The decision is a blow to international students studying at American colleges and universities. During the 2018-19 academic year, there were more than 1 million international students and 57 percent of them were from China, India or South Korea, according to the Open door report on international educational exchange.
Monday’s announcement represents a strong reversal of the flexibility announced in March by management. Then the Department of Homeland Security said international students were temporarily allowed to count online courses, given “the extraordinary nature of the COVID-19 emergency”.
Also on Monday, Harvard announced that all classes will be online during the academic year. The university still plans to bring up to 40 percent of college students back to campus. Princeton also unveiled its reopening plans on Monday, saying that most of its academic instruction will be online.
Colleges and universities called for more clarity on how to keep their international students enrolled, but the new orientation “will sow confusion and uncertainty,” said Brad Farnsworth, vice president of the American Council on Education, a leading group of higher education.
“We are literally looking at more than a dozen different modes of operations for the fall,” said Farnsworth. “There will be a fight for interpretation and the universities will long for that certainty and ask the US government to help clarify for additional details on interpretation.”
Bianca Quilantan contributed to this report.
