US colleges warn foreign students of possible travel ban

With students at many colleges wrapping up final exams this week and preparing for their winter break, a number of schools are advising their international students to return to campus before US President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan 20.

They include Harvard University, the University of Southern California and Cornell University.

During his last term, Trump imposed restrictions on entry to the US from seven majority-Muslim countries, a policy that stranded thousands of students who were abroad at the time.

Later in his term, Trump added more countries to the restricted travel list. He has spoken of wanting to reimpose those restrictions once he is back in the White House.

"A travel ban is likely to go into effect soon after inauguration," Cornell's Office of Global Learning warned students on its website late in November, advising them to be back in the US before the start of spring-semester classes on Jan 21.