UMass PhD cuts raise concerns over teaching, research capacity

AMHERST — A sharp reduction in the number of doctoral students being accepted to the University of Massachusetts flagship campus is raising concerns about how this will impact both graduate programs and undergraduate general education classes and labs, according to representatives of the Graduate Employee Organization.

Isaac Pliskin, a physics graduate student who co-chairs GEO, said the consequences of declining PhD admissions are already apparent.

“The special education doctoral program was effectively killed off when they admitted only two students,” Pliskin said.

The union, which represents 2,600 graduate students employed by the university, is outlining why it is troubled by preemptive cuts to programs and PhD admissions, citing a 40% to 50% cut in PhD admissions on top of a previous 21% reduction. Admitted PhD students has dropped from 477 in fall 2024 to 312 in fall 2025.

Pliskin said that with 1,663 PhD students holding assistantships, and 20 hours per week considered full time, UMass leaders appear frightened by possible funding cuts that haven’t happened yet.

“Across all the campus, if the yield holds the same, we could be looking at an incoming PhD class under 200,” Pliskin said, adding that he believes that would be a record-low number. “As far as I can tell, that has never happened.”

Lilian Valencich, a political science doctoral student and the other GEO co-chair, said political science and legal studies are seeing fewer PhD students, meaning fewer teaching assistants.

“We’re concerned about how this affects us as researchers and teaching assistants,” Valencich said.

UMass is a Research 1 institution, considered the gold standard, yet the cohort of doctoral students for legal studies, which is seeing an increase in undergraduate enrollment, isn’t keeping pace.

“It’s putting a lot of pressure on departments,” Valencich said.

She observes there has been significant debate over admitting more PhD students and whether new funding can be allocated to support them.

Faculty Senate hears concerns

At the Faculty Senate Thursday afternoon, professors and other academics were given 20 minutes to speak on the topic of “declining admission of PhD students” and what Senate Secretary Anthony Paik called “concerning trends.”

The main worry is whether it will be unsustainable to run graduate programs with diminished funding, smaller admitting classes, and an inability to offer sixth and seventh years for these graduate students.

Adam Dahl, who teaches political science, said his department has seen a 50% decline in PhDs. “It is a conscious choice of the administration being made to cut graduate students,” Dahl said.

Elizabeth Jakob, interim dean of the graduate school, explained the 23% decline in PhD admits and 14% drop in master’s degree admits is attributable to less interest from those living abroad. “There’s been a big drop in applications, especially from international students,” Jakob said.

There is also uncertainty in federal funding, depriving UMass of assurances that it will have the necessary funding to pay these students 20 hours per week over four years.

Finally, Jakob suggested some departments over-enrolled last fall, because UMass got students who would have gone elsewhere but opted to come to Amherst, instead.

Chancellor Javier Reyes referenced the federal challenges in his remarks. “Let’s not forget the context we’re in,” Reyes said. “It’s never an intention to do this with PhDs forever.”

UMass situation not unique

Following the Faculty Senate meeting, Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, explained that schools and colleges must fund PhD students at 20 hours per week and ensure at least four years of funding is available to create equitable assistantships and fellowships.

Yet there has been a huge, unrelenting disruption to federal funds, and money for certain research areas specifically, such as diversity equity and inclusion, sustainability and health, has been affected.

“The decision made at UMass Amherst was not to shut admissions to any graduate program,” Abd-El-Khalick said.

This is because there is an understanding that doctoral students are part of research engine, and the UMass mission is to produce researchers. But there is also a need to guarantee funding for those who come.

“We want to always make sure our graduate students are the best and brightest, and well funded,” Abd-El-Khalick said.

The advisory was to be careful, noting that the historical yield rate — how many of those accepted agree to come — might be affected by more limited alternatives for applicants, and to not extend offers if a department doesn’t have the “bandwidth” to provide them support.

“It was very deliberate in asking schools and colleges to determine what they could afford,” Abd-El-Khalick said.

UMass has also explored other options, like whether only paying for 10 hours is possible, which would necessitate the students being hired for other, non-academic roles, such as driving UMass Transit buses.

Incorrect approach

Leaders of the Graduate Employee Organization, though, say they are frustrated with the top-down approach used by Abd-El-Khalick.

“Policies resulting in these cuts are being enacted by the provost saying, ‘you have to do it this way,’” Pliskin said. “It’s unprecedented for him to have a role in department funding admissions.”

Pliskin notes that yield rates of those accepted to UMass already vary by program and from year to year.

Cutting the number of accepted students means fewer teaching assistants, which could pose difficulties for programs, like oversight of the 26 laboratory sections in physics.

“A lot of these moves and changes don’t seem well thought out,” Pliskin said.

David Pritchard, union representative and organizer for UAW Local 2322, said that the number of freshmen in a general education class also depends on how many graduate students are available to teach.

“Without graduate students, they will have to scale down those classes,” Pritchard said.

While there is a cost to bringing on PhDs, it can pay off by making UMass more highly regarded. “It does bring in money, implicitly by upping the prestige of UMass,” Pliskin said.

The change in PhD admissions also fits what GEO sees as a pattern from the administration. It recently filed two grievances about its contract being violated due to poor working conditions in two buildings: Machmer Hall and the Lederle Graduate Research Tower. It also worries about the high cost of renting in and around Amherst, with a number of graduate students living farther away, such as in Holyoke.

Other questions have developed about whether administrators fully support the Massachusetts Discovery, Research and Innovation for a Vibrant Economy Initiative. Several teaching assistants were among those at the State House for a lobby day of action to support the DRIVE act.

“The DRIVE Act hasn’t been met with the same support from the administration to mobilize for more funding,” Valencich said.

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