Wave of Campus Protests Spreads to International Universities, Sparking Concern

During the past week, campuses across the United States have become the epicenter of a surging wave of protest encampments and demonstrations, leading to mass detentions and confrontations with law enforcement. Alongside, the events have garnered significant attention from the media. However, these protests have not been confined to the United States and continue to propagate worldwide.

Contrastingly, universities abroad have experienced sporadic and relatively smaller protests, failing to ignite a broader student movement. In the United Kingdom, for instance, only modest groups of students staged temporary occupations of university buildings at the University of Manchester and the University of Glasgow, failing to generate widespread attention or trigger a domino effect of demonstrations.

While this wave of protest has not yet rippled across foreign universities, signs of its potential expansion have emerged. This week, students established a protest encampment at Sydney University in Australia. Furthermore, a student protest at Sciences Po in Paris prompted the cancellation of Friday classes at the elite university, indicating a possible ripple effect of the protests to foreign academic institutions.