Harvard drastically shrinks liberal arts doctoral program amid budget pressures
Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences doctoral program will continue, but at "significantly reduced levels," according to a Tuesday letter from its Dean Hopi Hoekstra.
"As you may know, a number of institutions have announced pauses in admissions to graduate student programs for the upcoming year, citing financial constraints. While we cannot ignore the impact of financial pressures — ranging from uncertainty in research funding to an increased endowment tax — we have chosen a different course," Hoekstra said.
For example, Boston University suspended a dozen graduate programs in humanities and social sciences last year and UMass Chan Medical School withdrew admission offers due to federal funding concerns in March . At Harvard, admission to two graduate programs were cut down at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences announced it would reject waitlisted students this year, according to reporting from The Harvard Crimson.
She continued by stating that it is the responsibility of Harvard to "train the next generation of intellectual leaders."
The reduction in doctoral students at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, also known as FAS, will occur over the next two years as the institution determines what the "future model for graduate education" will be. The Harvard Crimson first reported the news.
The announcement comes after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate the university's nearly $3 billion in federal funding cuts. However, the judge partially granted the Trump administration's appeal to push back implementation deadlines, citing the government shutdown as grounds for delay.
However, since then, the government pressure against the university hasn't let up. The Trump administration recommended on Monday that Harvard be excluded from federal funding to "protect the public interest," and the U.S. Committee on Education and Workforce also demanded this week that Harvard provide more information as part of its ongoing investigation into campus antisemitism.
President Donald Trump claimed his administration reached a $500 million deal with the university on Tuesday, but quickly reversed course and told reporters that the federal government was "close to finalizing" the agreement.
"We face an unprecedented moment, one that calls on us to uphold our mission and support our graduate students—current and future alike—in a time of diminished resources. Together, we can preserve the FAS's excellence in graduate education and foster the intellectual talent that sustains it," Hoekstra said.
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