‘Huge Problem’: Graduate Students Warn Harvard Ph.D. Cuts Are Hitting Classrooms and Labs

The effects of Harvard’s planned reductions to Ph.D. admissions are already being felt across the University, graduate students said, as smaller cohorts strain teaching capacity and limit mentorship.

Several graduate students across the Sciences and Arts and Humanities said in interviews with The Crimson that departments are struggling to staff undergraduate courses and sustain research as they brace for fewer incoming Ph.D. students. Many said their programs were only just recovering from pandemic-era admissions cuts.

Caleb O. Shelburne ’18, a seventh-year Ph.D. candidate in the History of Science, said his department has had difficulty staffing undergraduate courses after years of reduced enrollment.

“This year is the first year where we actually have enough graduate students to teach the classes that we have,” Shelburne said. “And now we’re looking at just another decline in enrollment. So, huge problem.”

With fewer Ph.D. students, graduate students said long-standing shortages of teaching fellows could worsen, limiting undergraduates’ access to instructors with specialized expertise.

Yoojung Chun, a fourth-year English Ph.D. candidate, said her department has often relied on graduate students from other programs to staff large lecture courses. With even fewer students set to enroll over the next two years, undergraduates may find it harder to connect with mentors in their fields, she said.

“There’s always been a TF shortage, even before the cuts,” Chun said. “Now I’m really worried.”

An FAS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Students’ concerns were shared across divisions. Emmanuel E. Aoron, a second-year Ph.D. student in Human Evolutionary Biology, said a smaller number of graduate students would mean fewer mentors and collaborators within departments.

“When you have a reduction in the number of graduate students getting into the program, that means that you are also lowering the mentoring capacity in a specific field or in a department,” Aoron said.

“To me, it's a reduction of diversification of ideas, which shape science and also any field of study,” he added.

Some students said the impact is being compounded by cuts to postdoctoral funding, which have thinned out senior researchers in labs.

Joel L. Chavez Ortiz Jr., a first-year Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health, said his cohort was already smaller than those in previous years.

“Overall, lab staff has just taken a dramatic reduction,” Chavez Ortiz Jr. said. “All those new students don’t have the leadership from postdoc candidates, for example, that was previously there.”

In the humanities, students warned that shrinking cohorts could narrow classroom perspectives. Ifeosa A. Nkem-Onyekpe, a seventh-year history Ph.D. candidate, said cohorts had shrunk from about 14 when she arrived at Harvard to single digits.

“The thing that scares me would be just the vibrancy and diversity of the cohorts and how it will impact the overall teaching and research experiences that will be formed in the department,” she said.

Smaller cohorts could also weaken the informal networks that support Ph.D. training, Shelburne said.

“If you have half the number of graduate students coming in, you no longer have weekly events, you don’t have a budget for dinners or social events,” he said. “How are you supposed to get that department community?”

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced last fall that it would significantly reduce doctoral admissions across the Sciences and Arts and Humanities divisions for at least two years, citing financial pressure after the Trump administration pulled billions of dollars in federal research funding.

After back and forth between administrators and faculty, admissions in the Science division were ultimately cut by roughly half, while Arts and Humanities seats were reduced by about 60 percent.

Other students said departments have tried to be supportive amid the uncertainty. Aaron W. Throness, a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, said faculty in his department have been transparent.

“You can see it in their eyes that it pains them.” Throness said.

—Staff writer Andrew Park can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @AndrewParkNews.

—Staff writer Mana Tsuruta can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @ManaTsuruta.