Harvard University

THINKING ALOUD

Larry Summers and Jeffrey Epstein’s deeply troubling ties

New documents demonstrate catastrophic lapses in judgment and raise questions about the impunity of elite networks

The judge, appointed by Democratic former president Barack Obama, said the evidence she had seen suggested US President Donald Trump “used anti-Semitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”

Judge overturns Trump funding cuts to Harvard: ruling

A US judge ordered on Wednesday that deep funding cuts by the Trump administration to Harvard University be overturned, after they were imposed over claims of anti-Semitism and bias at the Ivy League ...

US universities have already warned that first-time foreign student enrolment on campuses are projected to fall by about 30 per cent this fall, potentially costing the education sector US$2.6 billion in tuition revenue.

Student arrivals to US continue to plummet, led by Asia decline

Total arrivals on student visas decreased 28% to just under 79,000, the biggest monthly drop so far this year

Andy Sieg, head of wealth at Citigroup, says: "While some are exiting Britain, others are “looking at the US, and changes in the US, and thinking maybe the UK is the place where my kids might want to go to college and might want to spend more time.”

Citigroup’s rich clients divert from US to UK despite higher taxes

Trump’s America-first policies spur more wealthy students to apply to top UK universities as elite US colleges face clashes with his administration

A decline in international-student enrolment will not only hinder research at US institutions by shrinking the pool of talented assistants; it will also weaken the global pipeline of future scientists, diminishing the depth and quality of research worldwide.
THE BROAD VIEW

The high cost of Trump’s brain drain

The government crackdown on elite universities risks undermining US innovation and competitiveness

US District Judge Allison Burroughs issued an injunction barring Donald Trump’s administration from carrying out its latest bid to curtail Harvard’s ability to host international students amid an escalating fight pitting the Republican president against the prestigious Ivy League school.

US judge blocks Trump plan to close Harvard’s doors to international students

[BOSTON] A federal judge on Monday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing his plan to bar foreign nationals from entering the United States to study at Harvard University.

International students accounted for 27 per cent of total enrollment at Harvard in the 2024-2025 academic year and are a major source of income.

Judge extends pause on Trump bid to block Harvard foreign students

[BOSTON] A judge on Monday extended a restraining order pausing Donald Trump’s ban on Harvard bringing in and hosting foreign students as part of the US president’s escalating campaign against the eli...

Trump’s crusade against Harvard University (above, its library building) and the country’s other top universities should give us pause, even if the fate of Ivy League universities an ocean away may seem mostly distant and unrelated to Singapore.
THINKING ALOUD

Harvard crackdown: Can Singapore become its own intellectual leader?

THE US has long been a global science leader, with this best exemplified by its scientists creating a Covid-19 vaccine – amid a pandemic no less – within a year.

 Universities and their graduates are increasingly disliked by broad swaths of the US electorate. Beating up pointy-headed academics makes for excellent politics, even if it is terrible policy.
PERSPECTIVE

Tackling America’s diploma divide

What’s really driving the Trump administration’s war against elite universities

Some of the grants paid for military-specific medical research, studies on countering weapons of mass destruction and research on lasers, among numerous other topics, Reuters found.

Harvard's US-funded defence projects totalled US$180 million in recent years, study shows

[WASHINGTON] When the Trump administration cut federal funding to Harvard University, it abruptly ended an estimated US$180 million that the federal government had poured into US military projects at ...