Compiled by CHUCK STARESINIC

SEPT. 10

• The Trump administration’s decision to expand the number of foreign academic and research institutions that are considered off-limits for research partnerships has ended at least one study abroad program and triggered reviews at more than two dozen universities. After updating the Section 1286 list in July and adding several major research universities in China, the Defense Department told 30 colleges to review partnerships with institutions on the list and terminate any “problematic” relationships. Currently, 130 academic and research institutions located in China, Iran and Russia are off-limits for collaboration.

• Last year, colleges and universities in the United States awarded fewer bachelor’s degrees in the humanities than at any time since 1991, according to a report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Institutions awarded 164,847 bachelor’s degrees in the humanities in 2025. That total represents a 30.4 percent decline since 2012, when humanities degrees were at the height of their popularity.

SEPT. 9

• The Tribune-Review reported that Pitt, along with Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities, received a failing grade in the College Free Speech Rankings from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. The national nonprofit’s rankings are based on free speech policies, past controversies and student survey responses. The three were the only regional universities listed in the report. Pitt was the only one to improve its position, a 14-spot increase, over last year. 

• In a 10-to-6 vote, the American Bar Association Accreditation Council scrapped a long-standing requirement that law schools “demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion.” The decision is final and takes effect immediately. It does not, however, prevent law schools from continuing to prioritize diversity on campus; rather, it bars the council as a quality-assurance group from mandating that colleges do so in order to remain accredited.

SEPT. 8

Inside Higher Ed reported on vigorous opposition to a NIH-DOD research agreement under which the Defense Department could tap up to $2 billion in federal research dollars designated for biomedical research. A National Institutes of Health spokesperson told Nature that the transfer “will only take place on a project-by-project basis, and all research will be within the scope of NIH’s mission. There is no blanket transfer of funds.” The aim is to send biodefense research projects at the infectious diseases institute to DOD, officials say. 

SEPT. 4

Inside Higher Ed reports that U.S. researchers are increasingly securing European Research Council grants. The number of early-career researchers based outside Europe who have won European Research Council grants has almost doubled in a year, with nearly all the overseas academics coming from the U.S., even as the E.U. has less money to distribute than last year.

AUG. 31

• Inside Higher Ed reported on how the Education Department’s proposed changes to accreditation could impact professional licensure. Public comments on the proposed rules can be submitted on or before Sept. 21 through the Federal eRulemaking Portal.

• The Department of Education announced more than $186 million in federal college-access funding, easing concerns that the agency would redirect the money or not award grants at all. The announcement brings relief for education advocates worried by the administration’s calls for grant proposals published earlier this year, which said states that applied for Talent Search grants would be eligible for far more money than individual institutions.

AUG. 27

A study in the journal Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education reported that AI tends to grade students' essays higher than humans do. With AI increasingly being explored by universities as part of the marking process to relieve pressure on time-strapped academics, the research found that generative AI tools such as ChatGPT “do not reliably reproduce human judgement in the marking of extended written work.”

AUG. 25

The Pitt News reported that up to 11 elective courses will be removed from the history department’s catalog in the spring, and the department opted not to renew the contracts of between six and eight part-time professors as a result. Impacted faculty members received emails from department chair Michel Gobat notifying them of the reduction in mid-July.

AUG. 26

Inside Higher Ed reported that new student visas dropped 23% in 2025. Countries impacted by the administration’s travel ban are among those with the fewest student visas issued in 2025, though China and India, typically the two largest suppliers of international students to the U.S., were also hit hard.

AUG. 24

Chatham University announced the formation of the Falk College of Environment, Leadership and Management. The new college will combine the School of Business and Enterprise and the Falk School of Sustainability and Environment into a single school. According to Chatham, the merged college will contain the Department of Business Systems and the Department of Sustainability & Environment.

Chuck Staresinic is interim editor of the University Times. Reach him at chuck.s@pitt.edu.

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