International students are one of many targets in Donald Trump's war on universities. He has attempted to make it difficult for those students to enter this country and he has tried to reduce the financial aid available to them by restructuring the Fulbright Program. Foreign students are a financial boon for the universities they attend, and their American education is often an advantage in the careers they pursue.
One way to assess the value of the programs being attacked is to examine the relationship between American universities and the education of political leaders around the world. Last year 24 new presidents and prime minister took office. A third of these chief executives had studied at American universities. They came from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iceland, Mexico, Namibia, Panama, Singapore, and Taiwan.
All pursued graduate-level programs with seven earning degrees. The eighth did part of her dissertation research in the U.S. They studied at nine different institutions. The Universities of California (Berkley), Connecticut, Miami, Michigan, Pittsburg, Wisconsin, Tulane, and Vanderbilt all hosted a future chief executive. Harvard was the academic home to three students. Several earned more than one degree from the same school or attended more than institution.
The career of the single Vanderbilt graduate illustrates the long-term impact of one of these American-educated political leaders. Muhammad Yunis of Bangladesh, a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship in 1965, earned a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt in 1969. He subsequently taught economics at what is now Middle Tennessee State University for two years.
In 1971 he returned to his home in East Pakistan, one part of the bifurcated state of Pakistan. He was active the political and military efforts which led to East Pakistan becoming the independent country of Bangladesh.
A decade after independence he founded the Grameen Bank whose purpose was to finance a variety of rural development projects. In 2006 he and the bank received the Nobel Peace Prize for that effort.
In the summer of 2024, the President of Bangladesh appointed Yunis to the position of Chief Advisor. In effect he replaces the prime minister as the nation's chief executive. The office of Chief Advisor is activated when the normal political leadership is unable to govern effectively. Its occupant is a temporary appointee charged with stabilizing the political situation and preparing the country for a transition to a new government.
Most recently (April 16, 2025) Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world. Hillary Clinton wrote his biographical sketch for that issue saying "I have witnessed the extraordinary impact of his work-- lives transformed, communities lifted and hope reborn."
Muhammad Yunis is but one of hundreds of distinguished leaders in dozens of fields whose career has an American university component. The administration should be promoting rather than impeding this experience for future students.
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