvard after it publicly refused several of his administration’s demands, with the White House targeting the school’s federal funding and launching a slew of investigations.<\/p>\n
But none of its moves have had a more dramatic immediate impact than the Department of Homeland Security seeking to block Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign-born students \u2014 and ordering those currently there to either transfer or lose their visa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m in such a late stage of my Ph.D., transferring would be quite difficult,\u201d said Saha, who is studying social epidemiology and infectious diseases in the Department of Social and Behavioral Science.<\/p>\n
While transferring as an undergraduate may entail little more than moving credits, when in a Ph.D. program, a student has to find a new adviser, fulfill new teaching requirements and secure funding for the research.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually have no idea if I would be able to transfer in a way that would allow me to complete my Ph.D.,\u201d Saha said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After Harvard sued over the foreign student ban, school President Alan Garber released a statement to the community, saying the university “condemn[s] this unlawful and unwarranted action.”<\/p>\n
The government’s actions are due to Harvard’s\u00a0\u201crefusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government\u2019s illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty and our student body,” Garber wrote.<\/p>\n
And safety at another university could be a fleeting dream for would-be transfers as the Trump administration has made it clear other schools could face similar moves.<\/p>\n
Thousands of students had already lost their status earlier this year after the federal government targeted the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, which maintains information and status of foreign students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another international Ph.D. student at Harvard, this one a European who asked for anonymity, said, “If my visa is revoked, even if I’m allowed to remain enrolled at Harvard, which is a possibility that has not even been confirmed by the school, I would either have to transfer to another university, where my status might still be at risk, or I would need to complete my Ph.D. from my home country.”<\/p>\n
Both students say Harvard should do more to make international scholars feel safe on campus, pointing out that some of those involved have gotten crucial information from the media or court filings instead of from administration communication.<\/p>\n