US president Donald Trump administration has abandoned a plan that would have forced out tens of thousands of foreign students following widespread condemnation of the move and pressure from colleges and major businesses in a stunning reversal of policy.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020
Key-Points
U.S. officials announced last week that international students at schools that had moved to online-only classes due to the coronavirus pandemic would have to leave the country if they were unable to transfer to a college with at least some in-person instruction.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official still intended to issue a regulation in the coming weeks addressing whether foreign students can remain in the United States if their classes move online.
There are more than a million foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities, and many schools depend on revenue from foreign students, who often pay full tuition.
The universities argued the measure was unlawful and would adversely affect their academic institutions. Harvard planned to hold all of its classes online for the upcoming academic year.
The controversy began after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would re-instate rules for international students on F-1 and M-1 visas that limit the number of online courses foreign students can take if they want to remain in the United States.
Those rules had been temporarily waived due to the public health crisis. Many academic institutions assumed they would be extended, not rolled back.
