4 thoughts on “The PhD Bust: America’s Awful Market for Young Scientists”
Thank you for the data link. I really enjoyed Paula Stephen’s book: How economics shapes science.
As a faculty member at a school that has publicly stated its intent to more than double the size of its Engineering program, I find this very disturbing. There is a fixed (declining in real terms) amount of federal research money, PhD students are finding good placements, and we want to expand for expansion’s sake.
I think the academe’s abuse of our graduate students is a moral blight on our profession.
I have to agree, sadly. At my institution, the university leadership has put immense pressure on Arts & Sciences departments to admit essentially every applicant to a terminal Master’s program. These students don’t receive funding but do pay tuition. Of course, they also clog up graduate-level courses in which we are supposed to be training doctoral students. Hard to teach smart, striving PhD students and bottom of the barrel new BAs in the same class.
PILEUS 
Thank you for the data link. I really enjoyed Paula Stephen’s book: How economics shapes science.
As a faculty member at a school that has publicly stated its intent to more than double the size of its Engineering program, I find this very disturbing. There is a fixed (declining in real terms) amount of federal research money, PhD students are finding good placements, and we want to expand for expansion’s sake.
I think the academe’s abuse of our graduate students is a moral blight on our profession.
I have to agree, sadly. At my institution, the university leadership has put immense pressure on Arts & Sciences departments to admit essentially every applicant to a terminal Master’s program. These students don’t receive funding but do pay tuition. Of course, they also clog up graduate-level courses in which we are supposed to be training doctoral students. Hard to teach smart, striving PhD students and bottom of the barrel new BAs in the same class.