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<div class="birdkit-body g-2025-06-06-int-science-reaction g-dark-mode-incompatible" data-birdkit-hydrate="4e2675c3cb50ce83" data-preview-slug="2025-06-06-int-science-reaction" id="g-2025-06-06-int-science-reaction">
<div class="g-header-container g-theme-news g-align-center g-style-medium svelte-1wn0bsq" style="--g-header-text-wrap:balance"><header class="g-header svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-header-left svelte-1wn0bsq"> <div class="g-heading-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq"><h1 class="g-heading svelte-yul96s"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->How Trump’s crackdown on universities is affecting the world<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h1></div> <div class="g-voices svelte-1wn0bsq"><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#higher-education"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/06/reader-center/author-stephanie-saul/author-stephanie-saul-thumbLarge.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">Higher education</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By Stephanie Saul</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">There will be ripple effects throughout the education system. </div></div> </a><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#politics"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/05/10/us/politics/michael-bender/michael-bender-thumbLarge-v2.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">Politics</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By Michael C. Bender</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">Harvard is only a test case. </div></div> </a><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#global-economics"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-patricia-cohen/author-patricia-cohen-thumbLarge-v3.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">Global economics</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By Patricia Cohen</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">Some American researchers are already looking elsewhere. </div></div> </a><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#canada"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/09/26/reader-center/author-matina-stevis-gridneff/author-matina-stevis-gridneff-thumbLarge.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">Canada</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By Matina Stevis-Gridneff</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">A global intellectual resistance to Trump is in the making. </div></div> </a><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#india"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/22/reader-center/author-anupreeta-das/author-anupreeta-das-thumbLarge.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">India</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By Anupreeta Das</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">India’s experience can be instructive in making sense of this moment. </div></div> </a><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#china"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/06/14/multimedia/author-vivian-wang/author-vivian-wang-thumbLarge-v3.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">China</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By Vivian Wang</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">Trump is doing China’s work for them. </div></div> </a><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#africa"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/14/reader-center/author-abdi-latif-dahir/author-abdi-latif-dahir-thumbLarge.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">Africa</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By Abdi Latif Dahir</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">China enters the conversation for young Africans. </div></div> </a><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#europe"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/10/01/reader-center/author-catherine-porter/author-catherine-porter-thumbLarge.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">Europe</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By Catherine Porter</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">At stake are not just individual jobs, but the whole research ecosystem. </div></div> </a><a class="g-voice-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq" href="#science"><div class="g-voice-headshot svelte-1wn0bsq"><img alt="headshot" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-james-glanz/author-james-glanz-thumbLarge-v2.png"/></div> <div class="g-voice-inner svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-detail svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-voice-topic svelte-1wn0bsq">Science</div> <div class="g-voice-byline svelte-1wn0bsq">By James Glanz</div></div> <div class="g-voice-quote svelte-1wn0bsq">Scientists are wanted everywhere. They're the ones who will fly free. </div></div> </a></div> <div class="g-bottom svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-leadin-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq"><p class="g-interactive-leadin svelte-94xo1y"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><p class="g-no-indent">The Trump administration, saying it wants to root out antisemitism and liberal indoctrination, has frozen billions of dollars in federal funds to universities. This has had profound effects. Harvard has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/us/politics/harvard-debate-settlement-trump.html">sued the administration</a>, after it cut billions in research dollars and tried to ban the school from accepting international students. Under pressure from President Trump, the University of Virginia’s<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/politics/uva-president-resigns-jim-ryan-trump.html"> president has been forced to resign</a>. Those are only the most visible, immediate signs of the battle. Soon, Mr. Trump’s ideological war against universities could have much broader effects on the technological supremacy America has enjoyed for decades and on science itself. </p><div class="g-name">— KATRIN BENNHOLD</div><!