[LONDON] Universities in Asia and Europe are hoping US President Donald Trump’s latest attack on Harvard will hand them a decisive advantage as they try to reverse a decades-old brain drain of talent to the US, with Germany going so far as to suggest the school establish an outpost within its borders.
Federal culture minister Wolfram Weimer told Bloomberg that Harvard could establish an “exile campus” in the country. “To students from Harvard and other American universities, I say: You are more than welcome in Germany,” Weimer said.
That move came shortly after the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology also issued an invitation, saying that any international student enrolled at Harvard would be welcome to continue their studies in Hong Kong.
Such overtures have already been ramping up since Trump took office, during which time he has slashed billions in funding for science, public health and education, laid off tens of thousands of federal employees who work in these fields, and shrunk grants for scientific research to the lowest levels in decades.
Roughly half of graduate students in science and engineering come from abroad, and foreign-born scholars are increasingly concerned that they could be targeted should the administration intensify its crackdown on visa holders.
In February, Kseniia Petrova, a Russian biologist employed at Harvard Medical School, was detained at the US border for failing to properly declare frog embryos and is still fighting deportation. The following month, Congress sent letters to six universities demanding detailed information about all of their Chinese students, citing national security concerns.
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
Trump’s administration has taken particular aim at elite colleges, including Harvard, Columbia, Cornell and Princeton, citing failures to protect Jewish students following the October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza, which sparked a wave of Pro-Palestine protests on campuses.
The White House has used antisemitism-which the schools acknowledge is a problem on their campuses to launch a broader attack to reshape higher education. It’s seeking to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, as well as confront institutions it views as heavily partisan towards left-wing causes.
No institution, though, has come under a bigger assault than Harvard, the country’s most pre-eminent university. The US government has cut at least US$2.6 billion in funding from the school, threatened its non-profit status, and sought to make an example of the school for not complying with demands such as giving the government greater oversight over academic programmes, admissions and hiring practices.
US universities have long led the world in cutting-edge scientific research but now countries around the world are eyeing their scientists as a way to energise their own economies. And the interest is mutual: a March poll by the journal Nature found that three-quarters of more than 1,600 US-based researchers were considering applying for jobs overseas. Yet many countries still face an uphill battle in competing with the US.
European nations have been among the most vocal in their appeals to scientists, while also freeing up money for universities and research institutes to use on recruitment. The EU launched a 500 million euros (S$732 million) initiative earlier this month to attract foreign researchers.
France has committed 100 million euros to make the country a safe haven for science, Spain allocated an additional 45 million euros to a programme to hire leading scholars, and the UK is planning to unveil its own £50 million (S$87 million) plan. That’s on top of pushes from individual institutions in Germany, Sweden, Austria and elsewhere to lure scientists with newly created positions, special funding and fast-track visas.
European universities report that they have been inundated with inquiries from US-based academics. But whether scholars ultimately choose to relocate given Europe’s lower average salaries and historically smaller research funds is a different question. Those concerns are why Antoine Petit, head of France’s flagship CNRS research centre, wants to temper expectations.
“We are talking about a handful of individuals moving,” Petit said. “Maybe a couple dozen, not more.”
Trump’s assault on the Ivy League is also being met with some resistance from US universities. Harvard has sued to restore its funding as well as its ability to enrol foreign students and deployed money to support its researchers.
The Trump administration also says it’s willing to negotiate with colleges to end the standoff.
The biggest obstacle to scientists quitting the US is simply money. US universities have more of it to fund research and can pay higher salaries. Harvard has a US$53 billion endowment and even the poorest Ivy League schools have significant resources compared to non-US institutions.
When he recently visited Berlin, Seth Marder entertained an informal entreaty from a German colleague. The materials chemist at the University of Colorado at Boulder also runs the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, an area of study that’s contracting under the Trump administration. Moving his lab and the people are not feasible, as the cost of relocating or replacing the specialised equipment alone would likely be US$2 to US$3 million. His lab includes about 15 people, and he feels responsible for them.
“To the question of whether I’d ever move my lab abroad, logistically, it would be extraordinarily difficult,” said Marder, 63. “From a very practical perspective, their salaries and US research experience don’t easily align with European compensation structures.”
Senior researchers in France typically don’t make more than 5,000 euros net per month, said Eric Berton, president of the University of Aix-Marseille, which was one of the first institutions to put out a hiring call to US-based scientists. That’s far lower than what can be on offer in the US. While Berton said that the school has received about 300 applications for its roughly 20 spots, including from candidates associated with prestigious institutions such as Nasa, he noted that the majority are over 50 and “have already made money”.
That’s not the only challenge European institutions face in recruiting from the US, according to a top French official who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the issue. Scholars are often reluctant to uproot their families and research projects, and it’s not easy to explain to European scientists why they should make do with low salaries and budgets while the red carpet is rolled out for their non-European peers.
To get around these concerns, some European institutions have played up the lower costs of living and the better quality of life available on the continent. Those points resonated with Molly, a US scientist in the running for an associate researcher position at a large French university. Molly, who asked not to be named as the hiring process is ongoing, said that while her income would fall to less than 4,000 euros net per month down from around US$6,100 in the US that would be offset by lower expenses. “Even if the salary on paper appears quite different, there’s many things in the US you have to pay for out of pocket,” she said. BLOOMBERG
