Pentagon Weighs End to Graduate Tuition Aid
The U.S. Department of Defense is considering ending its graduate school tuition assistance program at 35 higher education institutions. The potential move adds to the significant budget pressures American universities are already facing from factors like declining international enrollment.
- The DoD's Tuition Assistance (TA) program provides up to $4,500 per fiscal year for active-duty servicemembers, with a cap of $250 per semester credit hour. In fiscal year 2018, the program cost about $425 million and was used by approximately 200,000 servicemembers. - The review of graduate aid is part of a broader campaign by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth against what he terms "pervasive institutional bias" and "globalist and radical ideologies" at elite universities. The Pentagon has already announced it will sever its academic ties with Harvard University for graduate-level programs beginning in the 2026-2027 school year. - An Army preliminary list of institutions at "moderate to high risk" of losing tuition assistance includes numerous high-profile private universities such as Yale, Stanford, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Duke, MIT, Georgetown, and the University of Pennsylvania. - This potential cut comes as universities face significant financial strain from other sources, including proposed reductions in federal research funding. President Trump's preliminary fiscal 2026 budget, for instance, proposes cutting nearly $18 billion from the National Institutes of Health. - Adding to the budget pressure, new international student enrollment at U.S. universities saw a 17% drop in the fall of 2025, the most significant non-pandemic decline in over a decade. This follows a 7% decrease in the 2024-25 academic year. - For a single institution, the impact can be significant. In fiscal year 2025, the DoD paid George Washington University, one of the schools at risk, about $892,000 for tuition and fees, separate from other military-related programs like NROTC. - The reimbursement rate for the Tuition Assistance program has not been increased since 2002, while the average cost of a credit hour at a four-year public university is now $406. - The evaluation of graduate programs is intended to determine if they offer a "cost-effective, strategic education" compared to public universities or military-run master's programs.