-- HTML_TAG_END --></p></div> <div class="g-byline-wrapper svelte-1wn0bsq"><p class="g-byline svelte-l48x83"><span class="g-byline-prefix">By</span> <span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/katrin-bennhold">Katrin Bennhold</a>, </span><span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/stephanie-saul">Stephanie Saul</a>, </span><span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/michael-c-bender">Michael C. Bender</a>, </span><span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/patricia-cohen">Patricia Cohen</a>, </span><span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/matina-stevis-gridneff">Matina Stevis-Gridneff</a>, </span><span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/anupreeta-das">Anupreeta Das</a>, </span><span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/vivian-wang">Vivian Wang</a>, </span><span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/abdi-latif-dahir">Abdi Latif Dahir</a>, </span><span class="svelte-l48x83" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/catherine-porter">Catherine Porter</a></span> and <span class="svelte-l48x83 g-last-byline" itemprop="name"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/james-glanz">James Glanz</a></span> </p> <span class="g-timestamp-wrapper"><time class="g-interactive-timestamp svelte-1xfuih8" datetime="2025-07-12T20:40:22-04:00">July 12, 2025 </time></span></div> <div class="g-sharetools svelte-1wn0bsq"><div class="g-sharetools-wrapper svelte-1czjxe4 g-align-center"> </div></div></div></div></header> </div><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8" id="top-subhed"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/07/13/multimedia/author-katrin-bennhold/author-katrin-bennhold-thumbLarge.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Katrin Bennhold</b> is a senior writer for the Times.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Universities are<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000010197818/inside-trumps-attack-on-harvard.html"> </a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000010197818/inside-trumps-attack-on-harvard.html">an easy target</a> for right-wing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/trump-harvard-hungary-orban-george-soros.html">populists</a>. Polls show that a lot of Americans consider them too liberal, too expensive and too elitist, and not entirely without reason. But the fight between the Trump administration and Harvard is something more: It has become a test for the president’s ability to impose his political agenda on all 2,600 universities in the United States. Students, professors and scientists are all feeling the pressure, and that could undermine the dominant position that American science has enjoyed for decades.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->What does that mean for the world?<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->European countries are wooing U.S.-based scientists, offering them “scientific refuge” or, as one French minister put it, “a light in the darkness.” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/world/canada/trump-universities-professors-toronto.html">Canada</a> has attracted several prominent American academics, including three tenured Yale professors who study authoritarianism and fascism. The Australian Strategic Institute<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/business/economy/trump-research-brain-drain.html"> </a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/business/economy/trump-research-brain-drain.html">described </a>this moment as “a once-in-a-century brain gain opportunity.”<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->In the mid-20th century, America was seen by many as a benign power, committed to scientific freedom and democracy. It attracted the best brains fleeing fascism and authoritarianism in Europe.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Today, the biggest beneficiary could be China and Chinese universities, which have been trying to recruit world-class scientific talent for years. Now Mr.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-visa-china.html"> </a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-visa-china.html">Trump is doing their work for them</a>. One indication of the success of China’s campaign to attract the best and brightest is Africa, the world’s youngest continent. Africans are<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/world/africa/africa-universities-us-china-trump-visas.html"> </a><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/world/africa/africa-universities-us-china-trump-visas.html">learning Mandarin in growing numbers</a>. Nearly twice as many study in China as in America.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Could America gamble away its scientific supremacy in the service of ideology? It has happened before. Under the Nazis, Germany lost its scientific edge to America in the space of a few years. As a German, my brain may wander too readily to the lessons of the 1930s, but in this case the analogy feels instructive. Several of my colleagues covering the fallout from the crackdown on international students and researchers pointed to Hitler’s silencing of scientists and intellectuals.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->No one region can currently replicate the magic sauce of resources, freedom, a culture of risk-taking and welcoming immigrants that made America the engine of scientific innovation. But if it tumbles as a scientific superpower, and potential <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/22/upshot/harvard-funding-cuts.html">breakthroughs are disrupted</a>, it would be a setback for the whole world. I spoke to my colleagues who are reporting on this, and here’s what I found out.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="higher-education" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Higher education<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/06/reader-center/author-stephanie-saul/author-stephanie-saul-thumbLarge.