Harvard To Admit 50% Fewer Ph.D. Students in Science, Walking Back Deeper Cuts

Updated November 19, 2025, at 12:20 p.m.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it would reduce the number of Ph.D. admissions slots for the Science division by 50 percent this year, walking back plans for even steeper cuts after faculty responded with frustration to the reductions.

The FAS announced in October that Ph.D seats in the Science division would be reduced by 75 percent as part of drastic cuts to Ph.D. admissions across divisions in response to growing financial pressures. But the move prompted backlash among some professors, who said the change would have severe consequences for their teaching and research.

In an email announcing the change, FAS Dean Hopi E. Hoekstra cited the October return of federal funding to Harvard and concerns from Science departments as catalysts for her decision to reverse course.

The FAS will consider allowing departments to admit Ph.D. students in excess of 50 percent of historical levels on a program-by-program basis. Hoekstra wrote that when deciding which programs could exceed the 50 percent threshold, the FAS would take into consideration their access to non-federal funding, including “appropriate corporate funds or incremental philanthropic support, but not start-up funds.”

“This year’s approach is not perfect, but will give us flexibility to meet pressing academic needs while maintaining prudent stewardship of our finances,” Hoekstra wrote, adding that the FAS will continue to pursue new sources of funding over the next year.

The Ph.D. reductions are part of a broader push for austerity at the FAS. The school announced last month that it’s facing a massive $365 million structural deficit, fueled by mounting capital expenditure costs and this summer’s endowment tax, which could cost the FAS $98 million annually.

The school had already taken significant steps to reduce expenditures this year, instituting a hiring freeze, keeping its budget flat, and pausing spending on non-essential capital projects. Hoeksta also convened several committees to evaluate spending across the faculty.

But even as faculty acknowledged the severity of Harvard’s financial situation, many said Ph.D. programs were not the place to cut back on spending. Professors rely on Ph.D. students to teach their courses and support their research, and many see their graduate students as the future of academia and Harvard.

“Scientific research is not housing prices — it’s something magical. And there are a lot of magical people here,” Physics professor Melissa E.B. Franklin said during last month’s faculty meeting to applause from her colleagues.

Science departments, Hoekstra wrote in her email, made it clear to her that graduate education is their “highest priority.”

Faculty also questioned how much the Ph.D. reductions would save the FAS. Hoekstra previously said that supplementing federal funding for the more than 1,000 Sciences Ph.D. students who had relied on federal grants cost the school $20 million. The FAS budget for last year was roughly $1.8 billion.

The revised Ph.D. reductions, Hoekstra wrote on Wednesday, would “present incremental financial risk for the FAS.” But she said the move was necessary to ensure the FAS could continue leading research and providing high quality teaching.

The additional Ph.D students will be funded through the Research Continuity Funding program, which Hoekstra launched last spring to support faculty whose federal research grants had been cut by the Trump administration.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.