WASHINGTON – For scientists hoping to study in the United States, Europe has a clear message: Come here instead.
Colleges are starting to fear that great minds may do just that, if the Trump administration keeps cutting research funding and detaining foreign-born students.
The first week of May, some of the European Union’s most high-profile leaders gathered to launch a new initiative called “Choose Europe for Science.” Speaking from the Sorbonne, France’s most prominent university, they announced a 500 million euro investment meant to attract foreign researchers and college students to campuses across Europe.
In a thinly veiled swipe at Donald Trump, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, noted that the new program stood in stark contrast to the state of research funding in other global regions, where “the role of science in today’s world is questioned
“The investment in fundamental, free and open research is questioned. What a gigantic miscalculation,” she said, adding that “science has no passport, no gender, no ethnicity or political party.”
American colleges and universities have long been the most desired destinations for students from across the globe. Hundreds of thousands flock to the United States annually to enroll in undergraduate and graduate programs. In the 2023-24 school year alone, foreign students contributed more than $43 billion to the U.S. economy, according to NAFSA, the Association of International Educators.
For decades, international students have played an essential role at many U.S. colleges to support research, budgets and teaching programs. But the Trump administration’s recent changes to immigration and education policy have led to widespread uncertainty at those schools, where administrators say they’re bracing for a larger crisis if fewer students from abroad opt to study in the United States.