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Stephanie Saul</b> is The Times’s higher education correspondent<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->There’s going to be fallout. We’ve talked to researchers at Harvard <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/trump-harvard-cuts-sarah-fortune-tuberculosis.html">whose funding was cut</a>, including those working on tuberculosis, and another who engineers fake organs that are useful in the study of human illnesses. There have been all sorts of different projects disrupted that could have led to some major breakthrough. When research is interrupted, there is no way of knowing if it would have led to a breakthrough that the world will now have to do without. But the impact might actually be more heavily felt on small regional public universities that had already lost some of their public funding and were relying heavily on international students to pay the bills. So if the United States is continually viewed as an unwelcome place for international students there will be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/us/harvard-trump-international-students-impact.html">ripple effects throughout the system</a>.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="politics" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Politics<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/05/10/us/politics/michael-bender/michael-bender-thumbLarge-v2.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Michael C. Bender</b> is a Times correspondent in Washington, covering President Trump’s domestic policy agenda.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->It’s smart to think about this in terms of political calculus instead of ultimate goals. It matters little to the Trump administration if it’s dragged into court over and over again, or even how many of those lawsuits it wins. They view Harvard as an avatar for all universities that have become incubators of liberalism and are hostile to conservatives. And what better university in the world to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/briefing/harvard-trump-funding.html">send a message</a> that, in their view, slows down the march of liberalism in universities. That would be a major victory for this administration. If Trump officials have any measure of success, it will be whether they can create a roadmap for imposing their political agenda on the other 2,000-plus colleges in the United States.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="global-economics" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Global economics<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-patricia-cohen/author-patricia-cohen-thumbLarge-v3.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Patricia Cohen</b> is a business correspondent for the Times, covering global economics.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Even before Trump, American researchers were saying we have a problem with the supply of domestic science, math and engineering talent. And that’s something that takes a generation to fix. It’s not something that’s done overnight. Some, we’ve already seen, are looking to do research elsewhere because, one, their funding has been cut, and, two, they’re very worried about academic freedom. Can they study what they want? We haven’t seen people ask these questions since the McCarthy era, the anti-liberal ideological war of the 1950s. Take climate change: there’s basically a repudiation by conservatives in power of what most of the scientific community considers established trends and facts based on evidence. It’s very difficult for foreign countries to compete financially, but what I have noticed in all of their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/business/economy/trump-research-brain-drain.html">pitches courting American scientists</a> — whether it’s in Australia or Europe or Latin America — is that they’re offering them freedom of inquiry and respect of facts.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="canada" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Canada<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/09/26/reader-center/author-matina-stevis-gridneff/author-matina-stevis-gridneff-thumbLarge.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Matina Stevis-Gridneff</b> is The Times’s Canada bureau chief.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->We have seen a movement of American <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/world/canada/trump-universities-professors-toronto.html">academic and scientific talent to Canada</a>. And that reinforces the clear success of Canadian institutions before this all happened. I spoke to Timothy Snyder, a prominent American academic who recently moved to Toronto. He told me that this is a huge opportunity for Toronto. He said the city could become what London, Paris and New York were in different periods when the great and the good moved there to think about democracy and talk about the future. Canada, and especially the University of Toronto, he believes, have a special role to play in fostering an ideological counterpull to Trump's America in this moment of great turmoil. It's not so much that people are setting up an American resistance in Canada, but rather that the city is part of a global intellectual resistance to Trump.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="india" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->India<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/22/reader-center/author-anupreeta-das/author-anupreeta-das-thumbLarge.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Anupreeta Das</b> is a South Asia correspondent for the Times, covering India and its neighbors, including Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->I don't sense a big change in the mood in India yet. The United States still holds a lot of soft power and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/world/asia/indian-students-us-visa.html">remains very attractive to Indians</a>. In fact, many Indians are seeing something that is pretty familiar to them. They’re saying, “Welcome to the world as we have experienced it for the past few years.” The government under Narendra Modi has definitely cracked down on free speech. It has tried to quash dissenting voices, and it has also leaned on academics and has tried to squeeze certain research institutions that it considers too liberal. And there has been a demonization of the Muslim minority, which make up about 15 percent of the population. There are a lot of similarities to Trump’s America. Everyone in the world is just trying to understand what Trump's actions mean for their own countries. So India's experience can be instructive in making sense of this moment.