The United States government has rescinded its decision to revoke foreign student visas, whose courses move online due to coronavirus.
A federal judge, Allison Burroughs, confirmed this on Tuesday.
“The government has agreed to rescind the decision as well as any implementation of the directive,” Burroughs said in a brief hearing.
The universities of Harvard and MIT supported by other institutions, had taken legal action against the move that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on July 6.
They asked the court to block the order announced by ICE, that students must leave the country if their classes are only online, or transfer to a school offering in-person tuition.
The measure was seen as a move by President Donald Trump administration, to put pressure on educational institutions that are adopting a cautious approach to reopening amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The universities say in their lawsuit that the order would harm students “immensely” both personally and financially.
According to the Institute of International Education (IIE), there were more than one million international students in the US for the 2018/2019 academic year.
