Impacts of Restrictions on Federal Grant Funding in Physics and Astronomy Graduate Programs - AIP.ORG

"Stories about academic programs reducing the number of graduate students they will enroll due to changes in approaches to federal funding have recently made headlines.

• Colleges Restrict Graduate Student Admissions After NIH Proposes Rate Cut
• Disheartened by funding cuts, international students look beyond the US
• Iowa State University rescinds some admission offers for graduate students

Given the significance of this issue, AIP’s research team engaged in a systematic survey to better understand the extent of recent changes in federal funding and policy. We asked all 292 department chairs at departments offering graduate degrees in physics and astronomy in the US a few questions to better understand the impacts. Our questionnaire was in the field from April 3 to April 16. We received responses from 115 departments, 76 in public institutions and 39 in private institutions, to our brief survey; this is a 39% response rate. Here is what we learned...."