Eighteen leading universities, including Ivy League schools and MIT, are backing Harvard in its legal battle against the Trump administration's freeze on $3 billion in federal research funding. This coordinated effort highlights concerns about the future of research funding and institutional autonomy.

President Donald Trump is moving to block nearly all foreign students from entering the country to attend Harvard University, his latest attempt to choke the Ivy League school from an international pipeline that accounts for a quarter of the student body.

On its Cambridge campus and in a Boston courtroom, Harvard touted its international students as vital contributors to its makeup.