Dartmouth has ended its partnership with the China Scholarship Council, an international exchange program funded by China.
On July 8, Republican leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent letters to Dartmouth and six other universities, asking the institutions to end their involvement with the program, according to the Associated Press. Dartmouth made the decision to end the program last academic year, before receiving the letter, according to College spokesperson Jana Barnello.
The letter to Dartmouth cites concerns about CSC’s “alignment with U.S. national security interests.”
“The CSC has faced increasing scrutiny and criticism due to concerns over academic freedom, surveillance of students, ideological control and potential espionage,” the letter reads.
The letter comes as the Trump administration has put pressure on universities, including facilitating the revocation of international student visas. On May 28, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced plans to “aggressively” revoke the visas of Chinese students in a press release from the Department of State.
According to Barnello, the scholarship program was open to Ph.D. students in the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies and Thayer School of Engineering and had fewer than 10 participants in the last decade.
The College is currently reviewing the letter and “look[s] forward to responding to the select committee,” Barnello added.
“Dartmouth remains committed to bringing the best and brightest students from around the world to our campus in accordance with U.S. law,” she wrote.
