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US President Donald Trump’s administration revoked Harvard’s right to enrol foreign students, impacting Kiwi students.
A judge suspended the move until Harvard’s case could be heard in court.
Bay of Plenty students Samuel Taylor and Koan Hemana expressed fear and uncertainty about their futures at Harvard.
A Kiwi student at Harvard University says his future is being “held hostage” in a battle between US President Donald Trump and the Ivy League institution.
“I’m angry, I’m upset and I’m scared,” undergraduate student Samuel Taylor said.
Last week, the Trump administration revoked Harvard’s right to enrol international students.
It marked an escalation in tensions, with AFP reporting Trump is furious at Harvard for rejecting Washington’s oversight on admissions and hiring, amid his claims the school is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.
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Harvard president Alan Garber said the revocation was retaliation against the university’s refusal to surrender academic independence.
The university was committed to maintaining its ability to host international students, Garber said.
Former Mount Maunganui College student Taylor has attended Harvard since 2020, and was accepted after scoring a perfect 1600 points in the US university entrance exam, the SAT.
More than a quarter of Harvard students are foreign nationals.
“To lose the international population, I think, would be a tremendous loss,” Hemana told RNZ.
“My biggest fear is that Harvard has to drastically change in response to this, and, you know, we don’t want that to happen.”
Kaitlyn Morrell is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.
