Berlin denounces Trump decision to ban Harvard from hosting foreign students

German Minister for Research, Dorothee Bär, denounced Friday the U.S. government's decision to ban Harvard University from hosting foreign students.

"This is a very, very bad decision. I hope it will be reversed," the minister said to reporters before a meeting of European Ministers of Science and Research in Brussels. The conservative minister expressed being "very, very concerned about what is happening in the United States at the moment." "The decision by the U.S. government [...] saddens me a lot. It is not a positive signal, neither for the young generation nor for the free world," she continued.

According to Bär, more and more foreign professors and students are asking German universities to welcome them.

"We are already witnessing a shift, not only from American students who want to come to us, but also from other countries, including China and India, who choose Europe because they see a different guarantee of their freedom there," she said in an interview with German radio Bayern 2, before the EU ministerial council.

"I would never have thought, being a great advocate of transatlantic ties, that we would reach this point, that the nerve center of academic freedom would one day be questioned," she added.