Job Market Tough for New Ph.D.s; Students, Society Will Suffer

Employment is tough; the headlines aren't kidding. Newly-minted Ph.D.s are also having trouble putting their long-hard years of erudition to some practical purpose. State universities across the nation are expecting cut-backs and that means hiring fewer professors. A recent NYT article looks at how the economy is affecting young Ph.D.s.

Full-time faculty jobs have not been easy to come by in recent decades, but this year the new crop of Ph.D. candidates is finding the prospects worse than ever. Public universities are bracing for severe cuts as state legislatures grapple with yawning deficits. At the same time, even the wealthiest private colleges have seen their endowments sink and donations slacken since the financial crisis. So a chill has set in at many higher education institutions, where partial or full-fledge hiring freezes have been imposed.

A survey by the American Historical Association, for example, found that the number of history departments recruiting new professors this year is down 15 percent, while the American Mathematical Society’s largest list of job postings has dropped more than 25 percent from last year.

Ph.D.s are a specialized breed. They already recognize that the degree will not bring them more money (go get the M.B.A. for that), but it is supposed to allow them a life-style that allows them to investigate the most narrow topic to their heart's content. But not only is the economy impeding their chances at a job, older professors are staying put, preventing a new crop from joining the ranks.

The anticipated wave of retirements by faculty members who are 60-something is likely to slow as retirement savings accounts and pensions wither, administrators and professors say. That means that some students who have finished postdoctoral fellowships and who expected to leave for faculty positions are staying put for another year, which in turn closes off an option for other graduate students coming up the ladder.

So young graduate students are stuck in between where they are and where they want to go.

“It’s been obvious for some time — witness the unionization movement — that graduate students are caught between the old model of apprentice scholars and the new reality of insecure laborers with uncertain employment prospects,” Mr. Delbanco said. “Among the effects of the financial crisis will clearly be shrinkage both in graduate fellowships and in entry-level academic positions, so the prospects for aspiring Ph.D.’s are getting even bleaker.”

This isn't a good thing for a few reasons. For one, university students are already worried about increases in tuition and they do not need the additional concern about the quality of their education due to fewer professors. And secondly, where will the new American ideas spring from? The American university is one such place that focuses on just that goal--to create original ideas and research about our most pressing and future issues. With young Ph.D.s being shut out from tenure-track positions, their enormous skill set and subject expertise aren't put to the best use. Finally, young Ph.D.s, on account of their age, are better able to understand today's college students and their passions as they try to determine their own path in this world.