Macao’s education sector has offered to assist students who have been impacted by the US government’s attempt to stop Harvard University from enrolling international students.
On Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced that he would block Harvard University – the country’s oldest and wealthiest tertiary institution – from enrolling overseas students, although the order has since been temporarily suspended by a federal judge in Boston.
Macao’s Education and Youth Development Bureau (known by its Portuguese initials DSEDJ) responded to the incident by issuing a statement on Saturday to say it had already contacted Macao students at Harvard and would provide consultation and support whenever necessary.
The bureau also “encouraged” tertiary institutions in Macao to provide help and school transfer support to pupils who may have been impacted.
The Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) has responded to the call, with its deputy head, Pang Chuan, telling local media that his institution welcomed the enrolment of Harvard international students in Macao and would provide the necessary support, including scholarships, free accommodation and subsidies.
“I believe that schools in Macao…have enough strength and appeal,” Pang said. “The concern now is how do we make it known to the affected Havard students that Macao has this desire and ability to provide them with help and that they can successfully transfer to a university in Macao with the course credits acquired at Harvard?”
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Speaking to TDM on Saturday, Candy Un Su Kei, the head of the general assembly of the General Association of Chinese Students of Macao, said that affected pupils remain fearful that they could be repatriated back to their home countries in spite of the ban’s temporary revocation. “In the current circumstances, we cannot rule out this possibility,” she said.
Un said her association had not yet received any calls for assistance from Macao international students studying in the US, although she quoted a resident who is currently enrolled in a master’s programme at Boston University as saying they were worried the Trump administration’s Harvard ban would produce a “domino effect” in the short-term, with similar orders being expanded to other institutions across the country.
Trump’s policy will have a substantial impact on international students at Harvard who have Chinese nationality, as the BBC reports that they account for roughly one-third of the university’s roughly 6,8000 international student population this year.
While noting that only around 70 Macao locals studied in North America during the 2024 to 2025 academic year, Un pointed out that the Trump administration’s move will also have a chilling effect and dampen the willingness of Macao students to consider the US in future.
Trump’s current effort to prevent Harvard from taking in overseas students is part of a wider campaign to pressure the Ivy League school into adjusting its policies and politics. To this end, the US government has cut and frozen funding, launched investigations and made various threats against the elite university.
