Chinese student numbers at Harvard rise despite Trump visa crackdown

Enrollment at Harvard for Chinese students rose in the autumn from a year earlier, even as the Donald Trump administration moved to rein in visas for them and limit foreign enrollment and funding at the prestigious university. The number of students from mainland China rose from 1,390 in autumn 2024 to 1,452 in autumn 2025 — an increase of 4.5 percent — according to Harvard data released on Friday. Hong Kong student enrollment rose from 68 to 73, while enrollment from Macau, which is in the single digits, decreased. The increase in Chinese students is notable as Harvard’s foreign student population had faced significant scrutiny in the early months of the second Trump administration, with U.S. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem publicly citing its engagement with China as a reason for the crackdown. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in May said that the State Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would work to “aggressively revoke” visas of Chinese students with Communist Party ties or in “critical fields” and to tighten vetting of applicants from mWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times