The Pentagon will review and potentially cut off tuition assistance for active-duty service members at dozens of elite universities, including Georgetown, according to a memo signed last week by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
The memo and its accompanying press release explicitly name Harvard University, saying that beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year, the Pentagon will sever its academic ties with the university and “discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs at the school.”
The memo also warns of imminent reviews of the graduate programs at other Ivy League and similar universities. A preliminary list compiled by the army and reviewed by CNN lists Georgetown as one such school.
While Harvard was the only school explicitly named in the memo, Hegseth’s Feb. 6 video posted to X warns that similar restrictions will be placed on other universities whose “pervasive institutional bias” and “lack of viewpoint diversity” undercut the military’s mission.
“In two week’s time, components of all of our departments–Army, Navy, and Air Force–will evaluate all existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at all Ivy League universities, and other civilian universities,” Hegseth said in the Feb. 6 video posted to X.
“The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost-effective, strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to public universities and our military graduate programs,” Hegseth said.
The Pentagon has provided tuition benefits for active-duty service members, with many branches offering funded graduate programs for career advancement and development for life after service. Examples include the The Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP), which covers tuition for medical, dental, nursing, and psychology students in exchange for one year of active-duty service for each year of support, and the Navy JAG Corps’ Law Education Program, which fully funds law school in exchange for 20 years of service.
According to Georgetown’s Military & Veteran Resource Center, “the Hilltop is home to over 1,500 military-connected students, including service members, veterans, and military families.” Georgetown participates in several Pentagon-funded graduate programs with the Air Force, Army, and Navy that might be in jeopardy, including certain graduate programs, the Health Professions Scholarship Program, and multiple JAG Corps and Legal Education programs.
A list of schools with a “moderate to high” risk of being banned that was reviewed by CNN lists Georgetown University alongside over 30 other schools, including: American University, Boston College, Boston University, Brown University, Columbia University, College of William and Mary, Cornell University, Duke, Emory, Fordham, Georgetown, George Washington University, Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, MIT, Northeastern University, Northwestern University, New York University, Princeton, Stanford, Tufts, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.
Hegseth graduated from Princeton University in 2003, and received his master’s from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2013, while several other Pentagon appointees are alumni of schools on the list, including Yale, Princeton, and Harvard Business School.
The university declined the Voice’s request for comment.
