The princess of Belgium will be returning to Harvard following a summer of uncertainty for international students because of tensions between the school and the Trump administration.
Princess Elisabeth will be entering her second year at the Ivy League institution in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a spokesperson for the Belgian Royal Palace confirmed.
“She’s happy that she can continue her master’s and that she can go back to campus,” the spokesperson said of the 23-year-old heir to the Belgian throne.
Elisabeth, the Duchess of Brabant, is in the middle of a two-year public policy program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, which is set to start its first week of classes in early September.
Earlier this year, it was unclear whether the Trump administration’s immigration policies would affect the princess. In May, the government had terminated the school’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, which would effectively block the school’s ability to enroll international students.
At the time, the Belgian Royal Palace said that it would allow time to “let things settle” before providing more details on the princess’ enrollment.
Harvard accused the administration in a lawsuit of violating itsFirst Amendment rights and won a temporary restraining order from a federal judge, allowing it to keep its international students and enroll new ones.
But by early June, the Trump administration made another attempt to block the university from enrolling foreign scholars, issuing a proclamation that said that the government would deny visas to those trying to come to the U.S. for the purpose of studying there.
Harvard immediately fought the decision.
“This is yet another illegal retaliatory step taken by the Administration in violation of Harvard’s First Amendment rights,” a spokesperson for the university said at the time.
The university amended its May lawsuit and asked the court to halt enforcement of the proclamation, which the federal judge swiftly granted.
Princess Elisabeth is among the Harvard Kennedy School’s large international population, which make up 59% of its student body. She did her undergraduate studies at Lincoln College, part of the larger Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in history and politics.
