OPM to pursue ‘mass deferment’ of deadlines for CyberCorps students
The U.S. government plans to pursue a “mass deferment” of job placement deadlines for a cornerstone program for training and placing student talent into government cybersecurity positions, aiming to give affected students a temporary reprieve from requirements that would have sent many of them into debt.
The CyberCorps: Scholarship for Service program provides college tuition and a stipend to awardees, who, in return, commit to working in a government cybersecurity role upon graduation. It’s backed by the Office of Personnel Management and the National Science Foundation, the latter of which awards scholarships for up to three years of support to cybersecurity undergraduate and graduate participants, including Ph.D candidates.
But job placements for scholars have been hobbled by broader efforts initiated by the Trump administration this year to shrink and rescope the federal workforce, including various cybersecurity and intelligence community offices. A hiring freeze and shutdown-related layoffs have also contributed to the turmoil in federal hiring.
Scholarship terms stipulate that graduates must secure a qualifying job approved by OPM within an 18-month window after completing their studies. If they don’t meet that deadline, their scholarship funding converts into a loan, obligating them to repay the full amount they received.
“After the shutdown ends, OPM will collaborate with NSF on a mass deferment to give graduates more time to secure qualifying positions and further guidance to encourage agencies to make use of the SFS program for their hiring needs,” an OPM spokesperson said in a Monday statement to Nextgov/FCW, which reported last week on students’ various misgivings about the program and the looming financial risks that many are facing.
An exact deferment timeline was not provided. Some affected students have previously sought 12-month extensions on their scholarship obligations, though the outlook for federal hiring conditions a year from now is also unclear.
“Bringing top cybersecurity and AI talent into the federal government are critical to our national security,” OPM director Scott Kupor also said. “OPM is committed to the success of [Scholarship for Service] and is working closely with the National Science Foundation to ensure CyberCorps participants are supported during this challenging time.”
He said that OPM will issue guidance to agencies after the shutdown encouraging them to fully take advantage of the CyberCorps program to bring qualified talent into their workforces.
For the past 20 years, the CyberCorps program has placed students into offices at several agencies and the Defense Department, including within the National Security Agency, Department of Energy and dozens of state, local, tribal and territorial governments, according to a 2023 biennial report.
As cyber activity from U.S. adversaries and criminal hackers has escalated, CyberCorps recruits hoped they would be spared from vast federal workforce changes carried out over the course of this year.
Instead, the opposite has happened. Beginning as early as February, program recruits received cancellation notices for work offers at agencies like NASA, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Contract Management Agency, according to nearly a dozen emails previously viewed by Nextgov/FCW.
OPM said Monday that “no scholars have been sent to repayment” and that it “continues to communicate with scholars, reminding them of their service obligations and sharing resources — including qualifying state, local, tribal and territorial opportunities — to help them meet those obligations.”