When the federal government shuts down, the waves radiate far beyond Washington. For universities and colleges, the disruption is quiet but significant. Processing of financial aid slows down, research grants are frozen, visa services grind to a halt, and planning for operations turns into a guessing game. Higher education institutions have to swim through a bureaucratic fog with poor visibility and few resources.
Most students won’t lose their Pell Grants or federal loans overnight. These programs are forward-funded, meaning the money has already been allocated for the current academic year. The FAFSA portal remains open, and disbursements continue. The Department of Education expects minimal impact on Title IV aid— a federal financial assistance program that helps students pay for college through grants, loans, and work-study programs—during the shutdown.
However, with up to ~87 % of the Education Department workforce sidelined, processing times have slowed, appeals are stalled, and communication has dried up. Offices such as Consumer Education and the Office of the Ombudsman are unable to respond to new cases. Students applying for loan forgiveness or income-driven repayment (IDR) will likely be caught in limbo; FSA has already said IDR and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) application processing is paused during the lapse.
Research institutions face a more immediate threat. Agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) suspend new grant awards, cancel peer review panels, and halt technical assistance. Existing grants can still be drawn down, but oversight, assistance, and reporting functions may cease. Time-sensitive experiments may be paused or lost entirely. The American Association for the Advancement of Science warns that past shutdowns led to cancellations of reserved time on national lab instruments, closures of field research sites, and delays in international collaborations. Faculty who rely on federal grants for salary, equipment, or travel may face budget shortfalls. Graduate students on federal fellowships may see delays in stipend payments.
Some agencies have already undergone significant adjustments. The NSF was instructed by the federal government on April 30, 2025, to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” and terminated numerous grants. NIH extramural operations were suspended; peer review meetings were canceled. Because many research staff and grant managers are classified as nonessential, they are furloughed, which delays not only new awards but also the reinstatement of previously canceled grants. Even when courts order reinstatement of grants, agency systems and staff may not be capable of acting during the shutdown.
International students face a different kind of uncertainty. The State Department says consular operations will continue, including visa services, but embassies and consulates may be understaffed, and processing times could stretch. Students applying for F-1 visas or Optional Practical Training may run into delays that affect their ability to travel, work, or enroll. Universities with large international student populations, such as NYU and Columbia, already advise students to remain in close contact with campus immigration offices.
Universities must assess which federal partnerships are at risk, which services may be delayed, and how to support vulnerable populations such as veterans and low-income students. Essentially, operational planning becomes a high-stakes guessing game. Some institutions, such as NC State and Wisconsin–Madison, have developed internal protocols for shutdown scenarios (including multi-week partial closures). Others rely on patchy communications from federal agencies that may not be responsive. The Council on Governmental Relations recommends that institutions monitor multiple federal agency websites, follow contingency announcements, and prepare for inconsistent messaging.
Shutdowns may be temporary, but their effects linger. Delayed research may be unrecoverable. Missed visa appointments can derail academic careers. Financial aid confusion can lead to missed payments or withdrawn classes. The question isn’t just how to survive a shutdown, but how to prepare for the next one.
Vanderbilt, like the majority of universities, has forward-funded student aid programs and provides public information on how a government shutdown may affect research activities, international students, and veterans. Still, the university faces the same challenges as its peers: uncertainty around research funding, delayed federal communication, and potential disruptions to ongoing projects and partnerships. Proactively reviewing these vulnerabilities and strengthening coordination across departments could help ensure that essential operations and the students and researchers who depend on them remain supported through any future shutdown.
