Belgium’s Royal Palace said on Friday that Princess Elisabeth, who is first in line to the throne, is waiting to find out if she can return to Harvard for her second year. This comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ban affecting foreign students at the university.
On Thursday, the Trump administration took away Harvard University’s permission to enroll international students. This move is part of an ongoing conflict with the Ivy League school. It means thousands of students must either transfer to other schools or leave the United States.
“We are looking into the situation, to see what kind of impact this decision might have on the princess, or not. It’s too early to say right now,” said the palace’s communications head, Xavier Baert.
Baert explained that Princess Elisabeth, who is 23 years old, finished her first year of a graduate program at Harvard and is now spending the summer in Belgium. “And we’ll have to see what happens next year,” he added.
President Donald Trump speaks with the reporters in front of the White HousePrincess Elisabeth is the eldest of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde’s four children. She has been studying for a Master in Public Policy. Before that, she earned a degree in history and politics from Lincoln College at Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Harvard has about 6,800 international students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is more than a quarter of all its students. Most of them are graduate students from over 100 countries.
On Friday, the university filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston. It said the Trump administration’s action goes against the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”
