USA – Updates for International Students

A flurry of confusing pandemic-related changes to immigration policy have international students struggling to understand how their visas and, ultimately, academic careers may be impacted by these troubling directives. This alert clarifies the most current policies impacting international students and which visa categories may be affected. As always, GYH attorneys are available for consultations to answer any questions you have about your immigration process.

Good News: Online-only Course Loads Allowed for International Students
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on July 6th issued a directive that would have required international students to have at least some in-person classes in order to stay in the country. Last week, a swift lawsuit by Harvard and MIT, which argued the directive forced schools to choose between sacrificing international students and risking public health and safety, forced DHS to rescind the order.
The rescission of the directive restores the March 13 guidance permitting current students on F-1 visas to remain in the U.S. while taking online-only only course loads.
Unfortunately, newly enrolling international students are still not allowed to take online-only course loads but the case remains open and it is expected that the Trump Administration will also be asked to defend the restrictions facing newly-enrolled international students.

National Interest Exceptions to Schengen Travel Ban
The Department of State (DOS) announced that some students in the Schengen area, UK, and Ireland may qualify for a National Interest Exception (NIE). Students with valid F-1 or M-1 visas traveling from the Schengen Area, the UK and Ireland have been granted a blanket exception and do not have to take any special action to travel. Students travelling from these areas on J-1 visas should contact the nearest embassy or consulate to request a NIE.
Note that consular closures, which have been in place for months, largely remain in effect. Some posts are reportedly opening but, for the most part, we have seen little movement from these posts and few visas are being issued at this point.

SOURCE: https://www.grossmanyoung.com/

USA – Refus des visas aux étudiants étrangers : La Californie attaque la décision en justice

Après l’Université de Harvard, le MIT, l’Etat de Californie a déclaré vouloir poursuivre l’administration Trump devant le tribunal fédéral. L’Etat et ces universités cherchent à bloquer la directive qui priverait les étudiants étrangers de visas si les cours étaient entièrement en ligne. – Elles ont fait valoir que la mesure plongerait l’enseignement supérieur dans le chaos.

Pour rappel : – L’administration Trump a annoncé lundi qu’elle n’autoriserait pas les étudiants et élèves étrangers à rester aux Etats-Unis si leur université ou école décidait de proposer des cours uniquement en ligne à la rentrée de septembre. – Le gouvernement américain ne « donnera pas de visas aux étudiants inscrits dans des programmes intégralement en ligne à l’automne et les gardes-frontières ne les laisseront pas entrer sur le territoire », a annoncé la police de l’immigration et des douanes (ICE) dans un communiqué.

En résumé, les étudiants étrangers dont les campus ne rouvriront pas pour le semestre d’automne seront tenus de retourner dans leur pays d’origine, car leurs visas ne seront plus considérés comme valides.
IMPORTANT : Si vous êtes étudiant non-américain déjà présent sur le territoire américain, le communiqué précise : « ils doivent quitter le pays ou prendre d’autres mesures – comme s’inscrire dans une école proposant des cours « en présentiel sur site» pour conserver leur statut légal. Sinon, ils pourront « faire face à une procédure d’expulsion ».

– Quand les établissements opteront pour un modèle « hybride », avec des cours en ligne et des enseignements sur site, ils devront certifier que leurs étudiants étrangers sont bien inscrits pour des sessions assurées sur leur campus, afin que ceux-ci conservent leur droit de séjour. 
– Ces dérogations ne seront pas autorisées pour les études d’anglais ou pour des formations professionnelles.
– Les étudiants ont seulement 10 jours pour notifier le programme s’ils passent à des cours en ligne uniquement et probablement commencer le processus de quitter les États-Unis.
– La mesure concerne les visas F1 (pour des études académiques) ou M1 (pour des formations professionnelles)

Views of diverse students leaving class outside the Northwest Labs in Autumn. Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

MBA – The prestigious Wharton business school’s new dean will be first woman and black in its nearly 140-year history

Erika James has a knack for making history.Five years after she was named the first African-American woman to be named dean of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, James was named as the new dean at the University of Pennsylvania’s the Wharton School of Business.She’ll be the first woman and person of color to head the top business school in its 139-year history.”Erika is an award-winning scholar and teacher and a strong, proven leader who serves as dean of the Goizueta Business School at Emory University,” University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann said in a news release.”A passionate and visible champion of the power of business and business education to positively transform communities locally, nationally, and globally, she is exceptionally well prepared to lead Wharton into the next exciting chapter of its storied history,” she said.James was credited with growing Emory’s school faculty by 25% by the end of her first year, where she built an innovation and entrepreneurship lab that opened to all students. By last year the school had one of the most gender-diverse faculty populations in higher education, it said.”This is an exciting time to be in business education,” James said in the release. “The scope and platform of the Wharton School provides an opportunity to create far reaching impact for students, scholars, and the business community.”James served as the senior associate dean for executive education at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business prior to becoming the dean at Emory. She has a Ph.D. and master’s degree in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan, in Detroit and received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges, in California. James will succeed Geoffrey Garrett, who became dean of the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. MORE

