...America's exceptionalism has been a large part due to its magnetic appeal to attract and retain the best brains from the world over. The best of the best aspired to go to Harvard and attracted by the land of opportunity.
...Trump's America First is now shutting the door and has become inward looking. In the longer term, that spells disaster for the country.
...He first strips American appeal as a haven for international money, now he strips its appeal as an educational centre of excellence.
...America's Brexit well and truly in progress. Stay shut FAFO.
Julie HareEducation editor
Updated May 23, 2025 – 12.40pm,first published at 11.27am
Nobel laureate and Harvard alumnus Brian Schmidt says Donald Trump’s move to ban the world’s best university from enrolling students from overseas is a “profound escalation” of the president’s culture wars that will trigger a global response.
“This is a major escalation that is absolutely violating the autonomy of Harvard and presumably other universities across the United States, and I suspect it will create a major backlash, both legally and within the higher education community of the United States and globally,” Schmidt told AFR Weekend.
Both Schmidt, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2011 and is a former vice chancellor of Australian National University, and his wife, Australian economist Jenny Gordon, are alumni of Harvard, having met in college while both were undertaking their PhDs.
“This is really concerning, and it is attacking the autonomy of Harvard as a national and international institution,” Schmidt said.
“I would expect it to provoke a major response, both within the courts and the university sector more broadly. It is not something consistent with the autonomy that universities have had in Western nations for the last 800 years. It is really the strongest act against universities that I’ve seen in any advanced economy in my lifetime.”
