Science under siege: As federal funding dries up, top research universities are turning out fewer PhDs

The number of students admitted to Ph.D. programs this fall dropped 15 percent from [2025], according to data from over 50 top research universities, raising fears that the nation’s capacity to produce new science could be diminished.

The decline is driven, in part, by a chaotic and unpredictable federal funding environment under the Trump administration, as federal cuts are promised and then reversed, and budgets remain unclear.

“It’s a loss for the nation,” [Dr. Sally Kornbluth] said. “When you shrink the pipeline of basic discovery research, you choke off the flow of future solutions, innovations and cures — and you shrink the supply of future scientists.”

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The Trump administration has taken a series of actions that experts say have dampened the desire of international students to study in the United States, including delaying visa interviews, expanding a ban on travel from certain countries and screening the social media posts of applicants for speech deemed anti-American.

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