The future looks lean for American colleges and universities.
2025 was a rough year for American academia. From federal funding cuts to reduced enrollment – for multiple reasons – colleges and universities across the US were forced to cut jobs to stay afloat. President Donald Trump can claim some of the credit – but certainly not all of it.
Inside Higher Ed has been tracking the job losses across the higher education sector. Their December report, released last week, painted a bleak picture of 2025. In total, there were at least 9,000 positions dropped over the year – with 300 of them just in December.
An Education in Loss
President Donald Trump spent much of his first year back in office trying to hit progressive universities where it hurts the most – right in the funding. He has enjoyed some limited success, either in cutting funding or in coercing policy change, though he has experienced some setbacks as well.
In the spring of last year, the president declared that Harvard hadn’t done enough to stop open antisemitism on its campus and subsequently froze $2.2 billion in grants and $60 mill in contracts to the school. Come September, though, US District Judge Allison D. Burroughs sided with the university, unfreezing the funding.
Most other schools targeted by the Trump administration – Columbia, Cornell, Duke, and Princeton, just to name a handful – all saw their funding threatened. Rather than lose that federal dole, however, some of the schools acquiesced to his demands. Columbia paid over $200 million in settlement for alleged discrimination and antisemitism. Brown had a smaller settlement and agreed to government oversight.
The Trump Factor
But as big a dent as Trump has put in higher ed’s funding, that isn’t the only way he’s affecting this outcome. Following the administration’s increase in immigration enforcement, new international student enrollment fell 17% by fall.
New rules for visas and stricter enforcement have all cut down on the number of foreigners who come to America for studies. And, altogether, it has starved universities of their lifeblood: money. In December alone, Inside Higher Ed reported that DePaul University, for example, lost 755 foreign students in 2025, a decline of nearly 62%, and as a result, they went on to cut 114 jobs.
It’s a similar song and dance at the University of Kansas, Western Wyoming Community College, Martin University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Hard Times Ahead for Higher Ed
Hidden in all the sensational bluster of US universities battling against Trump lies yet another – though quieter – factor: shifting demographics. From this year on, there will be a long trend of fewer high school graduates heading off to college – and, therefore, fewer college graduates down the road – simply because the population of 18-year-olds is now in decline and will be for a while.
When the Great Recession began in 2007, people started having fewer babies. While there was a slight boom during COVID, the declining birthrate still hasn’t fully recovered. And this isn’t just a problem for colleges; military recruitment and the broader job market in general are now suffering the same reduced pool of recruits.
As more research is dedicated to the issue, the future continues to look worse. Estimates from higher education consulting firm Ruffalo Noel Levitz now project another drop in the number of 18-year-olds beginning in 2033. Using the latest census data, the firm suggests there will likely be 650,000, or 15%, fewer per year by 2039 than there are now.
Fewer students mean less funding, and that means more staffing cuts and school closures. Over the next decade or so, America’s academic landscape is going to shrink – no matter what the president, Congress, or the courts have to say in the matter.
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