Donald Trump’s policies seem to have soured many Indian students’ American dream. For some, his campaign itself proved a deterrent.
A young man who earned his master’s in history from a private university in India this year said he had always hoped to do his PhD from the University of Columbia in the US.
However, as xenophobia became the centerpiece of Trump’s presidential campaign during the summer of 2024, the student changed his mind and began applying to British universities. He has been offered admission at Oxford.
“I changed my country of preference from the US to the UK because I sort of anticipated Trump’s return to power, and from his election campaign it was clear that he was not going to be very open-minded about foreign students,” the young man, who didn’t wish to be identified, told The Telegraph.
The youth added: “So, I applied to several British universities and got an offer from Oxford.”
The student’s fears have proved correct: Trump has taken a series of measures – from visa curbs and crackdowns on political protesters among foreign students to clipping the wings of the universities – to restrict the flow of international students.
Indian students keen on an overseas education have therefore begun looking at alternative destinations.
Education consultants and academics suggested that Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the UAE are among countries that might become the big winners, with China’s technology and medicine courses too drawing Indian students.
This week, the US government directed its consulates around the world to freeze the scheduling of interviews for student visas, saying it wants social media scrutiny of the applicants first.
The famed Harvard University has come under the federal government’s scrutiny over alleged anti-semitism on the campus, triggered by Israel’s bombing of Gaza. Last week, the Trump administration revoked the university’s power to admit international students but a court stayed the measure.
Trump last month put on hold research grants worth $2.2 billion to Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Medical School, hobbling ongoing medical, scientific and technological research at these institutions.
The administration threatened to freeze grants to Columbia University, too, over its handling of pro-Palestine protests on its New York City campus.
There’s a demand from some Republicans to scrap the Optional Practical Training — the temporary work authorisation for international students.
Ravi Lochan Singh, managing director of Global Reach, an education consultancy firm, said the steps taken by Trump have generated anxiety among Indian students.
“I expect (Indian student movement to) the US to decline by 30-40 per cent in 2025, (that to) Canada to decline by 50 per cent (because of the bilateral tensions), and (that to) the UK and Australia to hold on,” Singh said.
“If the UK goes ahead and curbs post-study work visas next year, it will decline by 20 per cent.”
He added: “Among the new destinations, Europe and the UAE are growing. UAE/ Dubai is a very good proposition at this time. It is considered a safe country that offers work possibilities for Indian students. And it has several top university campuses, including Indian ones.”
Chintamani Mohapatra, honorary chairman of the Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies, said foreign students contribute billions of dollars to America’s GDP every year.
“Foreign, including Indian, students learn a great deal but also add value to the American knowledge system. If American universities close their doors to Indian students, the US will be the loser,” he said.
Ashwini K. Mohapatra, former dean of the School of International Studies at JNU, said the US government’s crackdown on universities betrays the values of free thought and democracy that Americans have always advocated.
“The Americans have always said that they fight for free ideas, free speech, and democracy. They have been dominating the world on the strength of these ideas. Can you kill ideas with a crackdown?” he said.