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="china" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->China<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/06/14/multimedia/author-vivian-wang/author-vivian-wang-thumbLarge-v3.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Vivian Wang</b> is a correspondent for the Times in Beijing, covering Chinese politics and society.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->China really wants to become a center for international education, because it sees that as a key ingredient for building its reputation as a global superpower. American universities have long been a source of American soft power. China wants Chinese universities to be a source of Chinese soft power. And now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-visa-china.html">Trump is doing their work for them</a>. You can see that in China’s rhetoric and messaging. It’s trying to portray itself as open and international, everything that the Trump administration is turning away from.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->In reality, China isn’t a model of openness. There are a lot of restrictions on and suspicions toward foreigners in general, and that includes foreign students. But against the backdrop of what Trump is doing, China’s message may seem more convincing. Will it work? So far China has had the most luck with Chinese-born scientists who have studied and worked in America. They already had been riding out a wave of anti-Asian racism in the United States, as well as accusations of being spies. But now, if they also don't have the resources to do their work because Trump has cut research funding, there is no reason for them to stay. Meanwhile, China has been pouring huge amounts of money into research and development. And so they are well positioned to take advantage of this brain drain.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="africa" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Africa<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/14/reader-center/author-abdi-latif-dahir/author-abdi-latif-dahir-thumbLarge.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Abdi Latif Dahir</b> is the East Africa correspondent for the Times, based in Nairobi, Kenya.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Young Africans have this sense that the world is changing, that there's a shift underway. And instead of going to the West, instead of lining up outside the American embassy and facing visa rejections, many are heading to new educational hubs — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/world/africa/africa-universities-us-china-trump-visas.html">and especially to China</a>. China enters the conversation because it provides the kind of opportunities young students are looking for. Many are attracted by the scholarships, by the easier access to visas, the affordable tuition and the comparatively cheap cost of living, which is prohibitive for so many people. And this shift is happening even as China trains thousands of African officials annually in fields such as science, technology and military strategy.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->It's not that young Africans wouldn't choose Harvard if they were offered a chance. It's all about opportunity for them. And where there is opportunity, soft power follows. America used to have that. Students were going there not just because they wanted a world-class education, but because they saw America as a symbol of modernity, democracy and progress – values they hoped to bring back home. Today, that image has been eroded, and China stands to gain the most from it.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="europe" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Europe<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/10/01/reader-center/author-catherine-porter/author-catherine-porter-thumbLarge.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>Catherine Porter</b> is an international correspondent for the Times, based in Paris.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->One university, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/europe-trump-science-research.html">Aix Marseille University</a>, in southern France, immediately offered 15 positions to American researchers in reaction to the Trump administration’s policies. It began as a symbolic gesture. The university president said, “We're offering a light in darkness.” What that one university is doing for individual American researchers is amazing. But it’s just a small drop in the bucket. There is an international system generating leaps and bounds in science, the motor and the anchor of which has been the United States. And if you get rid of the motor and you get rid of the anchor, it's pretty hard to rebuild those things on the fly.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->For example, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have these databases that they have maintained and that scientists around the world use. Some of the people I spoke to in Europe said, ‘Look, if we're only going to spend 100 million euros, it would be much smarter to secure these databases.’ It's not just that the United States has been a center in terms of people coming together and pushing science forward; it's also been the data library for scientists everywhere. Think of all the health data that USAID has been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/health/usaid-global-health-surveys.html">financing</a> around the world. It's gone. Universities and researchers say that what’s at stake are not just individual jobs, but the greater research ecosystem.