Amid uncertainty about frozen research aid from the National Institutes of Health, the University of Pittsburgh has put its Ph.D. admissions on ice. The school confirmed Friday that there would be no new Ph.D. offers of admission while Pitt works to understand how reduced federal aid could impact the institution.
The move comes as research universities across the country battle against the National Institutes of Health over a policy to reduce the funding cap for ancillary research expenses like building construction and maintenance as well as support staff.
The policy would reduce the cap for those indirect research costs to 15%. Pitt’s current rate is 59%. A federal judge extended a temporary pause on implementation of that policy Friday. But Pitt’s decision to halt admissions was made earlier in the week.
"After the announcement that NIH indirect costs would be capped at 15%, the University’s Office of the Provost temporarily paused additional Ph.D. offers of admission until the impacts of that cap were better understood,” a Pitt spokesperson said in a statement to WESA.
The pause applies to all Pitt departments, not just medical and scientific research programs. University leadership is evaluating how reduced funding could impact the school, and it’s not clear when Ph.D. offers will resume.
“The University is in the process of completing that analysis and expects to be in a position to resume offers soon," the spokesperson said.
Emails obtained by WESA show Pitt faculty informing a Ph.D. applicant about the pause, explaining that the timeline and decision-making process is unclear. The email indicates that the applicant had upcoming plans to tour the campus and was highly recommended by the department for admission.
Pitt is not the first research university to take such a drastic measure as it tries to find its financial footing amid the Trump administration’s first month. The University of Southern California paused admissions in some of its departments last week, according to STAT.
And according to the Vanderbilt Hustler, the student newspaper at Vanderbilt University, a dean at the Tennessee school announced a pause on graduate student admissions last week. The school later told the paper that admissions were not paused but steps were being taken to “balance program admissions with current student needs.”
The NIH announced the cuts earlier this month, sending shockwaves through Pittsburgh’s life sciences sector. The University of Pittsburgh said in a statement shortly after the announcement that such cuts would harm the institution's mission “irreparably.”
A WESA analysis found that if the indirect cost cuts were implemented for the 2024 fiscal year, the University of Pittsburgh would have seen a $115 million drop in indirect funds. Carnegie Mellon University, another major research hub in Pittsburgh, would have seen a $3 million drop. It’s unclear how the cuts would impact the schools’ 2025 budget.
Impact of Trump's proposed NIH funding cuts on Pennsylvania institutions
If the administration succeeds in cutting research indirect costs to 15%
Meanwhile, despite the courts holding off implementation of the funding cuts, WESA has found grants from the NIH are already lagging significantly behind this year compared to the first few weeks of 2024. Between Inauguration Day and Feb. 15, roughly $781 million have been awarded to projects at research institutions nationwide. That’s a nearly 56% decrease compared to the same period in 2024 when $1.8 billion was awarded.
And with almost all grant review meetings on indefinite hold at NIH, former staffers tell WESA the plunge in funding is likely to continue.