After ceasing new doctoral offers of admission on Friday, the University of Pittsburgh has since confirmed it is in the early stages developing new Ph.D. admission offers within fiscal constraints caused by federal funding cuts.
“The university is in the early stages of extending Ph.D. offers of admission as we continue to gather the relevant information in support of our teaching and research missions,” university spokesman Jared Stonesifer said in a statement Monday. “Our goal is to properly support existing community members while also responsibly adding new members to the community. All parts of the university are strategically planning offers to align with anticipated fiscal constraints at the university.”
On Friday, the university’s Office of the Provost temporarily paused additional Ph.D. offers after recent National Institutes of Health policy changes reduced the funding cap for indirect research costs.
In 2023, Pitt’s incoming class as percent of applicants was made up of 4% School of Medicine Ph.D. programs, 8% School of Pharmacy Ph.D. programs and 8% School of Public Health programs, according to Pitt’s website.
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website, the National Institutes of Health is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world and invests most of its roughly $48 billion budget into medical research.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley issued a temporary restraining order to stop the Trump administration’s federal cuts after a series of lawsuits were filed from a group of 22 states and organizations representing universities, hospitals and research institutions.
Pitt’s 2023 Fiscal Year Fact Sheet revealed that the university has been in the top nine most-funded institutions by the National Institutes of Health over the past 25 years.
The National Institutes of Health’s grants include significant payments which go toward facilities and studying illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, cancer and heart disease.
Robert E. Frederking, associate dean of doctoral programs at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, said he finds it worrying but the funding cuts are a bigger problem for colleges that have a medical school.
Much of Carnegie Mellon’s Ph.D. programs operate in a “less centralized way” without being reliant on a medical school, he said.
“Maybe people don’t care about cancer research,” Frederking said because the NIH federal cuts make it difficult to fund.
Cassia Corgan, a spokeswoman for Carnegie Mellon, said that the university is “still analyzing recent announcements” and cannot yet provide information as to whether or not the institution will be following Pitt’s lead and temporarily ceasing admission.