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p><div class="g-subhed-wrapper g-theme-news svelte-1h1h6k8" id="science" style=""><h2 class="g-subhed svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->Science<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></h2> <div class="g-author-block svelte-1h1h6k8"><img alt="headshot" class="g-headshot svelte-1h1h6k8" src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-james-glanz/author-james-glanz-thumbLarge-v2.png"/> <div class="g-author-intro svelte-1h1h6k8"><div class="g-author-intro-text svelte-1h1h6k8"><!-- HTML_TAG_START --><b>James Glanz</b> is an international and investigative correspondent for the Times who writes about conflict and the science and technology behind disasters.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --></div></div></div> </div><p class="g-text svelte-wbgwfj"><!-- HTML_TAG_START -->A lot of scientists said to me that they're seeing the possibility of America tumbling from this position of scientific supremacy as Germany did under Hitler. What happened to Germany in the 1930s was not something anybody saw coming. All of a sudden, in a historical blink of an eye, the whole picture changed.The United States took over as the scientific superpower, using a lot of German scientists and a lot of German concepts and ideas. The question today is: is that happening again? And if so, who will take the lead? Could it be Europe? Could it be China? It's hard to imagine somebody graduating with a physics degree from the University of Utah and then moving right to Beijing and continuing as before, raising kids in the suburbs, right? But one thing to keep in mind is that the smartest people in the world are also the least limited in their mobility. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/world/asia/us-science-cuts.html">Scientists are wanted everywhere</a>. They're the ones who will fly free. Where they’ll land I'm not sure, but you just cannot keep them if they don't want to be there. They're too smart and too mobile.<!-- HTML_TAG_END --> </p>
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const data = [null,{"type":"data","data":{body:[{type:"header",value:{sharetools:{show:true,theme:"light-filled",position:"belowByline"},style:"medium",align:"center",textWrap:"balance",voices:[{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/06/reader-center/author-stephanie-saul/author-stephanie-saul-thumbLarge.png",quote:"There will be ripple effects throughout the education system.",author:"Stephanie Saul",topic:"Higher education"},{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/05/10/us/politics/michael-bender/michael-bender-thumbLarge-v2.png",quote:"Harvard is only a test case.",author:"Michael C. Bender",topic:"Politics"},{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-patricia-cohen/author-patricia-cohen-thumbLarge-v3.png",quote:"Some American researchers are already looking elsewhere.",author:"Patricia Cohen",topic:"Global economics"},{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/09/26/reader-center/author-matina-stevis-gridneff/author-matina-stevis-gridneff-thumbLarge.png",quote:"A global intellectual resistance to Trump is in the making.",author:"Matina Stevis-Gridneff",topic:"Canada"},{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/22/reader-center/author-anupreeta-das/author-anupreeta-das-thumbLarge.png",quote:"India’s experience can be instructive in making sense of this moment.",author:"Anupreeta Das",topic:"India"},{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/06/14/multimedia/author-vivian-wang/author-vivian-wang-thumbLarge-v3.png",quote:"Trump is doing China’s work for them.",author:"Vivian Wang",topic:"China"},{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/14/reader-center/author-abdi-latif-dahir/author-abdi-latif-dahir-thumbLarge.png",quote:"China enters the conversation for young Africans.",author:"Abdi Latif Dahir",topic:"Africa"},{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/10/01/reader-center/author-catherine-porter/author-catherine-porter-thumbLarge.png",quote:"At stake are not just individual jobs, but the whole research ecosystem.",author:"Catherine Porter",topic:"Europe"},{headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-james-glanz/author-james-glanz-thumbLarge-v2.png",quote:"Scientists are wanted everywhere. They're the ones who will fly free.",author:"James Glanz",topic:"Science"}],headline:"How Trump’s crackdown on universities is affecting the world",leadin:"\u003Cp class=\"g-no-indent\">The Trump administration, saying it wants to root out antisemitism and liberal indoctrination, has frozen billions of dollars in federal funds to universities. This has had profound effects. Harvard has \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/us/politics/harvard-debate-settlement-trump.html\">sued the administration\u003C/a>, after it cut billions in research dollars and tried to ban the school from accepting international students. Under pressure from President Trump, the University of Virginia’s\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/us/politics/uva-president-resigns-jim-ryan-trump.html\"> president has been forced to resign\u003C/a>. Those are only the most visible, immediate signs of the battle. Soon, Mr. Trump’s ideological war against universities could have much broader effects on the technological supremacy America has enjoyed for decades and on science itself. \u003C/p>\u003Cdiv class=\"g-name\">— KATRIN BENNHOLD\u003C/div>",bylines:[{creatorSnapshots:[{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/katrin-bennhold",displayName:"Katrin Bennhold",slug:"katrin-bennhold"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/stephanie-saul",displayName:"Stephanie Saul",slug:"stephanie-saul"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/michael-c-bender",displayName:"Michael C. Bender",slug:"michael-c-bender"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/patricia-cohen",displayName:"Patricia Cohen",slug:"patricia-cohen"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/matina-stevis-gridneff",displayName:"Matina Stevis-Gridneff",slug:"matina-stevis-gridneff"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/anupreeta-das",displayName:"Anupreeta Das",slug:"anupreeta-das"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/vivian-wang",displayName:"Vivian Wang",slug:"vivian-wang"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/abdi-latif-dahir",displayName:"Abdi