Maryland's universities ‘carefully monitoring' federal actions on international students
It's too early to tell how federal changes to student visas will affect colleges and universities statewide as Maryland's higher education community continues monitoring the latest actions taken by the State Department targeting international students this week.
The State Department temporarily paused scheduling student visa interviews, The Associated Press reported Tuesday. The department is planning on expanding social media screening and vetting, an internal document reviewed by the AP said.
On top of the interview pause, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday that the State Department and Department of Homeland Security will work 'to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.'
In the 2023-2024 school year, India was the top country of origin for international students nationwide with 331,602 students, followed by China with 277,398, according to data from the State Department-sponsored website Open Doors.
Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University was one of the leading host schools for international students in the country, Open Doors' data shows. About 27% of Hopkins' student body, including undergraduate and graduate students, are international, a Hopkins spokesperson said Wednesday.
Hopkins did not comment further by deadline Thursday.
International students are not only going to large research universities like Johns Hopkins, however. Thirteen percent of the student body of Annapolis liberal arts school St. John's College is made up of international students, according to Sara Luell, a college spokesperson.
'We continue to monitor the ongoing situation and are working closely with our students to support them and minimize impacts,' Luell wrote in an email Thursday.
Towson liberal arts school Goucher College's international students come from 40 countries and make up 7% of the school's undergraduates, it said in a statement Wednesday. The school said it 'remains fully committed to global education.'
'We value the perspectives our international students bring to campus and the positive impact they have on our entire community's learning experience,' the statement reads.
'We continue to monitor this issue and how it will impact our current students, incoming students, and exchange student populations.'
Meanwhile, in public higher education, over 10,000 international students were enrolled across the University System of Maryland as of fall 2024, the system's data shows.
'We are carefully monitoring the State Department's decision to revoke visas for some international students and pause visas for others,' wrote Michael Sandler, a spokesperson for the University System of Maryland, in an emailed statement Thursday.
'We are very concerned for the welfare of all international students, as well as their ability to learn and study in the U.S. and make contributions to our broader academic communities. We continue to support our international community as we evaluate the impact these decisions have on our campuses.'
A State Department spokesperson said Wednesday that it does not comment on internal communications but said the department has required applicants to give their social media handles on visa application forms since 2019.
All visa applicants are continuously vetted, the spokesperson said, from the time they apply, through the visa adjudication process and then during the issued visa's validity term.
The department referred The Baltimore Sun to its Thursday media briefing when asked about Rubio's statement on Chinese students. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce did not specify what particular areas of study the 'critical fields' Rubio referenced were during the briefing, saying the phrase, while specific, 'could mean many things.'
'The United States … will not tolerate the CCP's exploitation of U.S. universities or theft of U.S. research, intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection, or repress voices of opposition,' Bruce said.
'Every visa adjudication is a national security decision,' she said.
Bruce also confirmed that the reported details of Tuesday's leaked internal document were accurate.
These are the latest federal actions targeting international students in recent months. Some international students at Hopkins, University of Maryland, College Park and University of Maryland, Baltimore County had their visas revoked — and then later reinstated — last month.
The Trump administration recently barred Harvard University from enrolling international students, who make up a quarter of the school's student population. A federal judge blocked the order last week.
Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos@baltsun.com, 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks.
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