The University of Chicago’s Department of Arts and Humanities is reducing how many new PhDs are. It acknowledged students in about half of its departments in the 2026-27 school year and had completely stopped their PhD. Admissions to other places. Multilingual programs are affected.
In Tuesday’s email Internal Advanced ED Dean Deborah Nelson, dean of the Arts and Humanities, told faculty and PhD. Students, “We will receive smaller overall PhD degrees in seven departments, including art history, film and media studies, East Asian languages and civilizations, English and literature, linguistics, music (composition) and philosophy.” The university did not tell Internal Advanced ED Students with fewer PhD degrees will be accepted in these departments.
“Other departments will cease admissions,” Nelson wrote.
Andrew Ollett, associate professor of languages and civilizations in South Asia, said that this means there is no new PhD. Students in these departments: Classics, Comparative Literature, Germanic Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Romantic Languages and Literature, Slavic Languages and Literature, and South Asian Languages and Civilizations, as well as ethnological and historical and theories of the music department in the music department.
While the university did not provide interviews or answer multiple written questions, the spokesperson did not point out that Uchigago Crown Social Work, Policy and Practice School also suspended PhD degrees. At the time of admission, the Harris School of Public Policy is suspending admission to the Harris Ph.D. and a Master of Public Policy with a Certificate in Research Methods.
“The few PhD and Masters programs at the University of Chicago will suspend enrollment for the 2026-2027 academic year, while zoning and schools conduct a comprehensive review of the program’s tasks and structure,” Uchikaga said in a statement. The purpose of it is to “ensure the highest quality training for the next generation of scholars” and the suspension “does not affect students currently enrolled.”
Uchigago, facing debt problems, has become another example of a well-known university freeze or shrinking its PhD. Amid financial stress and other factors, admissions and planning. In November, before Trump took office as president, Boston University said it was suspending acceptance of new doctoral degrees. Students in humanities and social sciences courses, including philosophy, English and history. In February, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh announced a suspension of other institutions.
However, Uchigago’s reduction in language courses also reflects a broader trend in universities to reduce foreign language education products. In 2023, West Virginia University became notorious for its leaders’ decision to cancel all foreign language degrees.
“It’s sad and sad because it represents the domination of a set of values, namely money, which is what we call values, the values we pursue as faculty, educators and researchers,” Ollett said of Uchigago’s pause.
He argued that the university cannot say it is committed to the humanities as a field of gaining knowledge while staying away from a PhD. program.
“This one-time decision only applies to the 2026-2027 school year,” Nelson’s email said. But Clifford Ando, a distinguished professor of classics, history and the college’s Distinguished Services at Robert O. Anderson, questioned whether it was just a pause.
“I think if we remove courses that maintain undergraduate training in these fields at the same time, there is no reason to think we will resume doctoral education.” “Why do you need to have a PhD program in a university discipline that undergraduates can’t even study?”
Olitt also said this was because Nelson worked to merge smaller divisions. One big problem for the next school year, he said, is “what if we are not sure if our department exists?”
Not ruled by the committee
Provided by Ando Internal Advanced ED Uchicago’s “accusation” was awarded to the Arts and Humanities Languages Working Group on June 17.
“Uchicago is known as the global leader in ancient and modern language teaching.” “Language teaching and expertise are a valuable object in itself; it is an important foundation for the larger Uchicago University education, graduate education, and research and scholarships for our teachers.”
But it then said, “Language guidance in this extraordinary range is also expensive.” It lists several issues explored by the Commission, including:
- “Would there be a general or recommended minimum number of students?
- “Do we need to teach every lesson every year?
- “Don’t we need to teach languages anymore?
- “Is there an opportunity to share language guidance with peer agencies (with similar standards and timelines)?
- “How do we use technology more effectively to support and enhance language teaching?”
“We teach over 50 languages in the department, which seems too much because the committee is asked to find a way to lower that number,” Olitt said.
Tyler Williams is another associate professor in the South Asian Languages and Civilization Department and a member of the committee. Committee members “unanimously refused to endorse any recommendations regarding cutting language or outsourcing language teaching.” Nelson said he “had not waited for the committee to submit a report” and she “did not consult the committee until the decision was made.”
Ando also offers fees for a separate PhD. Working Group, outlining many of the “existent challenges” of a PhD. program. These include drastically reducing the demand for entry-level faculty and staff, increasing the cost of college and the degree of long-term, which can stop students.
Furthermore, the document notes that these programs face “public doubts about the value of teaching in the Arts and Humanities teaching program and how it is worthwhile.
Among other issues, the committee was asked to explore whether a doctorate should have a minimum scale. In order to provide the program.
Williams said the committee said it would not endorse the admissions suspension, but said that if it happens, it should be partitioned across the entire range.
Nelson’s email announcing the change emphasized that “this decision is not the recommendation of any committee.”
Williams said the doctoral layoffs were part of a “crisis created by university administration itself.” Olitt said he was worried about his future.
“We are very unique because the United States does not have a lot of South Asian research departments, especially the ones that train the next generation of scholars,” he said. He said he “has turned down potential PhD students so that it’s just happening.”
He said he was worried: “If we don’t do that, no one will do it, then the field will wither and die.”
