More than Harvard, US will lose its dominance in academics

The Donald Trump administration's relentless campaign against Harvard University is a spectacular act of self-sabotage, a political vendetta disguised as policy, one that threatens to unravel decades of academic dominance by the US while achieving little beyond petty ideological victories.

The government's tactics, such as freezing billions of dollars in federal funding; threatening to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status and barring the university from enrolling international students; or instructing the students to transfer to another university "or lose their legal status", are not just punitive measures. They are a self-defeating and reckless gamble with the future of the US.

Let us start with the financial absurdity of the move. International students at Harvard contribute about $384 million annually to the local economy, supporting around 3,910 jobs. In the academic year 2023-24, Harvard's international students accounted for 54.5 percent of the total spending by foreign students studying in Massachusetts's 5th Congressional District. The state sees almost $4 billion a year in foreign students' spending, with Harvard making up around 10 percent of that.