Columbia University 1972 protesting the Vietnam War
University campus student activism first hit the headlines in the late 1960s in France, the UK and mainly the USA. In the New York Times, Charles Blow argues that the college activism of the late 1960’s was built on the Civil rights protests of the late 1950’s and early 60s when people opposed the openly racist policies imposed by Southern USA states on their non-white populations. As the Vietnam war ramped up and conscription led to the deaths of thousands of young American conscripts, the feelings of social justice aroused by a decade of civil rights protests was redirected towards a powerful anti-war movement. Protests across the nation, and particularly in UC Berkeley, were one of the factors resulting in the withdrawal of the USA from that disastrous war.
In Europe, ‘les evenements’ of 1968 followed hot on the heels of France’s brutal decoupling from Algeria, when dissatisfaction with workers conditions coincided with students’ disillusionment with the quality of the higher education being offered to them. Although the impact of the ‘68 protests in France is debatable, there is no doubt that they led to a more nuanced understanding of social change and opened up new areas of progress including feminism, gay rights and environmentalism. LSE activism at the same period centred on the decolonisation process, including opposing the appointment of the new director, who had links to Rhodesia and again moved social understanding away from the neo-colonial lens.
Paris- May 1968
From 1980s onwards, with feminism and anti-racism apparently making great strides in the Western world, university students appeared to be lulled into complacency and started to buy into the aspirational society described by Reagan and Thatcherism and given further impetus by the end of the Cold War. MBAs and careers in Investment Banking, Corporate Law and Management Consultancy became the order of the day. Student protest and campus activism subsided and there was an idea of ‘the end of ideology’. The election of Barack Obama in 2008 seemed to confirm that the future was bright.
But all was not well in the world and especially in the Middle East which was reeling from the impact of the invasion of Iraq and the consequent mushrooming of extremist groups, inevitably fuelled by the plight of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The evident shortcomings of autocracies and stalled economies of Latin America, Asia and Africa contributed to the growing problem caused by mass migration from trouble spots all over the world. And all of this was overshadowed by the looming existential threat of climate change. The complacency and denialism of the late 20th and early 21st centuries was no longer an option.
2016 was a watershed year for the USA and UK. The election of right wing populist Donald Trump and the self-sabotaging decision of the UK to leave the EU shook the foundations of the Anglosphere and accelerated the polarisation of opinion and the undermining of previously revered institutions.
The Covid-19 pandemic further destabilised the world order and exposed the weaknesses of these newly elected populists, Trump and Johnson, and the persistent fault lines of the societies they led, whether racism, sexism or gross inequalities. The murder of George Floyd in May 2020, in Minneapolis, led to an eruption of outrage across social media and an explosion of social activism under the Black Lives Matter banner, a movement that had been gaining momentum over the previous decade, with a series of high-profile cases of police brutality against African-Americans. In the UK the protests of 2020 targeted symbols of imperialism and the slave trade, most famously in the despatch of a statue of a wealthy slave trader, Edward Colston, into the depths of Bristol Harbour. Climate activism was also a vocal element with Extinction Rebellion and others participating in mass protests and disruptions.
If television brought the Vietnam war into people’s living rooms, it is now social media and events captured on mobile phones that are the main drivers of opinion and action. A heightened awareness of injustices in the world, added to unfettered footage of unspeakable brutality and destruction, has meant that the genocide in Gaza has been viewed through an altered lens. The same young people who were outraged by the killing of George Floyd are now outraged by the scenes of slaughter of tens of thousands of men, women and children.
Student protests against the war in Gaza started in the USA and have quickly spread to European universities, with sit-ins and encampments the preferred method of activism. Current student protests demand both a ceasefire and that universities disclose their investment streams and divest from those supporting Israel. Although student arrests have taken place across Europe, including Amsterdam, Oxford, Paris and Berlin, perhaps the reputation of US police as being more brutal, has led to a perception of reduced threat in Europe.
2024 occupation of Hamilton Hall- renamed Hind’s Hall by protestors
Given the relative insecurity of the visa status of international students, one assumes that the majority of activists in the current standoffs on US campuses are US citizens. However, several international students who have participated have received suspensions that threaten their visa status and may lead to their deportation. A Palestinian Phd student in Manchester and a British Phd student at Cornell, who have been suspended as a result of their participation in a sit-in, are both testament to this. Attempts to discover what percentage of protestors are nationals or international students, were unsuccessful.
Pro-Palestinian Protestor at Oxford
In the short to medium term, the current occupations and protests on American university campuses, and the harsh treatment they have received at the hands of the police, are likely to deter future international students from considering the USA as a destination. A recent article in the weekly Times Higher Education reported that current students from the 6 Gulf countries have dropped by 67% since they peaked in 2015/16 academic year. Canada has shown an even steeper decline. Applications to the UK from the same nations have increased by 350% between 2010 and 2024.
It is reasonable to predict that international parents, already worried by gun crime and safety, will be further deterred from choosing the USA as a destination. According to CNN, Columbia university is already finding that students offered places for this fall have chosen alternative colleges and that many rising Seniors are taking it off their list for next year. Another consideration is cost and wasting hard-earned money on a politically destabilised university, A recent article in the Times referred to ‘outraged’ parents demanding refunds of fees from Columbia university or transfers to universities elsewhere.
In these unsettled times, it is safe to assume that the universities that will incur the greatest cost in terms of student applications from abroad, will be those in North America. However, with the ongoing debate in the UK over whether to abolish the 2-year Graduate Visa introduced in 2019, levies on International students in Australia, quotas on international student numbers in Canada, universities in the Netherlands limiting or reducing English language courses – it remains a worrying time for international High School students worldwide.
Resources used include:
‘Amid Campus Protests, Some Teens and Parents Reconsider Enrolment Decisions.’ Samantha Kelly, CNN, May 1st 2024
‘US Colleges face their next Big Challenge: Furious Parents’, Josie Ensor, The Times, May 3rd 2024.
‘The Ghost of the Antiwar Movement has returned’, Charles Blow, New York Times April 24, 2024
‘MAC Report- Last ditch bid to save the Graduate Visa’ Times Higher Education- May 8th 2024
‘Safety Fears and Cost push Gulf Students away from US, towards UK’ Times Higher Education- April 22nd, 2024
