Harvard Business School explored European outpost after Trump’s visa threats

{"text":[[{"start":9.44,"text":"Harvard Business School explored teaching MBA students in Europe and Canada for the first time after Donald Trump’s administration last year threatened to stop international students getting visas to attend its courses."}],[{"start":22.8,"text":"The elite US business school took part in talks last year with potential partners, including Nova School of Business and Economics in Portugal, IMD in Switzerland, London Business School and the University of Toronto, according to people familiar with the discussions."}],[{"start":39.24,"text":"The talks underscore the pressure on Harvard, which has been embroiled in a battle with the White House over its efforts to exert greater political control over federal grants. The Trump administration has pushed to overhaul the university’s governance, cut its funding and impose penalties for alleged failure to tackle antisemitism and restrict freedom of speech."}],[{"start":60.12,"text":"Harvard Business School confirmed that talks about foreign operations took place a year ago “when we were exploring options outside the US for international students due to the uncertain visa situation. Fortunately, that never came to pass and there are no further explorations under way”."}],[{"start":76,"text":"However, earlier this month, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, a member of the university’s governing corporation, said that Harvard more broadly was “leaning into further exploring having some outposts abroad”. Speaking on the podcast hosted by David Deming, dean of the undergraduate Harvard College, Cuéllar said Harvard was “fundamentally an American institution, but it is also a university with a global role and global relationships”, he said."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":103,"text":"Trump’s efforts to prevent the university from sponsoring visas for international students to allow them to attend its courses have been rebuffed by the courts for now."}],[{"start":111.84,"text":"Harvard Business School’s discussions about a foreign campus coincided with wider concerns about US graduate employment prospects, with a falling share of job seekers from elite institutions, including Harvard, finding employment within three months after graduating."}],[{"start":126.28,"text":"David Bach, president of Lausanne-based IMD, confirmed that preliminary discussions took place last year about his institution hosting a first-year MBA cohort taught by Harvard faculty, with a possible IMD contribution, after the threat to international student visas."}],[{"start":143.057,"text":"Other US universities have established campuses and partnerships abroad, including Chicago Booth School of Business."}],[{"start":149.36,"text":"Harvard has experimented with short courses for executives abroad,"}],[{"start":154.04,"text":"but hosting its flagship two-year MBA outside the US would break with its longstanding tradition of in-person MBA teaching exclusively at its Boston campus. The Ivy League school charges tuition of $170,000 for its two-year MBA."}],[{"start":168.92,"text":"International student recruitment to US universities has fallen in the past two years, as immigration and employment restrictions and the broader political environment have discouraged candidates from applying."}],[{"start":180.16,"text":"Harvard University has won a legal stay on some of the actions the Trump administration sought to impose but suffered a drop in some federal grants and experienced broader pressure by the government on the country’s higher education sector to impose greater political scrutiny."}],[{"start":194.98,"text":"Earlier this month, the US immigration agency stepped up scrutiny of Curricular Practical Training authorisation for international students working during their studies, and the Department of Education issued proposals to overhaul the university accreditation system to require more direct oversight of activities."}],[{"start":217.32,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787812704_4861.mp3"}