SANTA BARBARA, California – Far from President Donald Trump’s public conflict with elite universities such as Harvard and Columbia, students at California’s bustling university Santa Barbara (UCSB) are finishing their final exams under a clear sky gleaming over a nearby beach.
Despite the distance and comfortable weather, students here feel that a cloud of uncertainty hangs on them, created by Trump’s rhetoric and policies towards foreign students.
“The overall mood of the room [among international students] “The 26-year-old doctoral student from Russia has been at UCSB since studying the political and energy transition of climate change since 2022,” said Dennis Romov, a 26-year-old Russian doctoral student at UCSB.
Since taking office this year, the Trump administration has suspended student visa appointments for hundreds of foreigners, cut funding for science and research programs, arrested and attempted to deport foreigners involved in Palestinian campus activities.
For international students at universities like UCSB, where nearly 15% of all students come from outside the US, rhetoric and policy make students wonder about the future of the country.
“Maybe you think you want to go somewhere else,” Romov told Al Jazeera, adding that he has been a few years since completing his PhD.
Like his fellow international students, he said after finishing his program, he began to consider whether his skills would be more appreciated in places like Canada and Europe.
“I think these policies are unpredictable. This is not only a student, but I am also afraid of my future after graduation,” he said.
Lack of certainty
The Trump administration’s actions against universities and foreign students meet complex outcomes in court.
On Monday, in one of the Trump administration’s first major legal victories in those efforts, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Columbia University over a cut in federal funds at the university, based on allegations that the university had not taken appropriate measures to curb pro-Palestinian activities under the name of fighting anti-semite on campus.
Another ruling said on Monday that the judge extended a restraining order that would suspend Trump’s efforts to stop incoming international students from attending Harvard University as the case progresses through the legal system. Trump has also threatened to cancel Harvard’s tax-free status, frozen over $2.6 billion in research grants. Harvard also filed a lawsuit challenging these cuts.
Several universities in the UC system, including UCSB, have warned international students against travel abroad. This is a limitation that results in serious complications in academics and personal life.
“People are looking at whether they can go home and visit their families during the program,” said Anam Mehta, a UCSB US and PhD student.
“They are very cautious about what they post online due to concerns about being asked at the airport,” added Meta, who is also involved in the UAW 4811 Academic Worker Union.
These concerns could hinder international students’ ability to carry out field activities abroad, the common characteristics of graduate studies, or attend academic conferences overseas, he said.
Some students, and even university administrators themselves, have pointed out that it is difficult to keep up with the many policy announcements, media coverage, litigation and anti-law that have been unfolding as Trump presses his attacks on higher education.
“There are frequent changes and many of these policies are implemented very quickly and without many advanced notifications,” said Carolura Miss, administrator of Santa Barbara City College (SBCC).
Smith says that 60-70 national identities are represented on campus, and in addition to international students paying higher tuition fees than US students, their presence on campus provides a welcome exposure to a broader perspective for classmates, creating connections with people from other parts of the world.
With student visa appointments currently suspended, Smith predicted that international student enrollment could fall by up to 50% next year.
Changing attitudes
The stress of keeping up with development is combined with more abstract concerns. Once considered a country that prides itself on its position as a global destination for research and scholars, the United States is becoming increasingly hostile to the presence of foreign students.
“Harvard has to show us their list [of foreign students]. They have almost 31% of their students in foreign students. We want to know where those students came from. Are they troublemakers? Which country do they come from? ” Trump said in March.
The administration also says that international students will take a university spot where they can go to US students, in line with a more introverted approach to policies they consider as US wastewater rather than a source of mutual benefit.
“They claim that they don’t need international students, that this is a talent that they should grow at home here,” says Jeffrey Rosario, an assistant professor at Loma Linda University in Southern California.
“Based on this form of economic nationalism that other parts of the world say is tearing us apart, we can see a thruline between this and overseas tariffs,” added Rosary, who wrote about the history of governments trying to exert influence over universities.
For Romov, a Russian student, the atmosphere wonders if his skills might find a better home elsewhere.
“I left Russia because I didn’t welcome it. My expertise wasn’t much needed, so I left for the United States, because I knew the United States would provide an incredible opportunity for scholars and research,” Romov said.
“But now it feels like I’m back in the same place.
