The University of Tennessee, Knoxville has terminated a controversial agreement with the China Scholarship Council. A university spokesperson announced last week that only three current students will be impacted by the decision.
The council is an organization affiliated with China’s Ministry of Education that supports scholarship programs for Chinese college students. Tennessee and the council entered a memorandum of understanding in 2024 that was expected to run through 2029. The notice of termination was dated on July 10.
UT and CSC would select students to enroll in the university’s PhD or Master’s degree programs with both groups paying a share of the scholarship.
The decision comes on the heels of greater scrutiny by members of Congress regarding the program and issues of Chinese espionage. House Republicans in early July sent a letter to seven U.S. universities urging them to cut ties with the program that lawmakers called a “nefarious mechanism” to steal technology for the Chinese government.
In letters to Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame and five other universities, including Tennessee, leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party raised their concerns over spying and theft of intellectual property.
The program sponsors hundreds of Chinese graduate students every year at U.S. universities. After graduating, they’re required to return to China for two years. House Republicans described it as a threat to national security.
Letters also were sent to Temple University and the University of California campuses in Davis, Irvine and Riverside.
President Donald Trump and House Republicans have stepped up scrutiny of Chinese students coming to the U.S. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would revoke visas from some Chinese students studying in “critical fields.”
During his first term, Trump restricted visas for students affiliated with China’s “military-civil fusion strategy.”
Many U.S. universities have acknowledged a need to improve research security but warn against treating Chinese students with hostility and suspicion, noting that only small number have actually been involved in espionage.
China is the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the U.S., behind only India. Last year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States. Many stay to work in the U.S. after graduation.
The Trump administration promised in May to revoke visas for some of the most of the Chinese students currently at American universities and to dramatically tighten visa screenings going forward. This all comes amid the backdrop of serious tariff disputes between the US and China that show no signs of tempering anytime soon.
