Admitted international students will be allowed to accept admission at Harvard University and at a foreign institution as a “backup plan,” according to an internal Harvard email obtained by MassLive.
While students are normally required to hold a place at only one institution by May 1, Harvard College Office of Admissions and Financial Aid told students in an email Sunday that, due to “recent events” in the U.S. and at Harvard, they understand the compulsion to have a “backup plan.”
The news comes after Harvard was sent a letter by the Department of Homeland Security in April, which threatened to revoke a key certification that allows the institution to have international students if it doesn’t submit detailed records of foreign students by the end of the month.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said having foreign students attend Harvard is a “privilege” and “not a guarantee.”
Harvard, along with hundreds of other institutions across the country, has also been dealing with an onslaught of student visa revocations and Student and Exchange Visitor Information statuses being terminated.
The Trump administration said on Friday it would reinstate the legal status of international students. However, international students and legal experts have expressed continued fear about what the administration’s next actions could be and confusion about whether the administration will reinstate student visas.
” While I think many of us remain hopeful about the shift, there hasn’t been an admission by the administration that they’re backing down from targeting international students,” Massachusetts Secretary of Higher Education Noe Ortega told MassLive.
Ortega pointed to a “chilling effect” occurring in higher education due to the federal administration and spoke to his concern about what the Trump administration’s new policy for international students studying in the U.S. will be.
“That’s a real concern because I think, we’ve said multiple times, we are a state that has really attracted international global talent to come to our institutions,” Ortega said.
International students who have been admitted to Harvard won’t be able to accept admission at Harvard and another American institution, in part because the “situation at Harvard might be replicated at other American universities,” the office said. Student visa forms are also university-specific.
Admitted students also have the option to defer their acceptance for a year, according to the email.
However, those students wouldn’t be able to enroll in other degree-granting programs at other institutions during that year. If they do, they would have to reapply as a transfer student.
“You have been admitted to Harvard College because we believe you have something special to offer our community. We want you here as our student, and we look forward to working with you to help make that possible,” the office said in the email.
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Read the original article on MassLive.