Page 3 - Us Universities

University of Virginia president resigns under Trump admin pressure on DEI

The president of the University of Virginia is resigning his position under pressure from the Justice Department, which had pushed for his departure amid scrutiny of the school's diversity, equity and inclusion practices, a person familiar with the matter said Friday. The departure of James Ryan, who had led the school since 2018, represents a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration's effort to reshape higher education. Doing it at a public university marks a new frontier in a campaign that has almost exclusively targeted Ivy League schools. It also widens the rationale behind the government's aggressive tactics, focusing on DEI rather than alleged tolerance of antisemitism. Ryan had faced conservative criticism that he had failed to heed federal orders to eliminate DEI policies, and his removal was pushed by the Justice Department as a way to help resolve a department inquiry targeting the school, according to the person, who was not authorized to discuss the move by name a

MIT sued by student, instructor over alleged antisemitism on campus

Lior Alon, a Jewish Israeli mathematics instructor, and William Sussman, a Jewish former PhD student, sued the Cambridge-based research university in Boston federal court

US universities win case striking down agency's 15% research cost cap

Judge Talwani struck down the cap on Friday, finding it "arbitrary, capricious and contrary to the law," granting summary judgment to the suing schools plus the Association of American Universities

Columbia graduate remains in custody after frantic day of appeals

Khalil, 29, who was born in Syria, has become a symbol of the Trump administration's crackdown on campus protests related to Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas

Harvard gains support from top US universities in Trump funding battle

Harvard sued in April, claiming the government freeze violates the university's First Amendment guarantee of free speech and federal law governing administrative rulemaking

FBI arrests Chinese researchers for smuggling lethal crop pathogen into US

US warns of agroterrorism threats after arresting a University of Michigan researcher and her partner for allegedly bringing a deadly fungus into the country

Trump's crackdown aside, foreign student boom in US needs scrutiny too

Trump administration's attempt to keep Harvard from enrolling foreign students has drawn new attention to the remarkable internationalisation of American higher education over the past 2 generations

New US visa policy adds to rising scrutiny of international students

New US State Department guidance on visa applications is adding to scrutiny of international students that has intensified under President Donald Trump, who has leveraged control of foreign enrolment to press his demands with American colleges. In a cable sent Tuesday to US embassies and consulates, Secretary of State Marco Rubio halted the scheduling of new visa interviews for international students until the department releases guidelines for increased vetting of their activity on social media. Existing appointments may be kept and will proceed under current review guidelines, the cable said, but new guidance is expected in the coming days. It came days after the Trump administration moved to block Harvard University from enrolling any international students, a decision that has been put on hold by a federal judge, pending a lawsuit. Trump said on Wednesday that Harvard, whose current student population is made up of more than a quarter of international students, should limit tha

US risks future by curbing foreign students, warns Raghuram Rajan

Rajan warned that squeezing foreign students could impact job growth, noting that companies like Alphabet Inc's Google employ thousands, thanks in part to immigration-linked talent pipelines

University of California next target of Donald Trump's antisemitism probe

The University of California abhors antisemitism and is working to eradicate it across the system, said Rachel Zaentz, senior director of strategic and critical communications

Donald Trump-Harvard battle: American Dream of Indian students at risk

Harvard currently hosts around 10,158 international students and scholars across its schools. Of these, 788 -- the second-largest cohort after China -- are from India, according to university data

Trump is frittering away US' soft power in Asia with its Harvard ban

America and China are already locked in a battle for influence - but Washington risks sabotaging those goals

US court blocks Trump's order to bar foreign students at Harvard University

A US federal judge blocked the Trump administration's move to bar international students at Harvard, following a swift lawsuit by the university claiming the order would cause 'serious & lasting harm'

MIT to cut student intake, staff jobs due to fund reduction by Trump govt

MIT's endowment is worth $25 billion, but most of it is already committed to specific purposes

Harvard expands lawsuit against US after Trump ends $450 mn funding

In its new complaint, Harvard cited several actions taken by the administration since the university's initial lawsuit on April 21

Campus protests flare on smaller scale but with higher stakes this time

Campus activism has flared as the academic year winds down, with pro-Palestinian demonstrations leading to arrests at several colleges. Compared with last spring, when more than 2,100 people were arrested in campus protests nationwide, the demonstrations have been smaller and more scattered. But the stakes are also much higher. President Donald Trump's administration has been investigating dozens of colleges over their handling of protests, including allegations of antisemitism, and frozen federal grant money as leverage to press demands for new rules on activism. Colleges, in turn, have been taking a harder line on discipline and enforcement, following new policies adopted to prevent tent encampments of the kind that stayed up for weeks last year on many campuses. What are protesters demanding? More are pushing for the same goal that drove last year's protests an end to university ties with Israel or companies that provide weapons or other support to Israel. Protesters who took

Trump's reshaping of higher education tests US' appeal for int'l students

As he finishes college in China, computer science student Ma Tianyu has set his sights on graduate school in the United States. No country offers better programmes for the career he wants as a game developer, he said. He applied only to US schools and was accepted by some. But after the initial excitement, he began seeing reasons for doubt. First, there was President Donald Trump's trade war with China. Then, China's Ministry of Education issued a warning about studying in America. When he saw the wave of legal status terminations for international students in the US, he realised he needed to consider how American politics could affect him. The recent developments soured some of his classmates on studying in the US, but he plans to come anyway. He is ready to adapt to whatever changes may come," he said. American universities, home to many programmes at the top of their fields, have long appealed to students around the world hoping to pursue research and get a foothold in the US jo

Tufts grad student Ozturk freed on bail in setback to Trump administration

The Friday ruling in favor of Tufts student Rümeysa Ozturk marks a setback for the administration amid its crackdown on foreign students accused of antisemitic activism over the Israel-Hamas conflict

Columbia University lays off 180 after Trump pulls $400 mn for antisemitism

Columbia University said Tuesday that it will be laying off nearly 180 staffers in response to President Donald Trump's decision to cancel $400 million in funding over the Manhattan college's handling of student protests against the war in Gaza. Those receiving non-renewal or termination notices Tuesday represent about 20% of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said in a statement Tuesday. We have had to make deliberate, considered decisions about the allocation of our financial resources, the university said. Those decisions also impact our greatest resource, our people. We understand this news will be hard. University spokesperson Jessica Murphy declined to say whether more layoffs were expected, but said Columbia is taking a range of steps to create financial flexibility, including maintaining current salary levels and offering voluntary retirement incentives. Research will also be scaled back, with some departments winding down .

Donald Trump speaks to graduating students at Alabama amid protests

President Donald Trump was addressing graduating students at the University of Alabama on Thursday, a visit that drew hundreds of protesters to an off-campus rally. Trump's remarks in Tuscaloosa are the Republican president's first address to graduates in his second term and come as he has been celebrating the first 100 days of his administration. The previously scheduled visit came shortly after he announced a shake-up to his national security team, with Mike Waltz being tapped for United Nations ambassador and Secretary of State Marco Rubio taking over Waltz's national security adviser role on an interim basis. What a nice looking group this is, Trump said to open his speech. There's nowhere I'd rather be than Tuscaloosa. Alabama, where Trump won a commanding 64 per cent of the vote in 2024, is where he has staged a number of his trademark large rallies over the past decade. It is also where Trump showed early signs of strength in his first presidential campaign when he began ...