Education
‘The American system is being destroyed’: academics on leaving US for ‘scientific asylum’ in France | Academics
It was on a US-bound flight in March, as Brian Sandberg stressed about whether he would be stopped at security, that the American historian knew the time had come for him to leave his home country.
For months, he had watched Donald Trump’s administration unleash a multipronged attack on academia – slashing funding, targeting international students and deeming certain fields and even keywords off limits. As his plane approached the US, it felt as though the battle had hit home, as Sandberg worried that he would face reprisals over comments he had made during his travels to the French media on the future of research in the US.
“It makes you think about what your status is as a researcher and the principle of academic freedom,” he said. “Things have really changed … The entire system of research and higher education in the United States is really under attack.”
Soon after, he became one of the nearly 300 researchers to apply for a French university’s groundbreaking offer of “scientific asylum”. Launched by Aix-Marseille University, the programme was among the first in Europe to offer reprieve to researchers reeling from the US crackdown on academia, promising three years of funding for about 20 researchers.
Last week, Sandberg was revealed as one of the 39 researchers shortlisted for the programme. “The American system is being destroyed at the moment,” he told the 80 reporters who turned up to meet the candidates. “I think a lot of people in the United States and as well as here in Europe have not understood the level to which all of higher education is being targeted.”
As reports began to emerge of funding freezes, cuts and executive orders targeting institutions across the Atlantic, institutions across Europe sprang into action, announcing plans to lure US-based academics.
At Aix-Marseille University, hundreds of applications came in from researchers tied to institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, Nasa, Columbia, Yale and Stanford. Three months after they launched their programme – named Safe Place for Science – the university said it had received more than 500 inquiries.
It was a glimpse of the “historic” moment the world was facing, said Éric Berton, the university’s president. “More than 80 years ago, as France was under occupation and repression, America welcomed exiled researchers, offering them a helping hand and allowing them to keep science alive,” he said. “And now, in a sad reversal of history, some American scientists have arrived in France in search of a space for freedom, thought and research.”
Last week, the university opened its doors, allowing reporters to meet a handful of the Americans who were in the final running to join the programme. As high-profile battles play out between universities such as Harvard and the White House, all of them asked that their institutions not be named, citing concerns that their employers could face reprisals.
Some declined to speak to the media, while others asked that their full names not be used, offering a hint of how the Trump administration’s actions are sowing anxiety among academics. “The worry is that we’ve already seen that scientists are being detained at the border. Granted they’re not US citizens, but they’re even saying now that if you speak out against the government, they will deport you,” said a biological anthropologist who asked to be identified only as Lisa. “And so I don’t need anything against me at the moment until I can officially move here with my family.”
Together the researchers painted a picture of a profession that had been plunged into uncertainty as the US government slashes spending on research grants and dismantles the federal institutions that manage and hand out funding. Months into Trump’s second presidency, politics is increasingly blurring into academia as the government works to root out anything it deems as “wokeism” from the post-secondary world.
“There’s a lot of censorship now, it’s crazy,” said Carol Lee, an evolutionary biologist, pointing to the list of terms now seen as off-limits in research grant applications. “There are a lot of words that we’re not allowed to use. We’re not allowed to use the words diversity, women, LGBTQ.”
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While the swift pace of change had left many nervous about what may lie ahead, many were not taking any chances. “People are moving, for sure,” said Lee. “A lot of top people have already moved to China. And China is laying out the red carpet. If people are getting an offer from Canada, people are moving to Canada.”
For Lisa, the biological anthropologist, the reality of dismantling her life in the US and moving her husband, a schoolteacher, and their two kids across the Atlantic was starting to sink in. “It’s excitement, but it’s nerve-racking,” she said.
She knew she had to get out when it became clear that Trump had won a second term. Months later, she has found a potential path to do so, but is still wrapping her head around all that taking part in Aix-Marseille University’s programme would entail.
“It is a big pay cut,” she said. “My kids are super gung-ho. My husband is just worried that he won’t find a job. Which is my worry too, because I don’t think I’ll be able to afford four of us on my salary.”
But for her, and several others on the shortlist, the view was that there were few other options. “It’s a very discouraging time to be a scientist,” said James, a climate researcher who asked that his full name not be used. “I feel America has always had a sort of anti-intellectual strain – it happens to be very ascendant right now. It’s a relatively small proportion that doesn’t trust scientists, but it’s unfortunately a very powerful segment.”
His wife had also been shortlisted for the same programme in southern France, leaving the couple on the brink of uprooting the lives and careers they had spent decades building in the US. “I have very mixed feelings,” he said. “I’m very grateful that we’ll have the opportunity, but really quite sad that I need the opportunity.”
