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Carter Freshour was sitting in a bar in Barcelona on US election night last November, watching the presidential numbers roll in with his friends, when it hit him: “I can’t go back to the United States.” 

The 22-year-old business student was born to American parents in Washington, DC, and has since lived in multiple US states, as well as Guatemala. He has been living in Phoenix since he was 17. Shaped by a highly mobile upbringing, he had already been considering living overseas at some point in his life, but the moment Donald Trump’s reelection became certain, he knew that his path lay outside his home country.

Freshour’s story echoes that of many students and academics who are reassessing their futures in the US amid the turmoil unleashed by the Trump administration’s aggressive cuts to scientific research and broader attacks on higher education.

His decision to search for international graduate programs was solidified when the new administration began making public funding cuts to education and cracking down on international students who protested government policies. “When a president attacks higher education, particularly with regards to free speech, that is the first domino to fall,” Freshour said. “If people can’t speak out against atrocities, anything else can happen.”

James Bailie, an Australian who earned his doctorate in statistics at Harvard this year, also found himself reconsidering his plans. Originally intending to stay in the US for his postdoctoral work, Bailie’s course changed after funding cuts impacted his prospects. “Around March, April, we realized that the funding for the postdoc was precarious,” he explained. “The money just wasn’t there anymore.” 

Fortunately, a collaborator in Sweden secured European grant funding to bring him on, and, in September, Bailie will begin postdoctoral work at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. “Initially I was quite disappointed, but then as all of these attacks by Trump on the university sector and on international students and international academics were happening, I came around to the idea,” he said, citing a stressful environment impacting both himself and many of his colleagues.

Bailie continued, “You don’t know what’s going to happen, there’s a large amount of uncertainty, not just in terms of funding but also in terms of your visa.” 

He also expressed concern about the impact on international students: 

The US recruits so much talent from the rest of the world. You start making life difficult for those people and they’re not going to come anymore, and the universities aren’t going to be the same amazing places to work at.

A systemic crisis underpins these individual concerns. The Trump administration proposed slashing more than 57 percent ($5 billion) from the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget and has withheld $8 billion for National Institutes of Health (NIH) research and funding, compared to the previous year. Hundreds of millions of dollars in grants have been frozen or rescinded at major research universities.

A recent Nature survey found that approximately 75 percent of US-based scientists are considering relocation, particularly early-career researchers seeking stability and opportunities in Europe, Canada, and Australia. This would put the potential drain rate closer to a torrent than a trickle.

These cuts have forced universities nationwide to impose hiring freezes, reduce graduate student enrollment, and even rescind admission offers. Over 12,500 American Fulbright scholars abroad and 7,400 foreign Fulbrights in the US have had their funding paused, further destabilizing academic communities.

A recent Nature survey found that approximately 75 percent of US-based scientists are considering relocation, particularly early-career researchers seeking stability and opportunities in Europe, Canada, and Australia. This would put the potential drain rate closer to a torrent than a trickle.

European institutions have responded with open arms. The European Union pledged €500 million (approximately $556 million) over two years to attract displaced US scientists, while France recently announced a €102 million national recruitment program. Aix-Marseille University’s Safe Place for Science initiative targeting American researchers swiftly attracted more than 60 applications for just 15 positions.

Denmark is fast-tracking 200 positions for US academics; Sweden’s education minister has publicly called for American scientists to relocate; and Canadian universities have launched multimillion-dollar efforts to recruit early-career researchers. It is becoming clear that America’s loss will be the world’s gain.

Though Bailie remains hopeful that American universities will eventually recover under a different administration, for now, his return to the US is not in the cards. Likewise, Freshour plans to either remain in Spain or move to Portugal after completing a master’s degree at IESE Business School in Madrid.

Their experiences highlight the reality that, for a growing number of students and academics, their futures lie beyond the US, in Europe and other global destinations where their work and voices are welcomed.

Naomi Stockley is an Australian graduate student at Sciences Po University in Paris.