The American university is made up of a vast range of students from different places and backgrounds. And given their exalted status, these universities often draw students not just from all around America, but around the world. But the tensions between noble ideals of a global campus and real-world practical challenges remain.
According to Dean of Admissions JT Duck, Tufts University aims to ensure that non-U.S. citizens comprise 12 to 13% of incoming classes. This requires active effort, and Tufts routinely searches for international schools and partnerships to ensure the consistent matriculation of a diverse freshman class. A partner in this endeavor is The Davis United World Scholars Program, which is funded by philanthropist Shelby Davis. According to its website, “The Davis UWC Scholars Program is the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship programme for undergraduates.”
The Davis program provides scholarships to students, covering a percentage of the cost of attendance and making it easier for international students to enroll in top American universities. The financial benefits flow in both directions as universities get to retain top international talent without having to fund grants and scholarships of their own. International students from the Davis program are drawn from a network of elite international boarding schools known as the United World Colleges Program (UWC).
UWC operates a network of 18 primary and secondary schools across four continents. It primarily educates students ages 16 to 19 through the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), a curriculum they helped to establish in 1968. UWC was founded in 1962 by Kurt Hahn, who, having lived through two world wars, sought to develop an international education that valued a shared humanity. The UWC experience aims to instill values such as empathy, responsibility, and lifelong action in its students, culminating in an alumni network of over 85,000 individuals. Tufts currently enrolls 60 UWC alumni.
In the words of Phil Geier, the executive director and co-founder of the Davis UWC Scholars Program, these partnerships “foster highly personal relationships between outstanding Americans and non-Americans on U.S. campuses.” Various executive actions from the Trump administration have attempted to protect U.S. citizens from international competition for spots at universities. These include, but are not limited to: delays with student visa interviews, travel bans, and limitations on visa duration.
According to the U.S. Department of State and the Institute of International Education, international student enrollment in the fall 2025 semester fell 17% nationwide, largely as a result of federal changes to student visa policy.
Despite this, the Davis mission still prevails globally. In a written statement to The Tufts Tribune, Geier commented: “After lots of uncertainties and challenges over the past year, our number of scholars who matriculated this year actually exceeded last year’s, another all-time high. This is in contrast to the macro picture of diminished international students coming to the U.S. We remain committed to expanding educational opportunities, building communities of difference, and representing America’s ‘soft power’ in the world.”
As inflation-adjusted tuition increases annually at American universities, so does the financial need of applicants. But the Davis program’s support transcends simple financial need. Natali Apridonidze (‘29), a UWC graduate currently studying at Tufts, explains, “Even if you paid your entire WC fee for the private boarding school, you still are eligible to get financial aid from Davis…for Tufts, even if you don’t have the financial need, Davis can cover up to 10 or 25 [thousand], and then the rest you can pay.”
UWC alumni in the Davis program are “outstanding,” as Geier says, and have the capacity to make great contributions to their school communities. Indeed, the current director of Tufts’s Institute for Global Leadership is none other than Fletcher School Professor of the Practice of International Politics Abiodun Williams (MALD ‘86, Ph.D. ‘87), a UWC alum with a storied career as a senior official at the United Nations and president of the Hague Institute for Global Justice.
In a 2017 recorded interview with then-Dean of the Fletcher School James Stavridis, Williams describes his “homecoming” as he returns to Tufts to continue to fulfill UWC’s mission. His goal as the second director of Tufts’s Institute for Global Leadership is “to prepare new generations of leaders for effective ethical global leadership.”
An essential piece of the Davis program’s mission is not just the placement of excellent international students at elite universities, but specifically the connection and integration of such students on campuses across the U.S. This is also an important piece of Tufts’s stated mission, proclaiming that “globalism is not just a theme discussed in classrooms; it is a way of life,” and lauding its International Center for facilitating “intercultural exchange” and inclusion. But integration is no simple task. According to some, the realization of these broad principles may need vastly more front-line support, or even a total reframing.
One student who wished to remain anonymous, explained that international-domestic student relations seem to be lacking outside the classroom: “I know some other international students I have spoken to only hang out with internationals because they feel like even though they come from different pockets of the world, they have a similar shared experience being [international] at Tufts,” he said. He also explained that English fluency can be a barrier between Tufts’ domestic and international students.
Programs like the student-led Tufts International Club and the pre-orientation group Global Orientation (GO) work to support international students once they arrive on campus. But in these spaces, the tension between an all-inclusive model of exchange and identity-specific communities persists. According to one international student who studied at a UWC in East Africa and wished to remain anonymous, the ratio of international to American participants has shifted in favor of the latter. “GO is open to everyone, but at other colleges, it will be international-student-only orientation, and Tufts doesn’t really do that, so everyone is sort of intermingling,” he described.
Nica, an international student in her junior year, explained that “the Global Orientation is usually for international students—it’s usually half and half, international to American ratio.” But this year, she noted the ratio was closer to 30:70. Nica was both a freshman participant and sophomore leader with the GO program, and highlighted areas where it could more directly support international students. “I feel like we need a more tailored program for internationals if we want to talk about the real impacts that we’re having right now. It feels like they get all this time to make new friends and to explore the Boston area, which is great in theory, but if you want to address the real issues that international students are facing, it’s not ideal.” Mia, a non-international student who participated in GO this summer, recognized that the program “was definitely geared toward international students,” but enjoyed its offerings nonetheless.
Nica, who also serves as the treasurer of the International Club, explains that, “We brand ourselves, in terms of being a key part [of international student life].” She qualified that their goal was never “to take over the international scene in any way, shape or form.” Even in recognition that the club may not have a “huge impact,” Nica was resolute in the goal “to create the space for students that don’t feel welcome anywhere else.” Nica’s work on campus reveals further cracks in the globalist project.
It is clear that the missions of both the Davis program and Tufts, with respect to the recruitment and inclusion of students all around the world, are deeply intertwined. They collectively aim at the exchange of ideas and cultures across campuses, the fullest expression of the globalist ideal. For the Davis program, this lofty goal is also grounded in the more utilitarian advancement of American soft power on a global stage. But these dual projects face challenges from all sides. The Trump administration’s attempt to reduce international participation in American universities reveals a conflicting and equally utilitarian goal, the parochial conservation of preferential opportunity in higher education for American-born students. The on-the-ground realities for international students at Tufts offer a further challenge. To some, these broad ideals can only be realized in their fullest expression when supported by a dense network of support organizations that better recognize the everyday realities of these students, organizations that are particular, rather than universal by design.
Photo by Noa Cordova