Hong Kong To Open Universities To More Foreign Students After US Ban

Hong Kong has mentioned it’ll open its universities to extra worldwide college students, highlighting these affected by the US authorities’s transfer this week to dam Harvard from enrolling international nationals.

The sharp escalation in US President Donald Trump’s longstanding feud with the distinguished college got here as tensions simmer between Washington and Beijing over commerce and different points.

The Trump administration’s choice on Thursday — which was briefly halted by a US choose after Harvard sued — has thrown the way forward for hundreds of international college students and the profitable revenue stream they supply into doubt.

On Friday, Hong Kong Education Secretary Christine Choi referred to as on universities within the Chinese metropolis to welcome “excellent college students from all around the world”.

“For worldwide college students affected by the United States’ pupil admission coverage, the Education Bureau (EDB) has appealed to all universities in Hong Kong to supply facilitation measures for eligible college students,” Choi mentioned in an announcement, noting the ban on Harvard’s admission of worldwide college students.

She mentioned native universities had been making use of presidency measures, together with enjoyable the utmost limits on international college students to draw extra to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on Friday invited worldwide college students enrolled at Harvard, in addition to anybody with affords to attend the elite faculty, to proceed their research at HKUST.

“HKUST is extending this chance to make sure gifted college students can pursue their instructional targets with out disruption,” it mentioned in an announcement.

The college “will present unconditional affords, streamlined admission procedures, and educational assist to facilitate a seamless transition for college students”, it added.

Harvard is ranked primary in US News and World Report’s most up-to-date checklist of the world’s prime universities, whereas HKUST is 105 out of greater than 2,000 ranked.

President Trump is livid at Harvard for rejecting his administration’s push for oversight on admissions and hiring amid his claims the college is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.

A US choose on Friday halted the administration’s transfer to stop Harvard from admitting international college students after the college sued, calling the federal government’s motion illegal.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem mentioned Thursday that the administration’s choice would maintain Harvard “accountable for fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus”.

Beijing condemned the “politicisation of instructional cooperation”, including that the transfer by Washington would “solely hurt the picture and worldwide standing of the United States”. 

Around 1,300 Chinese college students are enrolled at Harvard, round a fifth of its worldwide pupil physique, in response to college information.

Hundreds of hundreds extra attend different US faculties and universities, lengthy seen by many in China as beacons of educational freedom and rigour.

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