Is there a PhD problem in the United States?

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This is an interesting question, but it is not the first time in recent history that folks have been asking it. Here are a few other related questions that have been floating around: Is PhD supply greater than demand? Is the Federal government providing enough support to maintain research capacity? Is funding support distributed to the right institutions?

Dr. Irwin Feller of Penn State (at the recent AAAS Science & Technology Policy Forum) says that although these questions have been asked before, this time is different. And why is it different?

Because current stresses are related to the conscious and unconscious restructuring of markets caused by the structural decline in state support of public universities. This restructuring was aggravated by the recent recession, and the political decisions made by states.
States are moving towards privatizing the cost of undergraduate education and focusing on only providing universities for marginal costs.
There is a shift in the public’s view such that higher education is now considered less of a public good and more of a private good.
The university strategy of “if we build it, the students will come” has created a scenario of more competition for government funding (after World War II, there were 6 US research institutions; in the 1960s, there were 20; in 2006, there were 278).

So what will happen as a result? Universities are facing the pressure of continued regulation from states but less funding. Some state-funded institutions may not continue as doctoral research institutions, but that has very little effect on the national system, and according to Irwin Feller, is a side-show conversation that detracts from the real reason why this time is different and the real issue.

BLOG: The future may be more in the benefits (Discussion) than the features (Methods/Results)

So what is the real issue?

The real issue is the changing public sentiment around becoming an academic faculty.

This career choice is less attractive than it ever was. Salaries are declining, the ratio of tenure track to non-tenure track positions is decreasing, the pressure to publish has increased, funding rates have decreased, states are increasing pressure to enact “performance based pay,” privacy on campus is decreasing as electronic monitoring of access accounts becomes routing, and the need for increased awareness for violence prevention related to guns on campus is increasing.

So, what are the implications of academia becoming a less desirable career choice?

The student experience has changed in recent years with many complaining that they are experiencing “depth of field” training but missing “breadth of field” training. This reinforces the ages-old idea that the PhD is awarded for advancing human knowledge, but not necessarily with regard to the training that must be received to find a job after graduating.
Perhaps there needs to be a diversification of the career paths that are accessible and available for PhD graduates. We can’t really blame faculty members for not advising students to take other paths when academia is all they know. Instead, graduate programs could look seriously at the relationship between their program goals and student outcomes, and could staff their offices with PhD graduates who have made a successful career in something other than academia.
Reduced enrollment of US-educated students in graduate school will certainly cause institutions to look to international students to fill their enrollment slots.

BLOG: Where do you fit?

For more on this topic, view Irwin Feller’s Presentation Slides, or listen to the MP3 Audio of Presentation (Size: 10.5M).