Scholars worry Trump's targeting of foreign students could threaten American innovation

WBUR | By Anthony Brooks

Published June 4, 2025 at 10:46 AM CDT

An American Flag flies over the statue of John Harvard in Harvard Yard. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

The Trump administration has targeted Harvard University in numerous ways, including a demand to stop enrolling foreign students. Some scholars see this as a big blow to the university, which boasts nearly 7,000 foreign students, and a bigger blow for the future of innovation in America.

WBUR’s Anthony Brooks reports.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Anthony Brooks

Anthony Brooks has more than twenty five years of experience in public radio, working as a producer, editor, reporter, and most recently, as a fill-in host for NPR. For years, Brooks has worked as a Boston-based reporter for NPR, covering regional issues across New England, including politics, criminal justice, and urban affairs. He has also covered higher education for NPR, and during the 2000 presidential election he was one of NPR's lead political reporters, covering the campaign from the early primaries through the Supreme Court's Bush V. Gore ruling. His reports have been heard for many years on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.

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