China Warns of U.S. Risk
Like most people, I get a certain satisfaction when something I’ve predicted turns out to be true. Not now.
Back in January, I wrote a piece warning that China could be the new travel ban, that geopolitical tensions with China could spill over into higher education, discouraging or preventing Chinese students and academics from coming to the United States and damaging American universities’ global standing:
Students, too, could get caught up in broader political disputes. Thus far, the restrictions – or their threat – have come from the American side…. But China could also limit Americans’ ability to study there, or restrict its students from going to the United States, a move that could be financially devastating to many colleges.
Last Monday the hypothetical became real. The Chinese Ministry of Education issued an official statement warning of the “risk” of studying in the United States. It was an unmistakable salvo. As one China expert put it:
Both the US and China are going to weaponize talent.
Do I think that it means that Chinese students on American campuses are going to pack their bags and return home tomorrow? Probably not. For many families, a foreign degree is a long-term investment. And for the most part, students – or, at the doctoral level, U.S. universities – are paying the costs of their education, giving the Chinese government less direct leverage to order them home than if they were on state-funded scholarships.
But make no mistake, the ministry’s warning will be taken seriously. With nationalism on the rise in China, studying abroad had already become more politically fraught.
Indeed, many people believe that President Xi was looking for a reason to curtail overseas study. Under his watch, there has been an ideological campaign on Chinese university campuses, seeking to restrict academic speech and suppress ideas that could threaten Communist Party rule. There was a certain illogic to cracking down internally while allowing more than 600,000 students to go abroad, some 360,000 to the United States alone. Now Xi’s government has the excuse it was looking for – in its statement, the ministry cited visa denials, longer wait times, and tighter restrictions on visas for Chinese students and scholars seeking to come to America.
This is a self-own. If Chinese students, one of every three international students in the U.S., stop coming it will because America did this to itself – or rather, the American government to its colleges. Look, I acknowledge that higher education must be vigilant to potential Chinese academic espionage. But the Trump administration’s response has been punative and overly broad. It’s an unforced error, one that could cause serious harm to higher education, among America’s greatest strengths. Though that’s one thing I hope I’m not right about.
Tell me what you think. I may include some of your reactions in a future edition of latitude(s). I’m on Twitter @karinfischer or email at latitudesnews@gmail.com.
Catch Me in the Times
Africa might be the most important story in higher education that we’re not talking about – of the continent’s 1.2 billion people, 60 percent are under 25, yet less than 10 percent of college-age students in sub-Saharan Africa are enrolled in any sort of postsecondary education. For the New York Times, I wrote about UNICAF University, an online institution that is trying bring greater access to higher education across the continent. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read more.
The Real Issue?
In this much-talked-about piece, two Kansas City Star reporters dig into the death of an Indian graduate student during a holdup at a takeout restaurant where he was working. The article centers on the response of officials at the University of Missouri at Kansas City who insisted that the student, Sharath Koppu, wasn’t working but rather was “assisting family friends” – even though his own family has acknowledged he had taken a part time job. It’s illegal, of course, for an international student to work off-campus unless the job is related to academic study.
The reporters suggest administrators’ wrongheaded response may have been because they were worried about jeopardizing the university’s ability to enroll foreign students, although there’s no hint that anyone at the college was aware of Koppu’s employment. Still, I can’t help but think that the article missed an opportunity to address two more systemic issues. The first is that Koppu was working. It’s not uncommon.
The number of available on-campus jobs at most colleges is limited, as are the hours. Although more institutions offer financial aid to international students, it remains atypical. Stipends are limited, and students often incur unexpected expenses. The point is, not all international students are rich, and the system as it stands doesn't give them a lot of options to support themselves financially.
The other issue is one I’ve raised before – when it comes to safety, the United States has a perception problem. In fact, I have a news item below about another overseas student’s murder. Issues like visa policy get a lot of attention, and rightly so, but safety is a sleeper that could have real reprecussions for international enrollments.
Know someone who’d like latitude(s)? Please encourage your globally-minded friends to sign up for the Monday email!
Around the Globe
The U.S. government put new restrictions on Americans’ travel to Cuba, but study-abroad and exchange programs run by colleges, as well as travel for professional meetings or research, will still be allowed.
“Open-border” universities outperformed institutions with low international exchange in knowledge transfer, research impact, and education, according to U-Multirank, a global higher-ed ranking.
Legislation introduced in the Senate would make it easier for international students who earn advanced degrees in STEM fields to stay in the U.S. after graduation.
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a Trump administration request to fast track a decision on whether to hear a case on the president’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives voted to give a new legal pathway to young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children, or Dreamers. But the measure has little traction in the Senate.
Jury selection has begun in the murder case of a Chinese graduate student who went missing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The Commerce Department and several state consortia for international education have started a new effort to promote the United States as a destination for international students.
Nearly all foreign visitors, including students, will now have to submit social-media information as part of their U.S. visa application, part of new enhanced screening.
Does international education's big role in the Australian economy change how universities – and the government – think about foreign students? A conversation.
If you spot some international-education news you think I should cover, send it to latitudesnews@gmail.com.
And finally…
NPR has been running a series about people who, even as relations between the U.S. and China deteriorate, are caught between the two worlds: businessmen, activists, immigrants, and, of course, students and academics.
The voices are powerful: There was a student from New York who was discouraged from starting a Christian club at Duke-Kunshan University. Another who as an undergraduate in Taiwan protested closer ties with mainland China but now is treated by his American classmates as a “spokesman for China.” And then there was Martha, a Chinese student whose lab supervisor joked she might be a spy:
“I feel betrayed. I have daily contact with that person. I feel like that person should understand who I am.”
Over the years, I have come to know many, many Chinese students: some who are fiercely nationalistic and others who are ashamed of their country, some who come to the United States inspired by ideals of political and academic freedom and those who want to keep their heads down and study. One of the most lamentable things about the current moment is the way it paints Chinese students – all Chinese, but students in particular – with such a broad brush. NPR pauses to listen to their individual voices.
’Til next week – Karin
For the best international education news and analysis, please subscribe to latitude(s). In this startup phase, I’ll be making the newsletter free; in the future, I’ll ask for a small fee to support quality journalism.