Following the recent decision by the United States to withdraw visas of foreign students whose universities have turned to teaching classes online for the academic year next fall, thousands of Kuwaiti students studying in America are likely to be forced to leave the country.
The Ministry of Higher Education called for an emergency meeting to be held tomorrow, Thursday, for the Equalization Committee to discuss how to handle the prospect of introducing e-learning (online) with various countries where Kuwaiti students study.
The spokesperson for the ministry, Under-Secretary of Missions and Cultural Relations, Fatima Al Sinan, said the meeting came after the decisions of the US Immigration Department on Monday.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency stated on Monday that Foreign students must leave the United States if they are currently studying in schools that will start classes this fall, which will be taught completely online, or the alternative is to transfer to another school with in-person classrooms.
Figures have not been released on how many student visa holders would be impacted by the decision, but foreign students are a key source of revenue for many US universities, particularly due to paying full tuition.
She explained that coordination is underway to meet with officials at the American embassy to discuss the decision and follow-up on what will happen regarding the conditions of students studying in the United States.
On its part, the US embassy in Kuwait called on all Kuwaiti students studying in the United States to contact the advisor of international students in their universities to confirm the nature of the student’s study programme, and highlighted that new students who will start their academic year through online education only, do not have to apply for a student visa at the present time, until their universities decide to shift to classroom attendance or a mixed system.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said it would not allow those with student visas to remain in the country if their school was fully online for the fall. Those students have to either transfer or leave the country, or they potentially face deportation proceedings, according to the announcement.
Colleges and universities have begun to announce plans for the fall 2020 semester as the continued coronavirus pandemic continues
Harvard University on Monday announced it would conduct course instruction online for the 2020-2021 academic year.
The ICE guidance applies to holders of F-1 and M-1 visas, which are for academic and vocational students. The State Department issued 388,839 F visas and 9,518 M visas in fiscal 2019.
The guidance does not affect students taking classes in person, and also does not affect F-1 students taking a partial online course-load, as long as their university certifies the student’s studies is not completely online and requires the presence in the classroom. M-1 vocational programme students and F-1 English language training programme students will also not be allowed to take any classes online.
In April, the US Ambassador to Kuwait Alina Romanowski estimated that the number of Kuwaiti students in the US was at 12,000, who are part of a great tradition of scholarship and educational cooperation between Kuwait and the US.