Five years ago, Traya Health, a holistic hair loss solution, was born out of a deeply personal health struggle faced by co-founder Saloni Anand and her husband. What began as a quest for personal well-being has blossomed into a pioneering brand that challenges conventional wisdom in the hair care industry. Saloni shared Traya’s science-first approach in a session at the ETBrandEquity Brand World Summit 2025.
The genesis of a solution
Saloni Anand, co-founder of Traya, recounted the origins of the brand. Her co-founder, armed with a biomedical chemistry background, embarked on extensive research to address his uncontrollable hypothyroidism. During this challenging journey, a surprising side effect emerged: his hair began to grow back.
“About two years later, we realised that this is something awesome, and everything out there in the industry is not able to grow hair, but we could, so there’s some potential to explore this,” Anand shared. This discovery spurred intensive research into hair science, revealing critical insights that would become the bedrock of Traya’s unique approach.
Dispelling hair loss myths: Traya’s foundational learnings
Traya’s deep dive into hair science led to three fundamental revelations that shaped their model:
Diagnosis is key: “We learned hair loss is genetic mostly, but has multiple types. Not everyone has hair loss because medically multiple types of it require diagnosis.”
Follicle potential: Hair regrowth is possible if follicles are still present, meaning it’s achievable for most individuals not in very advanced stages of hair loss.
No magic bullet: “There is no magic molecule for one product that can grow everyone’s hair. It’s a wider thing that’s happening. It’s more like diabetes than anything.”
Analysing the existing hair industry, Anand observed, “More than 10,000 products on Amazon today sell with the label of hair fall and are topical. Selling you a shampoo, conditioner that has wrongful claims, promising 30-day results, sometimes even worse.” This landscape, rife with superficial solutions, solidified Traya’s mission: “We are here to grow hair, and we will do everything it takes to get that emphasis.”
The “three sciences” model: Traya’s holistic prescription
The first year was dedicated solely to building formulations. This led to Traya’s distinctive model: a hair solution built on diagnosis and a holistic approach. The brand name, “Traya,” is Sanskrit for “three sciences,” embodying their core philosophy: Ayurveda, Allopathy (Dermatology) and Nutrition.
The consumer journey begins with an online diagnosis. The solution provided is a customised kit incorporating elements from all three sciences, including a diet plan, recognising that hair loss often stems from internal imbalances.
Initial skepticism from investors was high. Saloni and her husband launched Traya with personal funds. Six months later, with tangible results from their first critical trials, they secured their initial investment.
Breaking the rules: A D2C brand of the future
Traya today stands as a largely scaled, profitable brand, having served over 10 lakh Indians. A distinctive aspect of its D2C model is that 100 per cent of its revenue comes directly from its platform. “If you download the Traya app, take a long diagnosis. They buy a gift. If the consumer cannot choose which product they are buying. We tell them what they should buy,” Anand stated, emphasising their doctor-led, personalised approach.
Eighty per cent of Traya’s revenue comes from repeat customers. “This happened because we did not have the baggage of how,” she noted.
Education, retention and AI: The pillars of growth
Anand highlighted three critical pillars for modern D2C success:
Believe in education: Traya faced the challenge of educating consumers on why previous topical solutions had failed and why a holistic, science-backed approach was necessary. “Our journey from zero to one crore per month is really smooth. We really had to build these fundamentals,” she revealed. This rapid scale was driven by a deep commitment to educating their audience. Traya’s culture prohibits discussing competitor brands, focusing solely on their consumers. “The moment you do that and you just focus on your consumer, you have the ability to do something,” she added.
Retention over acquisition: Traya defines itself internally as a “habit building organisation,” treating hair loss as a chronic disease. Their North Star metric is retention, supported by a data-tech engine and over 800 hair coaches who ensure adherence and usage. “Back in 2023, when we were having that growth chart, we reached a point where we saw retention numbers there, and we cautiously stopped all our marketing scale up,” Anand disclosed. This move underscored their commitment to long-term customer success over short-term acquisition. “How can you be a D2C brand in 2025? That’s not too little but is just too little today to differentiate. Can you add a service there? Can you add a community? How can you be more than just a product gone?”
Embrace AI: While acknowledging AI as a buzzword, Anand firmly believes it will be a pivotal theme in brand building. Traya, despite its 800-person team, has already seen impressive results from integrating AI. “Three months ago, I took a mandate at Traya that no more tech hiring, and we are about since then, we have done zero tech hiring, and we’ve increased the tech productivity four times,” she shared, emphasising the transformative power of AI in consumer evaluation, discovery and shopping.
