Defense Dept. Weighs Ending Grad Aid at 35 Institutions

The Department of Defense is considering ending tuition assistance for active-duty military members in graduate programs at 33 highly selective U.S. universities—plus the London School of Economics and Political Science—due to the institutions’ alleged antimilitary bias and “troublesome partnerships with foreign adversaries,” CNN reported.

The move follows Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement last week that his department would discontinue all graduate-level professional military training, fellowships and certificate programs for active-duty service members at Harvard University starting in the fall. 

In a memo announcing that change, Hegseth said the DoD would also investigate other graduate programs “at Ivy League universities and any other universities that similarly diminish critical thinking and have significant adversary involvement,” a source told CNN. The goal is to “determine whether they deliver cost-effective, strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to public universities and military master’s programs,” the source said.

According to CNN, the preliminary list of U.S. institutions at “moderate to high risk” of having tuition assistance cut off for Army members enrolling in law school are: American University, Boston College, Boston University, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Case Western University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Emory University, Florida Institute of Technology, Fordham University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Harvard University, Hawaii Pacific University, Johns Hopkins University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Northwestern University, New York University, Pepperdine University, Princeton University, Stanford University, Tufts University, the University of Miami, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University, Wake Forest University, Washington University in St. Louis, William and Mary and Yale University.

The announcement sowed confusion and fear among service members about whether and how to proceed with applying to graduate programs, including those in law, medicine and nuclear engineering.

A military official told CNN that the move would essentially prohibit officers from receiving a high-quality graduate education and accused the Pentagon of “attempting to purge intellect, diversity of thinking and critical thought from the military.”

Since tuition assistance is often seen as a desirable perk of military service, it could also interfere with recruitment efforts.