Interesting Data

~ Clarissa

A careful analysis of actual data demonstrates that:

1) There is no over-production of people with PhDs in Humanities.

2) There is no shortage of undergrads in Humanities.

3) The only problem is the substitution of tenure lines with contingent adjunct positions.

Here is a very detailed study that uses data from the field of Germanic Studies. Here is its conclusion:

What changed in 2008 was not the number of doctorates, however, but the number of TT jobs. Ph.D. production has been essentially unchanged since the late 70s (an average of 78 per year in the 80s, and an average of 75 per year in the 2000s). Nor is it the case that Ph.D. production is outstripping the growth of undergraduate enrollments; undergrad enrollments rose over 40% between 1999 and 2010.

Once again, I advance my suggestion that we heap scorn and ridicule on any program that cuts a tenure line. This is the only solution because that’s what the entire problem is.

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Published by Clarissa

5 thoughts on “Interesting Data”

  1. ANS empirical data is for German PhDs. But, I think there are some other things going on more generally. In 2008 I applied for a couple of jobs in the US and Canada that disappeared before they could get to the stage of selecting for any interview due to cuts in the budgets for higher education on the state or provincial level. The amount of money available for faculty is certainly less in real terms than it was in the past. Public sources of funding have not kept up with increased costs and administrative costs have increased much faster than money allocated to faculty. Fifty years ago a lot more real money was being shelled out by state and even the federal government to pay for faculty salaries at public institutions of higher learning. Now there is less public money and far more of the money that does exist including from tuition goes to things other than faculty.

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