After spending years of his life studying hard to get into one of the world’s most prestigious universities, Alfred Williamson said it only took a “matter of minutes for that dream to be stripped away”.
The 20-year-old freshman student, who has been reading Physics at Harvard University, told The i Paper he was in a state of “pure shock” when Donald Trump tried to block the college from enrolling foreign students.
Williamson said he and other British students at the Ivy League school are now “absolutely terrified”.
“People are scared to speak, scared to express their opinion in a country that is built on this idea of freedom,” he added.
A British female student studying at the university, who spoke to The i Paper under the condition of anonymity over fears she may lose her US visa, pointed to reports of 12 Harvard affiliates having already had their visas taken away.
“There is a lot of fear among international students about speaking out. We fear if we say anything against the Trump administration, we can have our visa revoked,” she said.
She added that a demonstration held by international students to protest Trump’s attacks on various colleges was only attended by a few dozen people at Harvard. “Not because there was no support,” she said, “but because people feel powerless.
“If they have their photograph taken, will they be able to go back on campus?”
Alfred Williamson, 19, said if he cannot return to Harvard, he doubts he will study in the US againA British PhD student, who also requested to remain anonymous, said Harvard had warned international students against posting anti-Trump content on their social media or college forums. “I currently feel quite lost as an international student,” they said.
Despite a federal judge blocking the US President from cutting off Harvard’s enrollment of foreign students, Williamson said he is still worried about their “precarious situation”.
“It is not so much Trump’s statement that was scary,” he explained. “The uncertainty has put everything in this frantic mode, with students looking at other universities, talking to their embassies and talking to their consultants.
“We are still terrified of going through border control.”
The British PhD student described the judge’s ruling as a “media victory”, but said international Harvard students were facing a “much more murky situation now”.
“We are left in limbo and I worry for students who need to renew their visas… I would rather have a concrete answer, either way, than be left unsure of my future.”
Williamson stressed how “un-American” Trump’s attacks on higher education have been.
“I honestly considered America to represent this idea of freedom of expression,” he said. “It really says something about America’s democracy if I am scared to speak my own voice.”
“America is supposed to be a country of immigrants where people can discuss ideas. I just find it so sad,” said another British student.
Trump and his allies claim Harvard, along with a swathe of other colleagues, is a bastion of antisemitism and ideological indoctrination.
The Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday that Harvard had created an unsafe campus environment by allowing “anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators” to assault Jewish students on campus.
Without offering any evidence, it also accused the college of coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party, saying it hosted and trained members of a Chinese paramilitary group as recently as 2024.
A student speaks at a ‘Harvard Stands United Rally’ (Photo: Reuters/Taylor Coester)The US education department said it was freezing $2.2bn in federal funds for the elite institution after the university rejected the White House’s demands to make changes to its hiring, admissions and teaching practices.
Although Harvard is at the sharp end of Trump’s campaign against academia, six other universities have also been singled out for punitive funding cuts.
In a letter seen by The i Paper, Harvard’s president told international students on Friday that Trump’s decision was a way for him to “retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic freedom”.
“We condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action,” the letter added. “It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at college.”
In a lawsuit filed by the Ivy League school, it said: “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
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As America’s oldest university, it enrols almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It claimed Trump’s decision has put it at a disadvantage as it competes for the world’s top students.
Williamson said that if he cannot return to Harvard after summer holidays, then he doubts he will study again in the US at all: “I wouldn’t feel safe [back in America], I wouldn’t feel protected.”
Other British students agreed, fearing they would have to be uprooted all over again.
On why Williamson decided to defy advice from his friends and family and speak up against Trump, he said the fear of regret of not having done so would be greater than that caused by any immediate reprisals.
“I have friends from Pakistan and Palestine who are not scared of speaking out,” Williamson said. “If I hadn’t, I would live with a lot of regret. If they can, why can’t I?”
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