A number of applicants offered spots at a biomedical sciences program at UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester had those offers rescinded this week, the latest consequence of the Trump administration’s cuts to federal funding.
In response to questions from GBH News, the university’s communications department tied the decision at the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences to funding uncertainty for biomedical research.
“This difficult decision was made to ensure that our current students’ progress is not disrupted by the funding cuts and that we avoid matriculating students who may not have robust opportunities for dissertation research,” a university spokesperson wrote.
Last month, UMass Chancellor Michael Collins warned in a memo that the school would be deeply impacted by a funding cap instituted by the National Institutes of Health, the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. The NIH announced a new 15% cap on all “indirect costs” that accompany direct funding on all new and existing grants, funds that contribute to employees’ health insurance, sick time, facility rentals and more.
He said the 15% cap would cut the majority of UMass Chan’s indirect NIH funding.
“This change in essential funding presents an urgent and significantly different financial model that will have a profound and sobering impact on research organizations,” he wrote.
That cost slash is currently blocked by a preliminary injunction .
UMass Chan’s communications department said other universities in Massachusetts and across the country are reducing or rescinding offers of admission as a means to control spending during a “highly uncertain time.” That’s because universities pay PhD candidates a stipend funded by research grants.
Applicants with rescinded offers are being offered the ability to receive “priority consideration” for future admissions cycles. Applicants to UMass Chan’s two other graduate schools — the T.H. Chan School of Medicine and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing — aren’t impacted.
Other graduate programs across the country are reducing admissions. Earlier this month, Iowa State University rescinded offers to prospective students.
The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences recently decided that waitlisted students for programs within the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences would be rescinded due to an “uncertain financial landscape,” according to the Harvard Crimson. A Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesman said no formal offers are being rescinded, and no current students are being impacted in any way.
“This decision, communicated by the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) leadership, applies only to candidates on the wait list for graduate programs within the FAS,” said a Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesman in an email. Existing formal offers will be honored, both in terms of admissions as well as financial aid, for all incoming and current graduate students, the statement read.
“This is a prudent, necessary step that will allow the FAS to focus on current and already admitted students,” he said.
At MIT, a media representative shared a recent speech from President Sally Kornbluth that noted many departments are reducing the number of graduate students they’re admitting this year. One of the reasons for this is the effort from the National Institutes of Health to “cap indirect costs,” Kornbluth said.
“For an institution grounded in research and education, having to turn away superb young talent is a striking loss. And it’s clearly a loss for the nation too,” she said.
Researchers told GBH News they are disappointed with the school’s decision.
“We should not be cutting the number of graduate students, but rather focus on lowering our costs and increasing efficiency,” said Yoel Fink, a materials scientist. “We need a DOME: Department of MIT Efficiency.”
