Harvard University is making some drastic cuts.
“The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for the next two years,” The Harvard Crimson reported Tuesday.
Some departments have been decimated, the Crimson reports. Briefly:
- The German department is projected to lose all its Ph.D student seats.
- The History department will admit only 10 students for the next two years, as compared to 13 students admitted last year.
- The Sociology department will enroll six Ph.D. students in the 2026-27 academic year and zero the following year.
- The Organismic and Evolutionary Biology department is shrinking 75%.
- Departments in the Social Science division will shrink 50-75% in the next two years.
Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean, Hopi E. Hoekstra, sent an email announcing “significantly reduced levels” of Ph.D. students in early October, according to the Crimson.
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences cut Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for the next two years.@williamcmao and @VeronicaHPaulus report.https://t.co/1rV13gOaAk
— The Harvard Crimson (@thecrimson) October 21, 2025
Hoekstra reportedly cited federal funding pressures and an increased endowment tax in her email. Hoekstra did not mention President Donald Trump, nor his administration, by name. But the university’s strife with the administration is no doubt fresh in the minds of administrators, staff, and students.
As for those financial troubles, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore more than $2.6 billion in research funding to Harvard on Sept. 3. Harvard announced that a majority of federal funding had been restored, declining to offer a specific number, according to an Oct. 14 report from the Crimson. (RELATED: Universities Are Fighting Trump Tooth And Nail — But He’s The Least Of Their Problems)
Harvard reported an operating loss of $133 million in its fiscal year 2024-2025 financial report, its first budget deficit since 2020, in mid-October. Those numbers only represent the fiscal year through June. The report cited “political and economic disruption” as a factor in the loss.
The report pointed fingers at the Trump administration, complaining of the “abrupt termination of nearly all of Harvard’s federal research grants, facing potential constraints on the exchange of international scholars, and considering how we will absorb the enactment of a substantial increase to the federal tax on endowment income, scheduled to take effect in fiscal 2027.”
Don’t weep for Harvard just yet.
Harvard is the richest university on Earth. Their endowment stood at a staggering $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal year 2025. This year marked a record high for donors, with current-use gifts amounting to about $629 million, up from $528 million in 2024.
Are a handful of Ph.D. students really the chief source of budgetary strain?
Harvard might be better served by culling the ever-growing masses of administrators. The university reported employing about 8,431 full-time administrators as of Oct. 31, 2024. Harvard had about 2,249 full-time faculty and 6,973 full-time college undergraduates that year.
The open nature of these cuts suggests Harvard has an eye on publicity. There are two plausible explanations for their decision.
The first, and the one I favor: Harvard is engaging in a public relations battle with the Trump administration. Harvard is making conspicuous cuts to departments in order to arouse the ire of the public.
It’s a hostage maneuver, as one X user commented.
Forcing Harvard to open a trade school strikes me as a deliberate humiliation, like busting down a captain to private and assigning him to latrine detail.
Harvard dramatically cutting back its PhD programs seems like a hostage maneuver, the same way they threatened to kill the… https://t.co/AVfewFHkRm
— John Carter (@martianwyrdlord) October 22, 2025
Some Trump supporters would probably be happy to see every Ivy League university condemned and turned into theme parks.
Others, myself included, want to see these institutions reformed and purged of mind-numbingly stupid leftie orthodoxy. That doesn’t mean demolishing the humanities. Or chemistry or biology, for that matter. It does mean rejecting Ph.D. applicants who plan to study the cisnormative undercurrents embedded in German existentialism.
The second possible explanation for Harvard’s cuts: The university is appeasing the Trump administration.
Trump announced a tentative deal with Harvard on Sept. 30, planning to restore billions in frozen federal grants if the university agreed to spend $500 million to create trade schools.
🚨 BREAKING: Pres. Trump says he is “very close” to closing a deal with Harvard that will result in the university paying $500 million towards operating trade schools & teaching students about AI@reaganreese_ pic.twitter.com/ni2Akk4W9Z
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 30, 2025
‘‘This would be a giant trade school, series of trade schools. It would be run by Harvard,’’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Sept. 30. “Now, this is something that we’re close to finalizing. We haven’t done it yet, but they’d put up $500 million. Interest and everything else would go to … the trade school and you know it’s a big investment in trade school, done by very smart people, and then their sins are forgiven.’’ (RELATED: Trump Teases Deal With Harvard University After Months Long Fight)
Aboard Air Force One on Tuesday, Trump added, “They’re going to open up trade schools. And I love the idea of trade and trade schools by Harvard. So, you know, they get into like a vocational type school.”
Maybe it’s appeasement. Perhaps. A $500 million investment is nothing to sneeze at. But, again, Harvard has plenty of fat to trim in the administrative section.
Trump’s investment demand is a slap in the face to Harvard higher-ups who don’t put much stock in trade school. Harvard is probably hitting back in petulant fashion by attempting to turn the public against Trump.
Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC
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