IBL News | New York
Public and private universities have developed a critical portion of the nation’s research and scholarship in the last 75 years since the National Science Foundation (NSF) launch in 1950. Faculty-led researchers and students have spread doctoral education and become innovators and leaders of society and the world’s largest economy.
Of the over 2,000 research universities in the country, 146 are Carnegie R1 (doctoral universities with very high research intensity).
Universities collectively spent $97 billion on research, of which $54 billion was federal support. Twenty most prominent universities receive a third of the support.
But will the American research universities make it to their 100th birthday?
According to Dr Robert A Brown, President Emeritus and Computing and Data Sciences Professor at Boston University, various forces threaten the viability of U.S. research universities.
Among those forces, experts note the new political landscape, with the Trump administration’s announcements to cut research funds, the decline of college-age students, massive pedagogical and operational upheavals caused by AI, and the expectation that the cost of education will come down with chatbots and copilots replacing staff.
Professor Bryan Alexander assembled evidence of the adverse effects felt in the academic world after President Trump took office.
“Most of the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) unit, a research team that’s part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), have been laid off. Nearly $1 billion in IES research contracts has been cut. More than $330 million was cut from the Center’s Regional Educational Laboratories and Equity Assistance Centers. At least thousands of students have seen internships with the federal government vanish, or at least become unclear if they will happen, due to cuts.”
Among other cuts, Bryan Alexander noted these:
• MIT, expecting federal losses of $100 million or more, suspended non-faculty hiring.
• The University of Louisville has ordered a hiring freeze, apparently across the board, until summer.
• North Carolina State University is going to implement a total hiring freeze.
• Columbia University’s medical school announced a hiring freeze.
• Northwestern University announced a 10% cut to non-personnel expenses.
The new administration cut $600 million in DEI-related campus grants.
