This archive report was first published on 11 July 2020.
Published on July 11, 2020, an order by US President Donald Trump requiring foreign students to leave the country in two months has sparked anxiety among Kenyan learners.
Prof Kefa Otiso, a Kenyan lecturer at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, described the directive as punitive.
“There is no justification in suddenly disrupting the lives of Kenyans in America,” he said.
Over 4,000 Kenyan students were in American universities and colleges in the 2019/20 academic year, according to Kenya Scholars and Studies Association president Jerono Rotich.
Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and several other universities have moved to the federal court to block the implementation of the order.
The universities argue that foreign students could be detained or deported if they disobey the directive, which may bar their return to the United States for many years.
They also argue that online learning can be interrupted by unscheduled government suspension of internet access, as seen in Ethiopia, which has been experiencing such a suspension since June 30.
Many international students could abandon their studies due to these challenges, the universities argue.
US universities depend on international master’s and PhD students to teach their introductory and laboratory courses and conducting high value research, which cannot be done from overseas.
