Academia urges openness as US tightens Chinese student visa

James Holloway, vice provost for global engagement and interdisciplinary academic affairs of the University of Michigan, said their students and faculty of Chinese heritage are concerned the creation of barriers to the free flow of ideas will make their work to generate new knowledge harder.

Alarmed by the visa restrictions, seven American universities including Yale, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, have voiced support for educational openness and international exchanges.

Mary Sue Coleman, president of the Association of American Universities which embraces 62 leading US research institutes, said the US has a tradition of welcoming the best and brightest from around the world since the middle of the last century.

"I'm deeply troubled that many around the globe now perceive America as being less welcoming to talented students and researchers," Coleman said.

New destinations

Wang Han (an alias used to avoid visa problems), a senior at USTC, chose the University of Nottingham in the UK for his summer exchange program this year over a US university.

Going to study in the US used to be almost like a tradition, Wang said, as seniors who went there always passed on their experiences about the application process and school information with younger students.

A report by the US-based Institute of International Education showed US colleges and universities registered more than 363,000 Chinese students in the 2017-2018 academic year, making up about a third of the international student body. China has become the largest source of international students for nine consecutive years in the US

Wang said his decision to choose a British university is, to some degree, affected by the current China-US relations.

According to New Oriental Education and Technology Group, China's major English training agency, some of the US university tours it organized have been canceled as customers withdrew from the trips following the visa alert.

A 2019 report by EIC Education, a major overseas educational counseling service provider in China, showed 20.14 percent of the surveyed Chinese students preferred the UK for further studies, surpassing the US (17.05 percent) to become the most preferred destination.

Holloway, the vice provost from the University of Michigan, said the US may increasingly lose some of the very best students to universities in other countries, including Canada, the UK and Australia.

Wang said he did not consider any US schools for his summer exchange program, though he and many of his classmates recognize their high-quality research levels and academic environment.

"It's disheartening, not because of the schools, but because of government policies," said Wang.