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Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
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RFI

French international students rattled by Trump's US visa suspensions

Harvard University campus, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. AP - Steven Senne

President Donald Trump's administration's decision to suspend foreign student visa applications has French students preparing to study at American institutions reassessing their options.

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 27 May ordered embassies and consulates to pause scheduling appointments for foreign student visas, pending new guidelines on vetting applicants' social media activity – to be issued in the "coming days".

Rubio has also revoked visas from students who led demonstrations critical of Israel's offensive in Gaza, under a law that allows the removal of individuals deemed to go against US foreign policy interests.

These moves come as part of a wider slew of unprecedented actions by Trump over the past few months against international students, which experts warn are likely to decrease enrolment in US institutions and could trigger a brain drain.

They also come despite Trump's proposals on the campaign trail last year to automatically give US residency cards to international students when they earn their diplomas, bemoaning that these graduates were leaving the US to build successful companies in China and India.

'I have an opinion on things'

"What worries me most is not so much not having my visa, but that it will be revoked during the year," Hadrien Coccoluto-Roussel, a second-year student at Sciences Po Paris, who is due to study in Washington next year, told French news agency AFP.

"We've seen students and researchers arrested and expelled... without any real reason, without any real access to the rights of defence," said the 19-year-old, who has previously participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

He says that if he had anticipated a political offensive in the US against foreign students, he would not have requested it as the destination for his academic year abroad – a mandatory part of his course.

French pro-Palestine student protests not just a mirror of US

Martin, a student at Essec Business School, near Paris, has been accepted to a master's programme at the Ivy League school Columbia University, in New York.

Although he would find it hard to give up his "American dream," recent events have prompted him to ask himself whether he should.

"I'm still politicised, I have an opinion on things," he said, adding that the idea of living in a country that "muzzles freedom of expression" worries him a lot.

Sciences Po, one of France's most prestigious high education institutes, which specialises in social and political sciences, told AFP that its management is working "on all possible scenarios based on the status of the students concerned".

In 2023, 8,543 French students went to study in the US – up 24 percent compared to 1999 – according to the Open Doors report by the US-based Institute of International Education (IIE).

Harvard in the firing line

Over the past week, the Trump administration has sought to bar all foreign students from Harvard University.

The court filing gave Harvard 30 days to produce evidence showing why it should not be blocked from hosting and enrolling foreign students – who made up 27 percent of its student body in the 2024-25 academic year.

Trump's first 100 days: Trade, diplomacy and walking the transatlantic tightrope

The White House has also stripped Harvard, among other elite institutions, of federal funding for research.

Harvard is the wealthiest university in the US, with an endowment valued at $53.2 billion (€46.7 billion) in 2024.

Trump has claimed the university is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and "woke" liberal ideology.

China 'agressively' targeted

On 28 May, Rubio heaped pressure on China, saying Washington will "aggressively revoke visas" for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.

Beijing reacted in fury at the announcement, describing Trump's crackdown on international scholars as "political and discriminatory".

Young Chinese people have long been crucial to US universities, which rely on international students paying full tuition.

China sent 277,398 students to the US in the 2023-24 academic year – although for the first time more Chinese students went to India than the US, according to a State Department-backed report of the IIE.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Beijing had lodged its opposition with Washington.

Contingency plans

In light of the uncertainty, international schools and organisations have begun preparing contingency plans.

Jean-Bernard Adrey, director of TJ Global Services, an international education consulting agency which establishes partnerships between European and American universities, urged his contacts "not to panic" for the time being.

He said there is plenty of time left before the start of the next academic year in the US and that he hoped the problem will be resolved by then.

He added, however, that these "anxiety-inducing" decisions for students and their families risk tarnishing the reputation of American universities in the longer term and encouraging young people to turn to other destinations, such as the United Kingdom or Canada.

First US 'refugee scientists' to arrive in France in weeks, university says

The French Minister of Higher Education Philippe Baptiste also sought to reassure French and European students, promising "fallback solutions" for those who had planned to study in the United States next year and were unable to obtain a visa.

Meanwhile, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce encouraged prospective students to continue seeking visa appointments and said: "I would not be recommending that if this was going to be weeks or months."

On the legal front, US judge Allison Burroughs said on 30 May that she would issue a preliminary injunction that "gives some protection" to international students, while the legality of Trump's decision is debated.

(with newswires)

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