Latif Dahir",slug:"abdi-latif-dahir"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/catherine-porter",displayName:"Catherine Porter",slug:"catherine-porter"},{bioUrl:"https://www.nytimes.com/by/james-glanz",displayName:"James Glanz",slug:"james-glanz"}],prefix:"By"}],slugs:["by/katrin-bennhold","by/stephanie-saul","by/michael-c-bender","by/patricia-cohen","by/matina-stevis-gridneff","by/anupreeta-das","by/vivian-wang","by/abdi-latif-dahir","by/catherine-porter","by/james-glanz"],firstPublished:"July 12, 2025",firstPublishedTimestamp:"2025-07-12T20:40:22-04:00",lastModified:"July 12, 2025",lastModifiedTimestamp:"2025-07-12T20:41:13-04:00",updatedText:"",language:"en",translations:[],hideBylineAndTimestamp:void 0,transparentMasthead:false}},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"",id:"top-subhed",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/07/13/multimedia/author-katrin-bennhold/author-katrin-bennhold-thumbLarge.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Katrin Bennhold\u003C/b> is a senior writer for the Times."}},{type:"text",value:"Universities are\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000010197818/inside-trumps-attack-on-harvard.html\"> \u003C/a>\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000010197818/inside-trumps-attack-on-harvard.html\">an easy target\u003C/a> for right-wing \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/08/us/trump-harvard-hungary-orban-george-soros.html\">populists\u003C/a>. Polls show that a lot of Americans consider them too liberal, too expensive and too elitist, and not entirely without reason. But the fight between the Trump administration and Harvard is something more: It has become a test for the president’s ability to impose his political agenda on all 2,600 universities in the United States. Students, professors and scientists are all feeling the pressure, and that could undermine the dominant position that American science has enjoyed for decades."},{type:"text",value:"What does that mean for the world?"},{type:"text",value:"European countries are wooing U.S.-based scientists, offering them “scientific refuge” or, as one French minister put it, “a light in the darkness.” \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/world/canada/trump-universities-professors-toronto.html\">Canada\u003C/a> has attracted several prominent American academics, including three tenured Yale professors who study authoritarianism and fascism. The Australian Strategic Institute\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/business/economy/trump-research-brain-drain.html\"> \u003C/a>\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/business/economy/trump-research-brain-drain.html\">described \u003C/a>this moment as “a once-in-a-century brain gain opportunity.”"},{type:"text",value:"In the mid-20th century, America was seen by many as a benign power, committed to scientific freedom and democracy. It attracted the best brains fleeing fascism and authoritarianism in Europe."},{type:"text",value:"Today, the biggest beneficiary could be China and Chinese universities, which have been trying to recruit world-class scientific talent for years. Now Mr.\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-visa-china.html\"> \u003C/a>\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-visa-china.html\">Trump is doing their work for them\u003C/a>. One indication of the success of China’s campaign to attract the best and brightest is Africa, the world’s youngest continent. Africans are\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/world/africa/africa-universities-us-china-trump-visas.html\"> \u003C/a>\u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/world/africa/africa-universities-us-china-trump-visas.html\">learning Mandarin in growing numbers\u003C/a>. Nearly twice as many study in China as in America."},{type:"text",value:"Could America gamble away its scientific supremacy in the service of ideology? It has happened before. Under the Nazis, Germany lost its scientific edge to America in the space of a few years. As a German, my brain may wander too readily to the lessons of the 1930s, but in this case the analogy feels instructive. Several of my colleagues covering the fallout from the crackdown on international students and researchers pointed to Hitler’s silencing of scientists and intellectuals."},{type:"text",value:"No one region can currently replicate the magic sauce of resources, freedom, a culture of risk-taking and welcoming immigrants that made America the engine of scientific innovation. But if it tumbles as a scientific superpower, and potential \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/22/upshot/harvard-funding-cuts.html\">breakthroughs are disrupted\u003C/a>, it would be a setback for the whole world. I spoke to my colleagues who are reporting on this, and here’s what I found out."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"Higher education",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/02/06/reader-center/author-stephanie-saul/author-stephanie-saul-thumbLarge.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Stephanie Saul\u003C/b> is The Times’s higher education correspondent"}},{type:"text",value:"There’s going to be fallout. We’ve talked to researchers at Harvard \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/trump-harvard-cuts-sarah-fortune-tuberculosis.html\">whose funding was cut\u003C/a>, including those working on tuberculosis, and another who engineers fake organs that are useful in the study of human illnesses. There have been all sorts of different projects disrupted that could have led to some major breakthrough. When research is interrupted, there is no way of knowing if it would have led to a breakthrough that the world will now have to do without. But the impact might actually be more heavily felt on small regional public universities that had already lost some of their public funding and were relying heavily on international students to pay the bills. So if the United States is continually viewed as an unwelcome place for international students there will be \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/us/harvard-trump-international-students-impact.html\">ripple effects throughout the system\u003C/a>."