Pedestrians walk through the Harvard Yard on the closed campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on April 20.
Photo credit: Adam Glanzman / Bloomberg
Photo credit: Adam Glanzman / Bloomberg
The United States backed down from a high-profile confrontation with Harvard and MIT over visas for foreign students taking classes online alone, ending a tense standoff that could have sent thousands of students to their home countries and dropped out of universities. Fight to plan the fall.
U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs announced Tuesday that the United States had agreed to rescind a new policy that required students to take at least one class in person, even in the midst of the pandemic.
The hearing followed a separate lawsuit filed by 17 state states and a dozen “friend of the court” briefs filed in support of Harvard’s lawsuit from hundreds of universities and some of the nation’s largest technology companies.
Harvard is holding almost all of its online classes in the fall semester, while MIT has a hybrid model. The two said in a lawsuit they filed last week that the government had not considered harm to students from the new board. They too celebrated The impact on business, noting the role foreign students play in American innovation, and the gross domestic product of the United States, citing “the loss of the tens of billions of dollars that international students contribute to GDP of the United States every year. “
They recognized that some students could, in theory, participate in online classes from their home countries, but not without serious interruptions. They cited time zone differences, unreliable or state-run Internet, and armed conflict in some of the student lands.
The new policy has also sparked widespread concern in universities that earn billions of dollars in international student income each year at a time when some schools issue refunds for closings amid the pandemic and as university systems Publics see a decrease in state funds.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service says it weighed the impact on students by reviewing its policy, choosing not to revert to its previous restrictions, for example.
Before the pandemic, international students on F-1 visas had to take most of their classes in person, they were only allowed one online course per semester. After the virus appeared and some universities stopped offering in-person classes, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service adjusted its rules “for the rest of the emergency,” allowing entirely online courses.
Last week’s new order ratified it, requiring students from universities that have announced online models, including Harvard and the California State University system, to transfer or return to their home countries.
ICE also argues that a comprehensive list of virtual courses compromises national security by unleashing foreign students within the US, and says a freeze would undermine “deference accorded to administrative agencies in complex and interrelated fields such as immigration enforcement. “
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