Saloni Anand concluded by summarising her key takeaways for aspiring D2C brands: “Think more than product solutions. Think of efficiency. Think science, if your product works, everything else will fall in place. Think AI. Think of the review word and think of retention first.”
Ministers are facing calls to not cut education plans for children and young people with special needs and disabilities (Send).
Campaigners say education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are “precious legal protections”, warning that thousands of children could lose access to education if the plans are abolished.
The government has said it inherited the current system “left on its knees”. Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson described it as a “complex and sensitive area” when asked if she could rule out scrapping EHCPs.
But Neil O’Brien, the shadow education minister, has criticised the government for “broken promises and U-turns”.
An EHCP is a legally binding document which ensures a child or young person with special or educational needs gets the right support from a local authority.
Full details of the proposed changes are due in October, but ministers have not ruled out scrapping the education plans, insisting no decisions have been taken.
In a letter to the Guardian newspaper, campaigners have said that without the documents in mainstream schools, “many thousands of children risk being denied vital provision, or losing access to education altogether”.
“Whatever the Send system’s problems, the answer is not to remove the rights of children and young people. Families cannot afford to lose these precious legal protections,” they added.
Signatories to the letter include the heads of charities, professors, Send parents including actor Sally Phillips, and campaigners including broadcaster Chris Packham.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Phillipson saidL
“What I can say very clearly is that we will strengthen and put in place better support for children.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to parents, to disability rights groups, to campaigners and to others and to colleagues across Parliament as well, because it’s important to get this right,” she added, but said it is “tough”.
Mr O’Brien, the shadow minister, said the government had “no credibility left”.
“This is a government defined by broken promises and u-turns. They said they would employ more teachers and they have fewer. They said they would not raise tax on working people but did,” Mr O’Brien said.
Data from the Department for Education released in June showed that the number of EHCPs has increased.
In total, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place in January 2025, up 10.8% on the same point last year.
The number of new plans which started during 2024 also grew by 15.8% on the previous year, to 97,747.
Requests for children to be assessed for EHCPs rose by 11.8% to 154,489 in 2023.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have been clear that there are no plans to abolish Send tribunals, or to remove funding or support from children, families and schools.”
The spokesperson added that it would be “totally inaccurate to suggest that children, families and schools might experience any loss of funding or support”.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing a fresh wave of innovation to South Korea’s public education sector. big tech companies are actively developing AI-based solutions for public education and forming partnerships with schools alongside edtech startups.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on Sunday, Naver launched a digital public education support system called Whale UBT in April 2025 and integrated it into the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education’s teaching-learning platform, Gwangju AI-ON. Naver also plans to expand adoption to other regional education offices
Whale UBT allows for the unified management of various test items – including diagnostic and unit assessments – within a single platform. A database of about 400,000 questions provided by four educational publishers is available, enabling teachers to create customized tests based on students’ levels.
It also features automatic grading.
To date, AI education platforms were adopted more rapidly in private education, where entry requirements are comparatively less restrictive. The use of AI tools in public education was initially determined by individual teachers; however, their implementation has been rapidly increasing at both the school and district levels.
This trend is driven in part by the increasing sophistication of AI solutions. These tools now go beyond simply marking answers right or wrong – they can analyze step-by-step processes for descriptive questions, improving both convenience and educational outcomes.
A good example is edtech startup Turing Co.’s math learning platform, Math King. Turing signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Association of Future Education Study in February 2025 to promote adoption of Math King in Korean schools.
Math King can generate personalized problem sets for each student in just one second, and AI analyzes even the descriptive answers in homework assignments. The system automatically generates consultation reports that can be sent to parents and includes recommendations for future learning directions.
“We are using Math King for advanced classes, and it has eliminated the hassle of creating customized math problems,” Gyeonggu High School teacher Park Jun-hyung said. ‘I can now manage nearly twice as many students.”
AI solutions also help with administrative tasks, significantly reducing teachers’ workloads, particularly for writing student records.
While many teachers have already been using tools like ChatGPT informally for record writing, new, more convenient solutions are now being developed. These specialized AI tools offer stronger security than ChatGPT.
Edtech startup Elements launched inline AI in April, a solution specifically designed to assist with student record writing. It employs a local Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system, ensuring that data is not sent externally. The AI updates student records automatically based on data from teachers and students.
Given the rapid growth of the AI education market, adoption in public education is expected to accelerate even further. According to market research firm Straits Research, the global AI education market is projected to grow from $4.43 billion in 2024 to $72.45 billion in 2033.
By Ahn Sun-je and Lee Eun-joo
[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
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