US Memo Restricts Internship Work Permits for International Students and Threatens University Certification

The Trump administration has told American universities to restrict a category of work authorization used by international students, The Hindu reported. A memo dated 24 August from the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says the agency has seen a rise in Curricular Practical Training authorizations that appear to breach rules permitting such training only when it forms an integral part of an established curriculum. The memo warns that failure to comply may cost an institution its certification to enrol foreign students at all.

Universities have responded by stopping work rather than contesting the memo. The international office at the University of California, Berkeley described the notice as narrower, more direct and more restrictive than an earlier one issued in mid-August, and said it is extending a pause on certain work authorizations for the foreseeable future while continuing to process authorizations tied directly to degree requirements.

The internship restriction arrives alongside a separate suspension of visa interviews reported this week by the South China Morning Post, and follows a year of federal investigations and funding threats aimed at American universities over campus protests, diversity programmes and other policy disputes.

Paid practical training is a substantial part of what a US degree offers students from India, China and elsewhere, and for many it is how they finance the degree. Removing it changes the return on a very expensive product that American universities sell to the world.