Spelman College

Spelman earned several noteworthy spots on @USNews’s 2020 list of college rankings: No. 1: HBCU for the 13th year in a row No. 6: Social Mobility No. 6: Most Innovative Colleges No. 22: Best Undergrad Teaching View all of our rankings: http://bit.ly/SpelUSN20#2019atSpelman

This year, Spelman welcomed a number of esteemed guests on campus: Former First Lady Michelle Obama visited to discuss “Becoming” with Dr. Marilyn Davis’ Black Women: Developing Public Leadership Skills class; Stacey Abrams, C’95, received the 2019 Spelman Local Community Service Award; and artist Amy Sherald’s exhibition was on view at Spelman Museum from January – May 2019. The community also welcomed the cast of the “Little” the movie for convocation and students enjoyed a pre-screening of Beyonce’s original Netflix film, “Homecoming.”

Tech Conference at Harvard Business School

Held at Harvard Business School for the past 25 years, Tech Conference is the largest student-run MBA technology conference in the world.

About this Event

KEYNOTES

  • Andrew Bosworth (VP AR/VR @ Facebook)
  • Dan Chu (CPO @ Waymo)
  • Dan Doctoroff (Founder and CEO @ Sidewalk Labs)
  • Rachel Jarrett (President and COO @ Zola)

PANELS

  • Health and Life: Empowering Consumers with Their Own Data
  • Disruption Beyond Streaming and Digital Publishing
  • The Future of Sustainable Energy
  • Can Technology Empower Education for All?
  • FinTech: Fad or Future?
  • The Next Generation Product Manager
  • Innovations and Challenges in Mobility
  • The Future of Work
  • Looking Forward at Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Check out the full agenda

Number of International Students in the United States Hits All-Time High

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 18, 2019—The number of international students in the United States set an all-time high in the 2018/19 academic year, the fourth consecutive year with more than one million international students. The total number of international students, 1,095,299, is a 0.05 percent increase over last year, according to the 2019 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. International students make up 5.5 percent of the total U.S. higher education population. According to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, international students contributed $44.7 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018, an increase of 5.5 percent from the previous year.

Open Doors 2019, released today by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, highlights the continued competitiveness of the U.S. higher education sector as a destination of choice for international students and the growing interest in international educational exchange among U.S. students.

“We are happy to see the continued growth in the number of international students in the United States and U.S. students studying abroad,” said Marie Royce, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs. “Promoting international student mobility remains a top priority for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and we want even more students in the future to see the United States as the best destination to earn their degrees. International exchange makes our colleges and universities more dynamic for all students and an education at a U.S. institution can have a transformative effect for international students, just like study abroad experiences can for U.S. students.”

For the tenth consecutive year, China remained the largest source of international students in the United States in 2018/19 with 369,548 students in undergraduate, graduate, non-degree, and optional practical training (OPT) programs, a 1.7 percent increase from 2017/18. India (202,014, +2.9 percent), South Korea (52,250, -4.2 percent), Saudi Arabia (37,080, -16.5 percent), and Canada (26,122, +0.8 percent) round out the top five. Emerging market countries showed some of the strongest growth year over year, especially Bangladesh (+10.0 percent), Brazil (+9.8 percent), Nigeria (+5.8 percent), and Pakistan (+5.6 percent).

MBA – Harvard Business School Dean to Step Down

BOSTON— November 6, 2019—Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria announced today that he will step down in June 2020, concluding ten years of service as the School’s tenth Dean.

Class Day – Dean Nitin Nohria

In a message to faculty, staff, students, and alumni, Nohria said the time is right for HBS to transition to new leadership. “Ten years gave us a good run to make progress on our ‘Five I’ priorities,” he noted, referring to the School-wide focus on innovation, intellectual ambition, internationalization, inclusion, and integration that has been a hallmark of his tenure. “Serving as Dean has been a privilege for which I am immensely grateful. A decade seems an appropriate duration for this chapter in the School’s history.” MORE