Straws in the Wind - Part 159

From the Brown Daily Herald: Brown will reduce its overall Ph.D. admissions to around 80% of its current targets in an effort to regulate University operating costs, Provost Francis Doyle said at Tuesday’s faculty meeting. When admitting this fall’s doctoral cohort, no Ph.D. program was reduced by more than two admissions slots beneath the program’s typical minimum size. But Doyle said that this minimal reduction was “unsustainable” for this year’s admissions cycle.

...At Tuesday’s faculty meeting, Janet Blume, co-chair of the Doctoral Education Working Group and interim dean of the Graduate School, said the group’s goal is to “identify the central questions and key issues as we think about graduate education in this changing landscape.” ...“We want to make sure everybody has meaningful, fulfilling jobs … and that their time here is rewarding,” she said.

Blume added that some faculty members have expressed concerns that “ending a graduate program might mean the end of a discipline, or be contributing to the end of a discipline.” She emphasized that the working group is “very sensitive” to this issue.

Full story at https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2025/11/brown-to-reduce-phd-admissions-by-20-this-application-cycle.