Secretary of War Pete Hegseth today announced the War Department would sever its academic ties with Harvard University, because attendance at the school no longer meets the needs of the War Department or the military services.
“For too long, this department has sent our best and brightest officers to Harvard, hoping the university would better understand and appreciate our warrior class,” he said. “Instead, too many of our officers came back looking too much like Harvard — heads full of globalist and radical ideologies that do not improve our fighting ranks.”
Beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, the War Department will discontinue graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs at the school. Hegseth noted that military personnel who are currently attending classes will be able to finish those courses of study.
The secretary said the U.S. military has, in the past, had an important and often positive relationship with Harvard.
“In 1775 … Gen. George Washington took command of the Continental Army in Harvard Yard and used the university as a military base,” he said. “From that time, through the Korean War, military service was commonplace at Harvard. There are more recipients of our nation’s Medal of Honor who went to Harvard than any other civilian institution in the United States.”
Today, Hegseth said, Harvard is no longer a welcoming institution to military personnel or the right place to develop them.
The secretary also cited as a problem the relationships Harvard has with foreign powers, and an on-campus culture that is incongruent with military and American values and interests.
“Campus research programs have partnered with the Chinese Communist Party,” he said. “And university leadership encouraged a campus environment that celebrated Hamas, allowed attacks on Jews, and still promotes discrimination based on race in violation of Supreme Court decisions.”
While the War Department announced cessation of academic relations with Harvard, the secretary said in the coming weeks, the department and military services would evaluate similar relationships with other schools.
“[We] will evaluate all existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at all Ivy League universities and other civilian universities,” he said. “The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost-effective strategic education for future senior leaders when compared to, say, public universities and our military graduate programs.”
Going forward, Hegseth said, the War Department will focus on developing warriors, increasing lethality and reestablishing deterrence.
“That no longer includes spending billions of dollars on expensive universities that actively undercut our mission and undercut our country,” he said.