Amid uncertainty about frozen research aid from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Pittsburgh has put its Ph.D. admissions on ice. The school confirmed Friday that there would be no new Ph.D. offers of admission while Pitt works to understand how reduced federal aid could impact the institution.
The move comes as research universities across the country battle against the National Institutes of Health over a policy to reduce the funding cap for ancillary research expenses like building construction and maintenance as well as support staff.
The policy would reduce the cap for those indirect research costs to 15%. Pitt’s current rate is 59%. A federal judge extended a temporary pause on implementation of that policy Friday. But Pitt’s decision to halt admissions was made earlier in the week.
On Bluesky, Professor Geoff Hutchison noted that the Piit Department of Chemistry has already issued admissions and were in the midst of a visit weekend.
[Here's a running list of schools that have confirmed that they're pausing PhD admissions, with various levels of confirmations.]
It's really hard to make predictions because we simply do not know what is going to happen from day to day with this Administration. If we have a pause in entering classes of graduate students, the effects on science will be both unpredictable (what science will not have been done?) and long-lasting (imagine if it is only this year that's affected - what would that do to the faculty job market 7 years from now?)
It's more than a bit concerning that Derek Lowe's latest post is titled "The Continuing Crisis, Part V." Here's hoping we won't be on part XXIV by May. Best wishes to academic readers, and to all of us.
I foresee foreign countries making offers to existing faculty to poach them. I foresee major brain-drain in the US. All self-inflicted and idiotic, much like cutting off one's arm to lose weight. Heaven help us.
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