U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the War Department will sever its academic ties with Harvard University, ending long-standing graduate education and fellowship programs for military personnel at the school.
The decision, announced Feb. 6, will take effect beginning with the 2026–2027 academic year and will apply to graduate-level professional military education, fellowships and certificate programs, according to a statement from the War Department.
“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,” Hegseth 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.”
File this under: LONG OVERDUE
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) February 6, 2026
The @DeptWar is formally ending ALL Professional Military Education, fellowships, and certificate programs with Harvard University.
Harvard is woke; The War Department is not. pic.twitter.com/0kpsvivtsQ
Hegseth said military personnel currently enrolled at Harvard would be allowed to complete their programs of study.
The War Department said it will review academic relationships with other Ivy League and civilian universities to determine whether they provide cost-effective strategic education compared with public universities and military graduate programs.
“[We] will evaluate all existing graduate programs for active-duty service members at all Ivy League universities and other civilian universities,” Hegseth said. “The goal is to determine whether or not they actually deliver cost-effective strategic education for future senior leaders.”
Hegseth said Harvard no longer provides an environment aligned with military and American values, citing what he described as an unwelcoming campus culture for service members.
“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,” he said.
He said the U.S. military had historically maintained close ties with Harvard, noting that George Washington took command of the Continental Army in Harvard Yard in 1775 and that the university has produced more Medal of Honor recipients than any other civilian institution.
The move follows years of public criticism by Hegseth toward his alma mater. In a 2022 appearance on Fox News, he said he planned to return his Harvard diploma as a symbolic protest against what he described as the school’s political ideology.
During the broadcast, Hegseth brought his diploma onto the set of “Fox & Friends Weekend” and wrote “return to sender” across it with a marker, saying he no longer supported the institution that issued it, according to Fox News.
Future Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth wrote “Return to Sender” on his Harvard Diploma💥 pic.twitter.com/HNmpb2x3ix
— Alma Gentil (@Chinoy200096633) November 14, 2024
Hegseth said at the time that conservative families should reconsider sending their children to elite universities, arguing that such schools promoted political views hostile to the United States and the military.
In his 2020 book, “American Crusade,” he urged alumni to stop donating to their universities and encouraged graduates to mail back diplomas as a form of protest, writing that Harvard had become what he called a factory for ideological conformity.
Harvard University did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the War Department’s decision.
