Georgetown University will terminate a master’s program in health policy after Spring 2026, citing changes in the postbaccalaureate landscape, a university spokesperson confirmed to The Hoya on March 18.

The Health and the Public Interest (HAPI) program, a one-year master’s degree that examines health policy through advocacy, scientific and theoretical lenses, ended admissions indefinitely as part of a broader reorganization within Georgetown’s graduate programs. Program administrators notified students of the program’s termination, which was later announced on the program’s website, at an in-person meeting earlier this year, and informed part-time students that the university will provide them with pathways to degree completion.

The termination of the HAPI program coincides with the March suspension of Fall 2026 admissions for the environmental metrology and policy (EMAP) program, another interdisciplinary master’s degree.

A university spokesperson confirmed the program’s end, saying it will not admit new students next year.

“Shifting priorities in the graduate landscape have prompted the closure of the Health and the Public Interest (HAPI) master’s program after this academic year,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “The program is not admitting new students this cycle.”

The HAPI program, which was established nine years ago, currently has 13 students, according to three students. 

These decisions come after Interim University President Robert M. Groves said in April 2025 the university planned to increase enrollment in master’s programs — which are a significant source of university revenue — following federal budget cuts to higher education institutions. The university is currently forecasted to lose $35 million in federal research funding and, as a result, has already begun downsizing doctoral programs within the College of Arts & Sciences. 

In light of budgetary restraints, the university implemented a two-year reorganization plan in July 2025 to dismantle and replace the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, shifting graduate programs to specific departments in the College, the School of Medicine and other university initiatives.

Adriane Fugh-Berman, HAPI’s co-director, said the program’s end stems from these changes to Georgetown’s graduate school.

“The grad school underwent a reorganization,” Fugh-Berman wrote to The Hoya. “Most of its other programs were placed in other schools at the university.”

“It was a surprise, and very sad, to learn that our program would be closed instead of being placed in a school,” Fugh-Berman added.

Adam Myers, HAPI’s other co-director, said program leadership was not as involved as he would have liked in the decision to terminate the HAPI.

“The process was treated in some ways like a corporate restructuring process in which the people of the program weren’t really consulted or weren’t part of important discussions about the future of the program,” Myers told The Hoya. “Decisions got made along the way in which we could have had some useful input, I believe, but weren’t asked.”

Sascha Mohan (GRD ’26), a current HAPI student, said she and her classmates were surprised by the news of the program’s ending.

“When they said it, obviously all of us were silent for a second, shocked, definitely disappointed, because I know that all of us share the opinion that this program has been so beneficial for us,” Mohan told The Hoya. “All of us have such different paths and interests that we’ve gotten from our undergraduate career and want to use what we’ve learned in our master’s program in our future careers.”

“I think that it was just really sad to see everyone’s reactions and know that we were the last cohort,” Mohan added.

Current full-time HAPI students will complete their degrees in Spring 2026. Students enrolled in the program part-time will meet with faculty to develop individualized plans toward degree completion during the 2026-27 academic year.

Fugh-Berman said HAPI was important in promoting cross-professional collaboration.

“Professions tend to be siloed,” Fugh-Berman wrote. “As each profession has its own culture, it can be difficult for them to understand each other.”

“By cross-training students in quantitative and qualitative methods, biology of health and disease, communications, economics, advocacy, and all of the myriad of subjects we covered in our fantastic seminar series, our graduates can talk knowledgeably to anyone in the health field and can work in a variety of fields,” Fugh-Berman added.

Blake Hite (GRD ’22), a graduate of the HAPI program who now works as an attorney, said the HAPI program has aided him in his legal career.

“I think it has helped prepare me to be a more well-rounded attorney,” Hite told The Hoya. “I’ve worked on a number of public health projects, including litigation projects, where I have been able to do things that most attorneys can’t, because I can look at scientific evidence and help evaluate potential expert witnesses, for example, and determine their credibility as scientists.”

“In the same way that an accountant needs to understand how fraud works in order to prevent fraud, HAPI is about understanding how science is misused to prevent its misuse and to call it out when it is seen,” Hite added.

Myers said HAPI stands out for its emphasis on advocating for an improved health care system, even if that distinguishes the program from traditional academia.

“We wanted to focus on people and culture, society and health care, and although many programs out there look at those things, I think that our emphasis on advocacy and social determinants of health was a lot more directed and, in that regard, was something that produced graduates who are carrying forth what they learned in the program, ” Myers told The Hoya. 

“I also think advocacy is a difficult thing for universities to get their head around,” Myers added.

Health care policy analysts have argued that the U.S. health care system has become more corporatized in recent years, with many U.S. citizens going uninsured due to the high costs of a health care plan and fewer insurance options. HAPI focused on the inner workings of the health care system and how to advocate for patients through policy.

Myers said it is especially important to preserve a program like HAPI in the current political climate, citing frustrations over health care in the United States.

“Of course, some of the things that we advocate for and hope to accomplish are swimming against the tide in the current direction of health policy in the federal administration, but I don’t think it’s time to quit,” Myers said. “I think it’s time to double down and make it work.”

Aabha Mantri (GRD ’26), a current student in the HAPI program, said the program’s strength lies in its emphasis on students’ and faculty’s diverse and specialized experiences.

“The beauty of the program is that, yes, it is multidisciplinary, but also in the sense that it’s not just our professors, it’s also the students,” Mantri told The Hoya. “Students bring in their own strengths and interests, and it really is that kind of attitude that’s going to make productive, real change in public health or in health care and health policy.”

“So that is a little disappointing that a program that was so encouraging about this collaborative nature between disciplines — it is a little discouraging to see that that’s what’s gotten taken away,” Mantri added.

Molly Yeselson (GRD ’26), a current HAPI student, said she hopes the program will return in some capacity.

“I think we all hope that later down the road, even if it’s not exactly HAPI, but that there is a public health program at Georgetown,” Yeselson told The Hoya. “Because, yes, we have the global health program and I know people from electives I’m in who are in it and it is great, and we need people who are doing that work, but I think we also do need people who are working here in the United States to improve the health care system because we have so many things that need to be fixed.”

Mohan said this program is needed to better understand and educate about the health care system in the United States.

“I think this program has really opened me up to specifically what communities remain vulnerable, and how that has changed and fluctuated over the past,” Mohan said.

“We need programs like this that bridge the gap between clinical knowledge and this interdisciplinary knowledge, and the gap that exists between people that may have that knowledge in the general public,” Mohan added.