Boston University Suspends Admissions to Doctoral Programs: A Multifaceted Analysis
Boston University's recent decision to suspend admissions to a dozen doctoral programs has sent ripples throughout academia, sparking conversations about the future of graduate education, the role of unions, and the financial sustainability of humanities and social science disciplines. This article delves into the reasons behind this controversial move, examining the perspectives of the university, the graduate student union, and academic observers.
Programs Affected by the Suspension
After a seven-month graduate worker strike, Boston University suspended applications to a dozen doctoral programs for the coming academic year. The university’s American and New England studies, anthropology, classical studies, English, history, history of art and architecture, linguistics, philosophy, political science, religion, romance studies, and sociology programs will not be accepting new doctoral students next year, BU said. Other programs still open to new applicants, like chemistry and creative writing, have deadlines in mid-December or early January.
The Role of the Graduate Workers' Strike
The suspension of the programs comes after the Boston University Graduate Workers Union’s (BUGWU) 206-day strike, which ended in October. The BUGWU, represented by SEIU Local 509, was fighting for a yearly stipend of more than $62,000 for salaried doctoral workers, who were making between $27,000 and $40,000 stipend. The strike concluded with a new contract that ensured the university's PhD candidates are afforded a minimum yearly stipend of $45,000 with an annual 3% raise in addition to the school covering tuition throughout the agreement's three-year lifespan. Additional contract points include expanded healthcare coverage, commuter benefits, and subsidized dental insurance among other benefits.
While the university has not explicitly linked the admissions suspension to the new contract, many observers believe that the increased labor costs played a significant role in the decision. The deans said, “It would be financially unsustainable to move forward with the cohort sizes discussed earlier this fall,” so the college is halting admissions “for all non-grant-funded doctoral programs” next academic year and reducing “cohort sizes of grant-funded programs.” This, they said, “will ensure that we have the financial resources available to honor the five-year funding commitments we have made to our currently enrolled doctoral students.”
SEIU Local 509 said BU hasn’t explained the “drastic decision” and said the new contract increasing labor costs didn’t contribute to the decision. “The suspension of admissions to programs such as Philosophy, History, and English-fields where graduate workers play an essential role in teaching and research at the university-raises serious questions about BU’s long-term commitment to these academic disciplines,” their statement said.
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Financial Considerations and the Grant-Funded Model
One dean cited increases in funding (won by graduate students via collective bargaining). Grant-funded doctoral programs tend to be in the sciences, especially the hard sciences; non-grant-funded doctoral programs tend to be your traditional humanities programs. The university can treat these differently because grant-funded programs tend to be somewhat self-sustaining. In Europe, the grant model has become dominant, to the point where how many PhD students a professor can take on is highly dependent on grants for 3 or 5 year research projects; the cohort has to shape their research around the grant. You find this not only in the sciences, but even in philosophy. It leads to a boom-bust cycle of academic production, and most people that I know who have lived through it do not like the model. Other factors, such as shrinking job market also contribute to the decision.
University's Perspective and Long-Term Sustainability
According to a statement from Boston University spokesperson Colin Riley, the decision is “part of our ongoing review of our doctoral programs,” which includes not just completely pausing admissions for some programs, but reducing the number of students in others next academic year. The statement also said “these actions are part of Boston University’s commitment to re-envision these programs to allow for their long-term sustainability.
The deans wrote that the pause in admissions won’t merely give the College of Arts and Sciences more time to understand the ramifications of the union contract. They mentioned an effort, underway long before that collective bargaining agreement was signed, in which the university was exploring possibly lowering the number of students in Ph.D. programs. With the pause, they said, “we will be better positioned to make more informed choices … as outlined in the report of the 2022 Ph.D. Task Force on Ph.D.
The 2022 Ph.D. Task Force Report
The task force’s webpage does mention some broader questions across academe about Ph.D. programs. It mentioned, on a national level, “the relatively low percentage of Ph.D. graduates who secure tenure track faculty positions, the failure to train Ph.D. students for a wide array of careers, the uneven quality of faculty mentoring, the adequacy of funding for students pursuing the Ph.D. and shortcomings in efforts to diversify the Ph.D. The listed questions the task force said it tackled included a few on finances. There were also questions such as “Should BU consider a ‘one in/one out’ model that allows one entering Ph.D.
The report found that fewer graduates were securing tenured faculty positions. It also identified a financial impact from increasing grad student unionization efforts nationwide, WBUR reported. The job market is shrinking for doctoral program graduates in general, the Globe found previously.
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Concerns About the Future of Humanities
The suspension of admissions has raised concerns about the future of humanities and social science disciplines at Boston University. Russell A. Berman, Walter A. “Graduate education is a vital part of knowledge production, not only in terms of training future scholars, but also in the collaboration between graduate students and existing faculty,” Berman said.
Universities are becoming centers for student experiences. The first academic departments that will suffer are the humanities, because they do not comply to the utilitarian logic of administrators. But it won’t be contained to the humanities. As we’re seeing at smaller state universities, more theoretical sciences (like physics) are also under threat. Even computer science is struggling on some campuses. I sometimes worry that, eventually, the only majors offered will be Business, Business Psychology, and Academic Administration.
Broader Implications for Graduate Education
BU’s statement is cryptic but portentous, not only for the institution itself but for graduate education generally. While they didn’t mention the specific outcomes at BU, on a national level, Ph.D. programs have struggled with high attrition rates and questions over whether the degree is worth the investment.
Comparison with Other Universities: Cornell University
Cornell must negotiate with the Cornell Graduate Students United (CGSU) for a first-time collective bargaining agreement. However, the CGSU has not reached the stage of negotiating economic issues such as hourly wages. Unlike BU where the union represents a broad set of graduate students, the CGSU does not represent non-Ph.D. At Cornell, most graduate students in STEM fields receive fellowships. For example, the Chemistry Department has sufficient endowment to give fellowships to all graduate students for their first three years. After that, the Chemistry Ph.D. However, the funding structure of Cornell is similar to Boston University in that most undergraduate tuition goes to the individual colleges who then in turn use it to hire teaching assistants and research assistants. The Cornell Graduate School has very little money in its budget, and academic departments are funded by their colleges. For 2024-25, Cornell’s undergraduate tuition in the endowed colleges is $68,380 per year, while its Ph.D program tuition is $20,800. Tuition for BU Ph.D. students is $66,670 per year. Cornell has not announced any response to the BU freeze. However, one comment on Reddit reported that the Cornell Government department was not accepting new applications for Ph.D. UPDATE: Cornell has replied regarding Ph.D.
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