UNC System faculty brace for fallout from travel bans and visa delays
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Travel bans and visa delays disrupt UNC System faculty research and employment.
- Foreign universities attract U.S. faculty amid instability in immigration policy.
- J-1 visa pauses and backlogs delay scholar arrivals and threaten grant timelines.
Faculty across the UNC System’s 17 institutions are grappling with how travel bans, restrictions and visa application delays could impact their teaching, their research and their desire to stay employed in the United States.
Wade Maki, chair of the UNC System faculty assembly, said faculty are concerned about traveling for international research projects, especially those who are foreign nationals or visa holders.
“If they leave, is something going to happen that prevents them from returning?” Maki said. “[You’ve] just got to know what the rules are, and they have to be relatively stable. We don’t have that now, and it’s costing us.”
Last year, Duke had more than 1,600 visiting scholars in 2024, and UNC-Chapel Hill had more than 600, according to Open Doors, which collects data on international students pursuing higher education in the U.S. Visiting scholars work, research or teach at a host university for a temporary timeframe.
Both international and American-born faculty might be inclined to leave for institutions elsewhere if their research relies on global travel or cooperation, Maki said.
Universities abroad jumped on U.S. travel bans and visa restrictions as an opportunity to attract international students, faculty and researchers to their institutions instead, according to Maki.
“We’ve seen European universities explicitly hiring away our faculty researchers,” Maki said. “There’s been ads like, ‘come work in Europe.... in the European Union, we don’t have these rules.’ So big picture, what we need are clear rules that are not changed frequently or retroactively.”
It’s a waiting game, according to Maki. Institutions are making every effort to avoid government scrutiny, so faculty at risk are remaining largely silent about their concerns. Others are slipping out of the university system for opportunities beyond the U.S.
In the long run, Maki suspects U.S. universities could lose their prestige, and colleges and departments that are tied to international research and teaching will also falter.
America’s successful track record in being on the cutting edge of certain industries, like technology and artificial intelligence, is due in part to the country’s “openness of bringing in the best talent from around the world,” Maki added.
He said lawyers, chancellors and school administrators have pleaded for more answers from the federal government, especially given its back-and-forth approach to international students’ visas in the spring.
The Trump administration thrust international students into the spotlight in the spring after revoking nearly 2,000 student visas across the country. A majority of the visas were reinstated, but the administration also issued 19 travel bans, and has proposed 36 more. Universities are still figuring out what this means for faculty who have students living in these impacted countries or for visiting scholars engaging in global research.
Added to the uncertainty are visa application backlogs, spurred by a temporary national pause on applications between May and June. Once the pause lifted, a rush to secure visas ensued, adding to longer wait times.
A majority of visiting scholars are on J-1 visas, said Clay Harmon, executive director of AIRC, the Association of International Enrollment Management. The membership-based organization for colleges develops standards for enrolling international students.
J-1 visas are nonimmigrant visas that allow scholars around the globe to come to the U.S. for work- and study-based exchange visitor programs.
The summertime application pause included all J-1 visas. So, Harmon said, incoming scholars who intended to start work or research at a North Carolina university under a J-1 visa likely had to delay their plans. But now that visa application spots are gradually opening, Harmon said the fall semester could see new J-1 scholars getting back on track.
Previous travel restrictions and bans during Trump’s first presidential administration made a dent in international representation in higher education, Harmon said. But the decline was short-lived and largely overturned through former President Joe Biden’s succeeding administration.
Now, history is repeating itself, Harmon added, but this time with stronger force.
“We’re seeing a lot of those same themes with the second Trump administration, but much stronger in implementation, much bolder in implementation, and certainly a much more significant impact on international employment,” Harmon said.
Faculty overseeing projects and research managed by international graduate students could be affected, too, he added. If a student researcher can’t get back into the country, it could delay progress on projects, which are often approved for a specific timeline with a designated grant.
In the summer, a majority of full-time students are back home taking a break from campus life, completing online courses remotely or traveling abroad. Faculty, too, travel for academic programs and research, according to Beth Moracco, chair of faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill. Many of them are about to return.
Fear and uncertainty are on the rise as schools prepare for the fall semester, she said. Among the biggest concerns and frustrations is the lack of guidance from the federal government, Moracco said, especially given the whiplash campuses faced from the constantly changing D.C. directives in the spring.
“How do we protect our international students, faculty and staff?” Moracco said. “What are their rights? What as a community are our rights? There’s just a lot of questions.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "UNC System faculty brace for fallout from travel bans and visa delays."
