The data, published by Harvard last week, revealed a modest increase of roughly 50 more international students than the previous year, despite repeated attempts by the government to strip the university of its ability to enrol students from overseas.
Chinese student enrolment grew by 4.5% from the previous year, totalling nearly 1,500 students and comprising the largest international cohort at Harvard. Enrolments from South Korea also saw a notable growth rate of nearly 9% from 2024.
In contrast, Indian student enrolments fell by more than 30% and totalled 545 students, bucking nationwide trends that have seen India rise above China as the US’s largest source market in recent years.
Regarding Chinese students “risk tolerance is higher than many observers assume”, said David Weeks, co-founder of Sunrise International, which advises on Chinese student recruitment.
“A large, committed cohort remains willing to tolerate policy volatility for the upside of a US degree, particularly at the very top institutions.”
“And many Chinese families have lived through prior US-China ‘lurch cycles’ like the 2018 trade war, so they evaluate shocks differently compared to markets like India,” he told The PIE News.
The overall rise in Harvard’s international student population – now amounting to 6,749 students – also runs counter to national trends, with IIE’s 2025 Fall Snapshot survey revealing a 17% decline in new international enrolments this academic year.
For Weeks, the rise marks a “meaningful signal for Harvard, and to a slightly lesser extent, for US higher education”, noting that Chinese students of all levels were “generally willing to accept a cumbersome visa process to enrol in the best university that they’re admitted to”.
The enduring appeal of Harvard among Chinese students comes despite many of the administration’s restrictive policies and hostile rhetoric specifically targeting China, including secretary of state Rubio’s threat last year to “aggressively revoke” Chinese student visas.
Meanwhile, when homeland security secretary Noem attempted to revoke Harvard’s ability to enrol international students in May 2025, she accused the university of “coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party” – putting Harvard’s Chinese student population under the spotlight.
The data showed the rise in international enrolments was driven by increases at the graduate level – which dominates Harvard’s international student population – and which offset a modest decline in international undergraduate enrolments.
Here the trend once again defied national patterns, with US institutions recording a 12% decrease in international graduate enrolments this academic year, while undergraduate enrolments grew by 2%.
Top-ranked US schools have some added insulation from Trump’s policies when recruiting in China because of the gravitational pull of their brands
David Weeks, Sunrise International
According to Weeks: “China’s massive undergraduate population in the US insulates schools like Harvard where the lion’s share of Chinese students are graduates.”
“China has the largest population of undergraduates with existing visas in the US, double that of India and more than the next four countries combined,” he continued.
The rise in Harvard’s international enrolments this academic year comes despite Trump’s aggressive clampdown on international students, which has seen more than 8,000 student visas revoked in the first year of his second presidential term.
Trump’s assault on Harvard has taken centre stage in the administration’s broader mission to reshape US higher education, after the university refused to bow to government demands in April 2025, including handing over international student records.
The long-running feud has seen the government freezing billions of dollars of research funding – a move recently ruled unlawful by a federal judge – and several attempts to bar Harvard’s international enrolments, which the university is currently fighting in the courts.
Amid the volatility, Weeks said the reputational pull of top US brands remained “intense”, particularly among Chinese students, with the perceived long-term credential value “hard to match”.
“Alternatives to the US have limits, and quality thresholds are sticky. Australia, the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong can absorb some demand, but top-tier capacity is finite.”
“Many students won’t accept a significant downgrade in academic quality or network effects purely in exchange for marginally more visa certainty,” he said.
