University of B.C. reopens application windows for U.S. grad students

The University of B.C. (UBC) is reopening its application windows for U.S. students who might want to move north as President Donald Trump's administration threatens American colleges and universities with funding cuts.

UBC provost Gage Averill says the university has seen a 27 per cent increase in U.S. applications for graduate school since the last academic year.

According to the website for UBC's Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, select graduate programs will re-open their applications from April 14 to 18 for U.S. citizens to be considered for September 2025 or January 2026 entry.

"We're thinking we're going to get more students who are having to make changes in their plans, whether it's because their major has become difficult to pursue [or] their visa status is questionable," Averill said.

The interest comes amid tensions in the U.S. between the Trump administration and post-secondary institutions. 

The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion US in federal funding for Cornell University and about $790 million US for Northwestern University while the government investigates alleged civil rights violations at the schools, according to the White House.

It's part of a broader push of using taxpayer dollars to pressure major academic institutions to comply with Trump's political agenda and to influence campus policy.

The White House late on Tuesday confirmed to The Associated Press that there is a hold on the universities' funding, but offered no further details on what that meant or what grants were affected.

The Republican administration also axed $400 million US in funding for Columbia University, citing concerns over how it handled pro-Palestinian protests.

Carrie Simonelli of Rhode Island says her daughter is looking at Canadian universities such as McGill and UBC because she has an interest in gender studies, an area of study that may not fit in with the current U.S. political climate. 

"I want her to be somewhere where she's free to make her own choices, and not somewhere where some programs are favoured more over others," Simonelli said. 

Derrick Anderson of the American Council on Education, which represents higher education in Washington, says there are tremendous opportunities at U.S. universities, but there are concerns that American students are looking to study abroad out of "a loss of trust and confidence."

"I worry about people viewing international opportunities as a solution to what they might view as a sub-optimal experience they might have here in the United States," Anderson said.

"I still feel like the value proposition of an American college experience is unparalleled."