Brown University recently announced a $46 million deficit for the 2025 fiscal year that could exceed $90 million by 2026. To address this issue, the institution plans to expand its master’s programs. It hopes to double the number of residential master’s students and increase online enrollment to 2,000 learners within five years.

While this strategy may alleviate Brown’s financial woes, it raises critical questions about the broader implications of such expansions in higher education.

Master’s programs have been criticized as “cash cows” for universities. Mark Schneider, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has pointed out their questionable return on investment for students. Data from the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity show that while the number of master’s degrees awarded in the U.S. grew faster than bachelor’s and doctoral degrees between 2010 and 2020, nearly half of these programs had negative return on investment.

Despite Brown’s assurances that it will focus on high-quality programs aligned with market demand, it has not specified which fields of study or industries it plans to target, nor has it addressed expected student outcomes. Instead, its emphasis appears to be on its own financial benefits amid stagnant undergraduate tuition revenue.

The national growth in master’s programs over the last two decades follows the establishment of the federal Direct PLUS Loans........

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