Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/11/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Guy, I have to differ with you. The Baby Boom generation that has occupied most of the professoriate is now on the verge of retirement, and since the education cutbacks of the 80s and early 90s stopped most faculty renewal in a period when the size of most university faculty bodies actually grew smaller, there is going to be a large faculty shortage. The shortage of graduate students, according to most studies that have been done, is largely due to the dramatically increased costs of attending graduate school, plus the fact that PhDs salaries in the university sector have not kept pace with those offered by the private sector, where PhDs are in far greater demand than ever before. This applies not only to areas like engineering and computer science, but even to PhDs in the humanities. I have no idea where the professoriate of the future is coming from, but if there aren't changes to the system that currently exists, I worry about the future of higher education in North America. Mark > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 16:35:00 -0800 > From: Guy Bennett <gbennett@lainet.com> > Subject: Re: [Leica] OT:Photo grad school. > Message-ID: <v04011705b8288e8a2af7@[66.81.51.16]> > References: <v04011703b828452046ad@[66.81.51.16]> > > >Another factor is that it is pretty hard, at least in my neck of the woods, > >not to bean a couple of humanities PhD graduates with any randomly thrown > >brick. No offence but they are rather thick on the ground. Surprised there > >has not been some sort of mandatory cull yet.[snip] > >John Collier > > The same is true where I'm from and - I suspect - in the states in general > and much of Europe as well. > > Gotta say that I don't think it will be necessary to discourage folks from > pursuing advanced degrees in the humanities in the future. The PhD glut of > the '80s and '90s coupled with a serious lack of full-time jobs for about > ten years now (it's just cheaper to hire twice the number of part-timers) > has probably done more to make young students think twice about studying > something as frivolous as philosophy, art or literature than any amount of > counseling I could imagine... > > Guy - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html