Pentagon cuts ties with 13 top U.S. colleges, says they don’t create good warfighters

Hegseth ends 93 fellowship spots at elite schools

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo on Feb. 27 ending Senior Service College fellowships at 22 institutions. The cuts cancel about 93 fellowship positions starting with the 2026-2027 school year.

The memo, titled “Aligning Senior Service College Opportunities with American Values,” says the Pentagon will stop investing in schools it claims fail to sharpen warfighting skills or uphold military values.

The policy hits more than a dozen universities and seven Washington think tanks.

These fellowships groom future generals

Senior Service College fellowships send top military officers to civilian schools for a year of graduate-level study. The programs target colonels and lieutenant colonels on track for general officer roles.

The Army War College runs the program, placing more than 75 fellows a year across 60-plus schools and think tanks.

Fellows study national security policy and strategy while getting perspectives they wouldn’t find inside the military. They also represent the armed forces at their host schools.

Five Ivy League schools make the list

Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, and Princeton all lost their fellowships.

MIT, Georgetown, George Washington University, Tufts, Saint Louis University, Carnegie Mellon, Middlebury College, and the College of William and Mary round out the university cuts. Harvard had the biggest program, with 21 fellows enrolled.

Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and Queen’s University in Canada also lost their spots, bringing the full count to 22 with the think tanks included.

Seven think tanks lose their spots too

The cuts reach beyond campuses. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution, and the Atlantic Council all lost fellowships.

So did the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for a New American Security, the Henry L. Stimson Center, and New America.

These groups are some of the best-known defense and national security research organizations in Washington. Together, they held about 13 fellowship slots.

The Pentagon says these institutions no longer align with its mission.

Hegseth calls the schools places of “indoctrination”

Hegseth posted a video to social media saying elite universities have promoted “wokeness and weakness” instead of serious strategic education. He called the affected schools places of “indoctrination.”

The memo says military education must restore what it calls the warrior ethos.

But the document did not give specific examples of curriculum or conduct at any of the named schools to back up those claims. The memo’s rationale drew quick attention from education leaders and defense analysts.

New partners must show political alignment

The memo lays out what replacement schools need to qualify: intellectual freedom, minimal ties to foreign adversaries, and graduate-level national security or public policy programs. But one requirement stands out.

Schools must also show “minimal public expressions in opposition of the Department.” Critics say that standard measures political loyalty, not academic quality.

The memo did not explain how the Pentagon judged any school’s performance against these rules.

Liberty and Hillsdale lead the replacement list

The Pentagon named several schools as potential new partners.

Liberty University, Hillsdale College, George Mason University, and Pepperdine University all made the list. Senior military colleges like The Citadel and the University of North Georgia are on it too.

Larger state schools, including the University of Michigan, Clemson, Iowa State, Baylor, Auburn, Arizona State, and the University of Florida, round out the group. Three government-run programs also made the cut.

ROTC and GI Bill benefits stay untouched

The fellowship cuts do not affect every military education program. Undergraduate programs, including ROTC, remain in place.

GI Bill and post-9/11 education benefits are also safe. Fellows already studying at the cut schools should be able to finish their programs.

But this may not be the last round of changes.

The Pentagon has a separate review underway looking at broader military tuition assistance at other schools, and the results could expand the list.

A wider tuition ban could hit 34 more schools

CNN reported that the Army put together a preliminary list of 34 schools at “moderate to high risk” of losing eligibility for military tuition assistance.

That list goes well beyond the 22 already cut and includes Cornell, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, and NYU. More than 230,000 service members use tuition assistance programs.

How far the broader review will go remains unclear, and the Pentagon has not confirmed which additional schools could lose funding.

Military leaders and lawmakers push back

Some military officials told reporters the move tries to limit diversity of thought among senior officers. One official said the Pentagon appeared to be trying to strip critical thinking from the military.

Georgetown law professor and former Pentagon adviser Rosa Brooks called the policy short-sighted.

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said his committee asked the Pentagon for a full explanation but got no response.

The College of William and Mary said it was “puzzled and saddened” by the decision.

Hegseth himself holds degrees from cut schools

Here’s where it gets interesting. Hegseth earned his bachelor’s degree in politics from Princeton in 2003 and a master’s in public policy from Harvard in 2013.

Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg also attended Princeton.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll got his law degree from Yale, and Navy Secretary John Phelan holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

On top of that, the Army’s Artificial Intelligence Integration Center operates out of Carnegie Mellon, one of the cut schools.

Final list of replacement schools could still change

The Pentagon says the fellowship cuts are part of a bigger effort called the “Rapid Force-Wide Review of Military Standards.”

The replacement school list is described as “under consideration,” so the final roster may shift.

Key details remain unclear, including how the Pentagon will define which partnerships count and whether more schools could lose access.

The House Armed Services Committee minority staff has sent a formal request for information. The Pentagon has not responded.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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