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"Politics",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2022/05/10/us/politics/michael-bender/michael-bender-thumbLarge-v2.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Michael C. Bender\u003C/b> is a Times correspondent in Washington, covering President Trump’s domestic policy agenda."}},{type:"text",value:"It’s smart to think about this in terms of political calculus instead of ultimate goals. It matters little to the Trump administration if it’s dragged into court over and over again, or even how many of those lawsuits it wins. They view Harvard as an avatar for all universities that have become incubators of liberalism and are hostile to conservatives. And what better university in the world to \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/briefing/harvard-trump-funding.html\">send a message\u003C/a> that, in their view, slows down the march of liberalism in universities. That would be a major victory for this administration. If Trump officials have any measure of success, it will be whether they can create a roadmap for imposing their political agenda on the other 2,000-plus colleges in the United States."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"Global economics",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-patricia-cohen/author-patricia-cohen-thumbLarge-v3.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Patricia Cohen\u003C/b> is a business correspondent for the Times, covering global economics."}},{type:"text",value:"Even before Trump, American researchers were saying we have a problem with the supply of domestic science, math and engineering talent. And that’s something that takes a generation to fix. It’s not something that’s done overnight. Some, we’ve already seen, are looking to do research elsewhere because, one, their funding has been cut, and, two, they’re very worried about academic freedom. Can they study what they want? We haven’t seen people ask these questions since the McCarthy era, the anti-liberal ideological war of the 1950s. Take climate change: there’s basically a repudiation by conservatives in power of what most of the scientific community considers established trends and facts based on evidence. It’s very difficult for foreign countries to compete financially, but what I have noticed in all of their \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/business/economy/trump-research-brain-drain.html\">pitches courting American scientists\u003C/a> — whether it’s in Australia or Europe or Latin America — is that they’re offering them freedom of inquiry and respect of facts."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"Canada",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/09/26/reader-center/author-matina-stevis-gridneff/author-matina-stevis-gridneff-thumbLarge.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Matina Stevis-Gridneff\u003C/b> is The Times’s Canada bureau chief."}},{type:"text",value:"We have seen a movement of American \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/28/world/canada/trump-universities-professors-toronto.html\">academic and scientific talent to Canada\u003C/a>. And that reinforces the clear success of Canadian institutions before this all happened. I spoke to Timothy Snyder, a prominent American academic who recently moved to Toronto. He told me that this is a huge opportunity for Toronto. He said the city could become what London, Paris and New York were in different periods when the great and the good moved there to think about democracy and talk about the future. Canada, and especially the University of Toronto, he believes, have a special role to play in fostering an ideological counterpull to Trump's America in this moment of great turmoil. It's not so much that people are setting up an American resistance in Canada, but rather that the city is part of a global intellectual resistance to Trump."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"India",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/22/reader-center/author-anupreeta-das/author-anupreeta-das-thumbLarge.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Anupreeta Das\u003C/b> is a South Asia correspondent for the Times, covering India and its neighbors, including Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka."}},{type:"text",value:"I don't sense a big change in the mood in India yet. The United States still holds a lot of soft power and \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/world/asia/indian-students-us-visa.html\">remains very attractive to Indians\u003C/a>. In fact, many Indians are seeing something that is pretty familiar to them. They’re saying, “Welcome to the world as we have experienced it for the past few years.” The government under Narendra Modi has definitely cracked down on free speech. It has tried to quash dissenting voices, and it has also leaned on academics and has tried to squeeze certain research institutions that it considers too liberal. And there has been a demonization of the Muslim minority, which make up about 15 percent of the population. There are a lot of similarities to Trump’s America. Everyone in the world is just trying to understand what Trump's actions mean for their own countries. So India's experience can be instructive in making sense of this moment."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"China",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/06/14/multimedia/author-vivian-wang/author-vivian-wang-thumbLarge-v3.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Vivian Wang\u003C/b> is a correspondent for the Times in Beijing, covering Chinese politics and society."}},{type:"text",value:"China really wants to become a center for international education, because it sees that as a key ingredient for building its reputation as a global superpower. American universities have long been a source of American soft power. China wants Chinese universities to be a source of Chinese soft power. And now \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/04/world/asia/trump-science-visa-china.html\">Trump is doing their work for them\u003C/a>. You can see that in China’s rhetoric and messaging. It’s trying to portray itself as open and international, everything that the Trump administration is turning away from."