What might the new Trump administration mean for higher education?

[@henryh2429]

COME ON TRUMP Wooohooo

[@thepostgradyear]

this sounds pretty bad for university finances if nothing else

[@BryanAlexander]

That's academia's soft underbelly, especially for the large number of schools which are financially troubled now.

[@thepostgradyear]

@@BryanAlexander Do you think a potential influx of Indian students would be enough to stabilize the situation? Or will the students redirected from Australia and Canada simply not be enough to even make up for the loss of the Chinese students?

[@BryanAlexander]

@@thepostgradyear It would take doubling the amount of Indian students, roughly. One potential benefit: Britain, Australia, and especially Canada have cut back their international student numbers.

[@thepostgradyear]

@@BryanAlexander While it's nice to know that doubling the number of people from one location could temporarily neutralize one problem... It's more than a bit concerning to know that the only single country solution - would require doubling the depth of a population from the only other country more populous than all of Africa.

[@BryanAlexander]

@@thepostgradyear It's quite a problem, no? Let's look at it from the medium and long term. India's population is starting to follow the developed world's pattern of fewer children and longer lifespans. This will ultimately reduce the number of students they can send to other countries. Meanwhile, much of subsaharan Africa is still producing children at scale, which means potentially a lot of students for other countries' colleges if their educational systems improve.

[@LAABable]

When you rely on tax payers dollars you need to listen to elected officials. This is not that complicated.

[@BryanAlexander]

Listen, yes. But automatically obey, not necessarily. Public universities have some autonomy, and there is the principle of academic freedom.

[@Policy-tc4ks]

@@BryanAlexander Some autonomy yes. Emphsis on some. Academic freedom does not mean direct access to the coffers. You can't have both worlds. When the political climate is one sided on some campuses the legislature might close the check book. Pretending that campuses are a comfortable place for conservatives is childish. If you take a partisan view than by all means epexct your political opponents to not give you resources.

[@BryanAlexander]

@@Policy-tc4ks Good points about the partisan divide.