WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump`s administration has revoked Harvard University`s ability to enrol international students, and will force existing students to transfer to other schools or lose their legal status, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ordered the department to terminate the Harvard University`s Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP) certification, the department said in a statement. Harvard called the action illegal.

The move comes after Harvard refused to provide information Noem had previously demanded about some foreign student visa holders who attend the university, the department said.

`This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus,` Noem said. `It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enrol foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad theirmultibillion-dollar endowments.` Harvard said the move a retaliatory action that threatens serious harm to the university.

`The governments action is unlawful. We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard`s ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University and this nation immeasurably, the university said in as statement.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move marks a significant escalation of the Trump administrations campaign against the elite Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which has emerged as one of Trump`s most prominent institutional targets.

The Republican president has undertaken an extraordinary effort to revamp private colleges and schools across the US that he says foster antiAmerican, Marxist and `radical left` ideologies.

He has criticised Harvard in particular for hiring prominent Democrats to teaching or leadership positions.-Reuters