},{type:"text",value:"In reality, China isn’t a model of openness. There are a lot of restrictions on and suspicions toward foreigners in general, and that includes foreign students. But against the backdrop of what Trump is doing, China’s message may seem more convincing. Will it work? So far China has had the most luck with Chinese-born scientists who have studied and worked in America. They already had been riding out a wave of anti-Asian racism in the United States, as well as accusations of being spies. But now, if they also don't have the resources to do their work because Trump has cut research funding, there is no reason for them to stay. Meanwhile, China has been pouring huge amounts of money into research and development. And so they are well positioned to take advantage of this brain drain."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"Africa",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/08/14/reader-center/author-abdi-latif-dahir/author-abdi-latif-dahir-thumbLarge.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Abdi Latif Dahir\u003C/b> is the East Africa correspondent for the Times, based in Nairobi, Kenya."}},{type:"text",value:"Young Africans have this sense that the world is changing, that there's a shift underway. And instead of going to the West, instead of lining up outside the American embassy and facing visa rejections, many are heading to new educational hubs — \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/world/africa/africa-universities-us-china-trump-visas.html\">and especially to China\u003C/a>. China enters the conversation because it provides the kind of opportunities young students are looking for. Many are attracted by the scholarships, by the easier access to visas, the affordable tuition and the comparatively cheap cost of living, which is prohibitive for so many people. And this shift is happening even as China trains thousands of African officials annually in fields such as science, technology and military strategy."},{type:"text",value:"It's not that young Africans wouldn't choose Harvard if they were offered a chance. It's all about opportunity for them. And where there is opportunity, soft power follows. America used to have that. Students were going there not just because they wanted a world-class education, but because they saw America as a symbol of modernity, democracy and progress – values they hoped to bring back home. Today, that image has been eroded, and China stands to gain the most from it."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"Europe",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/10/01/reader-center/author-catherine-porter/author-catherine-porter-thumbLarge.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>Catherine Porter\u003C/b> is an international correspondent for the Times, based in Paris."}},{type:"text",value:"One university, \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/europe-trump-science-research.html\">Aix Marseille University\u003C/a>, in southern France, immediately offered 15 positions to American researchers in reaction to the Trump administration’s policies. It began as a symbolic gesture. The university president said, “We're offering a light in darkness.” What that one university is doing for individual American researchers is amazing. But it’s just a small drop in the bucket. There is an international system generating leaps and bounds in science, the motor and the anchor of which has been the United States. And if you get rid of the motor and you get rid of the anchor, it's pretty hard to rebuild those things on the fly."},{type:"text",value:"For example, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have these databases that they have maintained and that scientists around the world use. Some of the people I spoke to in Europe said, ‘Look, if we're only going to spend 100 million euros, it would be much smarter to secure these databases.’ It's not just that the United States has been a center in terms of people coming together and pushing science forward; it's also been the data library for scientists everywhere. Think of all the health data that USAID has been \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/health/usaid-global-health-surveys.html\">financing\u003C/a> around the world. It's gone. Universities and researchers say that what’s at stake are not just individual jobs, but the greater research ecosystem."},{type:"subhed",value:{value:"Science",headshot:"https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/02/16/multimedia/author-james-glanz/author-james-glanz-thumbLarge-v2.png",authorIntro:"\u003Cb>James Glanz\u003C/b> is an international and investigative correspondent for the Times who writes about conflict and the science and technology behind disasters."}},{type:"text",value:"A lot of scientists said to me that they're seeing the possibility of America tumbling from this position of scientific supremacy as Germany did under Hitler. What happened to Germany in the 1930s was not something anybody saw coming. All of a sudden, in a historical blink of an eye, the whole picture changed.The United States took over as the scientific superpower, using a lot of German scientists and a lot of German concepts and ideas. The question today is: is that happening again? And if so, who will take the lead? Could it be Europe? Could it be China? It's hard to imagine somebody graduating with a physics degree from the University of Utah and then moving right to Beijing and continuing as before, raising kids in the suburbs, right? But one thing to keep in mind is that the smartest people in the world are also the least limited in their mobility. \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/31/world/asia/us-science-cuts.html\">Scientists are wanted everywhere\u003C/a>. They're the ones who will fly free. Where they’ll land I'm not sure, but you just cannot keep them if they don't want to be there. They're too smart and too mobile."}],theme:"news",sheets:{}},"uses":{"url":1}}];
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How Trump’s crackdown on universities is affecting the world

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