Bloomberg Surveillance · Friday, July 24, 2026
Master's and PhD programs are facing significant challenges due to changes in student visa policies, reduced federal research funding, and new caps on federal lending for graduate students. These shifts are reshaping the financial landscape of higher education, particularly impacting STEM fields.
“There's the crackdown on student visa applicants and international students, who make up a disproportionate amount of grad students in this country compared to undergrads.”
“There is the curtailing of federal research money and the huge historic uncertainty around that relationship between the federal government and research universities, which are hitting grad programs especially hard, PhD programs in particular, but also master's programs, particularly in stem fields.”
“And then there's also new strict limits on federal lending for grad students who used to be able to borrow practically unlimited amounts of money to attend grad school and are now going to have some pretty strict new caps on that lending.”