‘US universities churning out too many PhDs’
New York: College students in the US are getting a raw deal. The problem is they’re taking too many classes from parttime, or adjunct, professors, a recent New York report asserted.
But that same report has unwittingly revealed something about how higher education is more culpable than it likes to admit when it comes to creating the problem: That about half the nation’s college faculty are now on part-time contracts.
Adjuncts are cheaper for colleges, but they often lack the time and resources for focused teaching, and research shows students’ performance suffers if they are taught by parttimers too often.
In many fields, there are already too many PhDs awarded for the full-time academic posts available, creating a surplus of likely jobseekers.
That pool becomes adjuncts, who command wages and benefits so low that universities find them irresistible hires.
In the life sciences, the US is awarding twice as many doctorates as two decades ago, but has no more faculty jobs, according to one recent study that prompted the journal Nature to editorialise that “too many graduate schools may be preparing too many students.” Nonetheless, universities keep flooding the academic pipeline.
The latest federal data show about 45,600 PhDs were awarded in 2005-2006, 5.1% higher than the year before.
It was the fourth straight increase and tied for the highest percentage gain since 1971. AP
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