Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the Department of Defense will cancel all military attendance at a group of elite universities beginning with the 2026–27 academic year, as part of a broader reshaping of military education policy, Defense Department officials said.
In a video posted on social media, Hegseth said the policy would apply to institutions that have traditionally hosted U.S. military officers for graduate and professional education, including Princeton University, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brown University and Yale University.
“Today, just like we did with Harvard, I am ordering the complete and immediate cancellation of all Department of War attendance at institutions like Princeton, Columbia, MIT, Brown, Yale and many others, starting next academic year, 2026-2027,” Hegseth said.
“We cannot and will not continue to send our most capable officers, senior officers, into graduate programs that undermine the very values they have sworn to uphold,” he added.
Hegseth also called for a comprehensive review of military academic programs, saying service colleges should focus more directly on national security issues and “real-world war-fighting” rather than what he described as social or ideological concerns.
“We demand that senior service colleges work to sharpen our war fighters on genuine national security issues, not social justice activism,” he said.
“We demand curriculums grounded in the founding principles of this republic, principles that champion the enduring ideals of peace through strength and putting American interests first.”
He then extended his criticism to the broader academic community. “We demand universities that invest back into our nation’s prosperity rather than our greatest adversaries,” the Pentagon chief said. “It’s common sense.”
