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from the prepare-yourself-for-further-tuition-increases dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
International students will be forced to leave the U.S. or transfer to another college if their schools offer classes entirely online this fall, under new guidelines issued Monday by federal immigration authorities.
The guidelines, issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, provide additional pressure for universities to reopen even amid growing concerns about the recent spread of COVID-19 among young adults. Colleges received the guidance the same day that some institutions, including Harvard University, announced that all instruction will be offered remotely.
[...] Those attending schools that are staying online must "depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction," according to the guidance.
[...] Of particular concern is a stipulation saying students won't be exempt from the rules even if an outbreak forces their schools online during the fall term. It's unclear what would happen if a student ended up in that scenario but faced travel restrictions from their home country, said Terry Hartle, the council's senior vice president.
[...] Colleges across the U.S. were already expecting sharp decreases in international enrollment this fall, but losing all international students could be disastrous for some. Many depend on tuition revenue from international students, who typically pay higher tuition rates. Last year, universities in the U.S. attracted nearly 1.1 million students from abroad.
[...] The administration has long sought deep cuts to legal immigration, but the goal was elusive before the coronavirus.
The BBC notes:
[...] Large numbers of foreign students travel to the US to study every year and are a significant source of revenue for universities as many pay full tuition.
[...] Harvard has announced all course instruction will be delivered online when students return for the new academic year, including those living at the university.
[...] Monday's announcement said foreign students who remain in the US while enrolled in online courses and fail to switch to in-person courses could face "immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings".
The rule 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 the fiscal year 2019, according to the agency's data.
According to the US Commerce Department, international students contributed $45 billion (£36 billion) to the country's economy in 2018.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday July 08 2020, @01:04PM (2 children)
Not entirely disagreeing with you OP, but I graduated 15 years ago from a blended school where you could randomly take any class live in person or online with very few exceptions (public speaking, performing and some fine arts, most gym classes...)
All my math credits transferred so I didn't need to retake diffeqs, but I'd have taken math classes in person for the study group atmosphere, if I had to. I ended up taking most of my classes online and frankly did most of my daily grind type of classwork at work during lunch. Some have night school, I had lunch school. Plenty of writing C++ at 3am on the weekend of course, but day to day grind was during lunchhour.
Anyway the point is for technological reasons even a decade and a half ago sometimes its not clear cut online or offline.
My kids are getting older and this seems VERY popular now and is creeping into high school for obscure subjects. They can't get enough HS senior students in one school to run an Accounting III class but they can online across all the schools in the district, so ...
I get this weird feeling that in a decade or two, schools will mostly be giant study halls and study group rooms and maybe some wandering teachers to keep the peace and keep the kids on track but traditional instruction might completely disappear in favor of videos, at least for middle school and up. Which will be convenient if we're still fighting covid outbreaks 25 years from now. My kids school district is being weirdly quiet about next semester plans and the future might arrive in September this year, who knows? I can imagine something like "show up on campus if you have group project that can't be done on video, or if you're behind on getting work done as a punishment, otherwise don't show up". I donno if that's online or offline on the short term. Its online today if he needs help on his math homework, and its offline tomorrow if he's doing fine on the homework.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2020, @04:34PM
Are your kids at least more enlightened than their father? Or are you steering their heads towards their butts?
(Score: 2) by quietus on Wednesday July 08 2020, @07:20PM
For the love of everything I hold dear, I cannot understand this whole video instruction thing. It is as dumb as those breaking news scrollbars underneath an interview or news report. The prime requirement of learning is focus, and focus is best achieved in isolation, no?
I think this joke of everybody being famous for at least 5 minutes has gone way too far.