Who loses when Trump cuts funding to universities?

Written on 04/03/2025
NPR

People walk through the gate on Harvard Yard at the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Eight-point-seven billion.

Four-hundred million.

One-hundred-seventy-five million.

These are just some examples of the money the federal government has withheld or is threatening to withhold from various colleges and universities, including the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Harvard University.

That $8.7 billion figure was announced earlier this week by the Trump administration, which said that it’s reviewing federal grants and contracts awarded to Harvard because Harvard has not done enough to curb antisemitism on campus.

Some educators say the administration’s moves to cut funding at colleges and universities amounts to a war on higher education. But the loss of those funds will be felt far beyond the college campuses.

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(Image credit: Scott Eisen)