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1/Today in @bopinion, I discuss why America has been producing too many PhDs in recent years, and what we need to do to solve the problem. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-04/america-is-pumping-out-too-many-ph-d-s?sref=R8NfLgwS
2/First of all, many people don't realize just how many PhDs we produce! More than almost any other rich country.
3/And we've kept ramping this number up and up.
4/But the problem begins when PhDs start looking for (usually academic) jobs. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2017-10-04/too-many-people-dream-of-a-charmed-life-in-academia?sref=R8NfLgwS
5/The U.S. built a ton of universities and then we stopped.
Professors have tenure.
That means there are just going to be fewer new tenure-track jobs than before. Everyone in academia already knows this well.
Professors have tenure.
That means there are just going to be fewer new tenure-track jobs than before. Everyone in academia already knows this well.
6/Here's the market for history professors.
https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/february-2016/the-troubled-academic-job-market-for-history
https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/february-2016/the-troubled-academic-job-market-for-history
7/Here's the market for anthropology professors.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202528
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202528
8/Here's the market for English and foreign-language professors.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/11/21/full-time-jobs-english-and-languages-reach-new-low-mla-report-finds
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/11/21/full-time-jobs-english-and-languages-reach-new-low-mla-report-finds
9/Now, to make matters worse, college enrollment has been flatlining. Even before COVID-19 came along and kicked colleges' butt. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-18/america-s-great-college-boom-is-winding-down?sref=R8NfLgwS
10/And colleges, under huge pressures to cut costs, have switched from tenure-track faculty to adjuncts and lecturers.
11/The life of many PhDs after graduation has thus become "adjunctopia" -- or more accurately, Adjunct Hell. Desperately hanging on year after year, hoping for that big break that never comes. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/upshot/academic-job-crisis-phd.html
12/Of course, PhDs can go into the private sector. BUT, many doctoral advisors push PhD students toward academia. And grad school culture stigmatizes private-sector jobs as failure...
13/Plus, while STEM PhDs and some social science PhDs can often find private-sector jobs in their fields, many humanities and social science fields don't have good private-sector analogs.
This will lead to underemployment and resentment.
This will lead to underemployment and resentment.
14/And social unrest really is a threat here. Dashed expectations can lead to deep rage at the system. And who better equipped to overthrow the system than a bunch of brilliant underemployed people? https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1040785903201861632
15/Some historians, like @Peter_Turchin, have warned that "elite overproduction" is a recipe for unrest. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/peter-turchin-how-elite-overproduction-and-lawyer-glut-could-ruin-the-u-s
16/And the insanely shitty job market for PhDs is taking a massive psychological toll. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/14/phd-student-poll-finds-mental-health-bullying-and-career-uncertainty-are-top
17/So what do we do about this?
For STEM PhDs, we can have the government employ more. A massive expansion of federal research funding is in the works. We should pass @RoKhanna's Endless Frontier Act. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-01/the-u-s-gets-serious-about-catching-up-to-china-in-r-d
For STEM PhDs, we can have the government employ more. A massive expansion of federal research funding is in the works. We should pass @RoKhanna's Endless Frontier Act. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-01/the-u-s-gets-serious-about-catching-up-to-china-in-r-d
18/But for many humanities and social science fields, a big federal bailout simply isn't in the cards. Nor is the private sector prepared to employ ever-increasing humanities and social science PhDs without severe underemployment.
We need to cut back on production.
We need to cut back on production.
19/Some universities are already cutting back on production in these fields.
This will be painful but necessary. https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-leads-dozens-of-universities-to-pause-ph-d-admissions-11609261200
This will be painful but necessary. https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-leads-dozens-of-universities-to-pause-ph-d-admissions-11609261200
20/We need a PhD production system that is more in line with new economic realities -- flat or declining college enrollment, cost-cutting, and the end of the 20th century college building boom.
(end) https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-04/america-is-pumping-out-too-many-ph-d-s?sref=R8NfLgwS
(end) https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-01-04/america-is-pumping-out-too-many-ph-d-s?sref=R8NfLgwS
