The Trump Administration’s decision to prevent Harvard from enrolling or continuing to teach international students has shocked not just US universities, but institutions across the globe.
However, Australia’s HE policy doyen Andrew Norton has pointed out that the same autocratic halt could have been imposed on our shores if the Albanese Government’s previous caps legislation had been passed.
“Jason Clare is (obviously) no Donald Trump, but his international student caps bill would have given education ministers personal power to set a uni international cap to 0, with no restrictions on grounds,” Professor Norton posted on Friday, after the latest move against Harvard became public.
“I rated that bill as the single worst higher education bill of all time in Australia, not just for the caps but because of procedural defects such as this.” Professor Norton’s extensive analysis of the problems with the student caps Bill was insightful, but ultimately unrequired after the Greens and Coalition combined to vote the legislation into oblivion.
While Trump’s latest move against Harvard will undoubtedly head for the courts, the edict seeks to force current international students at the world’s top-ranked university to transfer or be deported, while also preventing it from enrolling new international students.
The move by the US Department of Homeland Security was based on the allegation that Harvard had created an unsafe, antisemitic campus environment and conspiring with the Chinese Communist Party – the latest move in a months-long campaign by the administration as it seeks to impose controls over the university.
Jason Clare has made signals of seeking to heal relationships with international student advocates in his second term as Education Minister, with sector expectations of fairer and more predictable approaches to restrictions on international student numbers in Australia.