As concerns about China’s virus outbreak spread, universities are scrambling to assess the risks to their programs, and some are canceling study-abroad opportunities and prohibiting travel affecting hundreds of thousands of students.
From Europe to Australia and the United States, universities in countries that host Chinese students have reconsidered academic-related travel to and from China. In the U.S., the cancellations add to the tension between two governments whose relations were already sour.
The scare threatens to cause lasting damage to growing academic exchange programs that reached new heights over the last decade and a half, experts say.
The travel restrictions also complicate planning for conferences and campus events in the U.S. that scholars from China might attend.
“That door has been, if not slammed shut, certainly closed for the immediate future,” said Michael Schoenfeld, Duke University’s vice president for public affairs and government relations.