The new restrictions on US student visas, and the uncertainty around them, are likely to cause tremendous anxiety among current and prospective international students. Happening right at the time when students apply for visas and prepare for the beginning of a new journey in their lives, the new policies are taking a toll on the students and their families.

One hopes that those around the impacted students would react with a sense of empathy, understanding and support, and not through sermons on why these policies are good for everyone, and will end the so-called 'brain drain'.

Too often, wrapped in the conversation of students who choose to study abroad is a sentiment that people leave because they are fundamentally unpatriotic or greedy.

My own experience meeting students who come abroad for undergraduate or graduate education, as I have discussed in these pages before, is quite different.

The patriotism question is one that does not merit any discussion anyway. No one has........

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