I wonder how they feel about foreigners now working from home...
ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
21–30 of 155 posts
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#22As some have pointed out elsewhere, the idea that "they can just do the courses remotely from their home country" has some issues: - live classes may happen in the middle of the night - tools like GSuite are blocked in China - internet connection quality varies Given the amount of revenue foreign students bring in, this seems like the admin is using access to those students as a lever to force schools to reopen prema…
There's also the sad reality that for many students, it's not possible to work unimpeded on school work at home. For many, university is the a psychological retreat from home circumstances that are distracting at best the best of times and downright abusive at the worst. It doesn't matter if your Internet is solid if you can't actually focus on the work.
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#23As some have pointed out elsewhere, the idea that "they can just do the courses remotely from their home country" has some issues: - live classes may happen in the middle of the night - tools like GSuite are blocked in China - internet connection quality varies Given the amount of revenue foreign students bring in, this seems like the admin is using access to those students as a lever to force schools to reopen prema…
That last point seems particularly apt. I didn't consider that, but maybe should have, it explains this decision in the context of Trump's desire to punish people into getting what he wants.
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#24Chinese students will be safer in China.
Bad news for US universities that built dorms and counted on the cash from foreign students. Now they can't come.
Many families viewed studying in the US as a pathway to eventual residence. That's gone, at least until there's a new administration.
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#25This is a trick.
Trump is telling universities to open up for in person classes or lose all their international students, who will mostly choose universities that have in-person classes over online classes after ICE's ruling.
This is a diabolical move, arm twisting universities into opening up or else losing international students - a major sources of revenue.
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#26Such pathetic leadership. International students already in the country must now either attend an in person class and risk their lives, or fly out from the country with the highest number of infections and spread it to their friends and family at home. Not to mention the loss to the research community. I can’t see anything that is to be gained from this, other than pandering to a xenophobic voter base.
> or fly out from the country with the highest number of infections
Are there exemptions in place for when it is difficult to actually return to country of origin? (e.g. it remains very difficult to fly into China)
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#27Such pathetic leadership. International students already in the country must now either attend an in person class and risk their lives, or fly out from the country with the highest number of infections and spread it to their friends and family at home. Not to mention the loss to the research community. I can’t see anything that is to be gained from this, other than pandering to a xenophobic voter base.
Only possible good thing I can see from a US student perspective is that it's now more reasonable to go to grad school in US. Many programs in STEM have gotten out of hand with the number of the foreign graduate students--in some programs the number is over 80% [1]. I think this has led to the US educating many persons who later leave the country for visa issues. Also, some of the competition to get in can be conside…
I highly doubt that's what will happen. How many of these programs are dependent on foreign tuition? These aren't efficient institutions, mind you, so a downturn could lead to collapse of the weakest ones, leading to increase domestic competition at the remaining ones.
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#28Chinese students will be safer in China. Bad news for US universities that built dorms and counted on the cash from foreign students. Now they can't come. Many families viewed studying in the US as a pathway to eventual residence. That's gone, at least until there's a new administration.
> until there's a new administration
197 days...
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#29This is lunacy. Also likely will fail in court since it doesn’t follow proper procedures - something the recent Supreme Court DACA ruling pointed out. These nitwits are cruel and incompetent. But all of this has damaged America’s higher education system and its attractiveness to foreign students for the long term. Many an economics PhD thesis will model GDP lost from doing everything in our power to scare away educated immigrants.
Re: ICE changes exemptions for foreign students taking online courses in Fall 2020
#30I don’t understand how universities think they can get away with charging full tuition to students while offering online only classes. I would be so furious if I was stuck in this situation of trying to graduate on time but being scammed out of the whole experience I worked so hard to get in to.
If the schools feel so strongly against reopening they should waive their tuition for anyone already enrolled to attend online and close enrollment to new students, and give anyone the option to defer if desired.
I don’t blame ICE for not extending their exemption past the summer for online classes. The visa does not allow for online courses. Schools are not making an evidence based decision here, and should not expect special treatment if they aren’t willing to offer actual classes. I hope the students who are suing will prevail in court for unjust enrichment.