Brandeis University has announced that the university’s doctoral degree programs in composition and theory, and musicology will be put on hiatus this fall, with the intention of eventually closing them.

The Boston Globe is reporting that the University informed its Music faculty via a letter. The Globe obtained the letter dated August 24 and signed by Brandeis provost Carol A. Fierke and dean of graduate school of arts and sciences Wendy Cadge.

The letter praised “the faculty and students in the PhD programs for their work with ‘very limited resources,’ but stated the university was ‘simply not in a position to invest in the programs as is needed to sustain and grow them.’

The letter also noted that “Brandeis’s graduate school of arts and sciences would continue to support the department’s existing PhD students, and that the changes would ‘allow the faculty to strengthen the undergraduate program in Music so it compares with those at elite liberal arts colleges.’