"(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Ph.D. programs in the U.S. are in for some big changes. Humanities and social science fields probably produce too many Ph.D.s and will need to cut back. But a big expansion of government-funded research could prevent a similar fate from befalling STEM Ph.D.s.

The overproduction of Ph.D.s has been an issue for years in the U.S., which has a higher rate of doctorate holders than almost any other rich country.

That by itself isn’t a bad thing; it’s generally good to have a more educated populace, and U.S. researchers help keep the country’s knowledge industries at the forefront of the global economy. Ph.D.s contribute substantially to the university system, providing a source of cheap, highly skilled labor for both research and undergraduate education.

But the problem starts when the Ph.D. students collect their degrees and go out into the world. The academic jobs they're accustomed to pursuing have been drying up. The end of the big 20th-century university building boom was the first death knell for this pipeline. Since many professor jobs are tenured, there just aren’t many open spots for young scholars unless the country is building more universities — which it no longer is. Do a quick Google search for trends in any academic field — history, anthropology, English — and you’re likely to find scary numbers showing a decline in tenure-track faculty openings.

Another reason for the job shortage is that colleges, under immense pressure to cut costs, have been shifting away from tenured faculty toward lower-paid lecturers and adjuncts. That pressure has been exacerbated as undergraduate enrollment has flatlined."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/america-is-pumping-out-too-many-phds/ar-BB1cstvI

A lot of PhDs in China have their degrees in STEM. The Chinese came up with the idea of Made in China 2025. The hope is that more government sponsored research would boost manufacturing and more high paying jobs. It backfires in the sense that it alarms many countries uneasy including the US

US government would have tougher job satisfying its excess number of PhDs in humanities.

On Tuesday, July 27, 2021 at 6:08:08 AM UTC-7, ltlee1 wrote:
> "(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Ph.D. programs in the U.S. are in for some big changes. Humanities and social science fields probably produce too many Ph.D.s and will need to cut back. But a big expansion of government-funded research could prevent a similar fate from befalling STEM Ph.D.s.
>
> The overproduction of Ph.D.s has been an issue for years in the U.S., which has a higher rate of doctorate holders than almost any other rich country.
>
> That by itself isn’t a bad thing; it’s generally good to have a more educated populace, and U.S. researchers help keep the country’s knowledge industries at the forefront of the global economy. Ph.D.s contribute substantially to the university system, providing a source of cheap, highly skilled labor for both research and undergraduate education..
>
> But the problem starts when the Ph.D. students collect their degrees and go out into the world. The academic jobs they're accustomed to pursuing have been drying up. The end of the big 20th-century university building boom was the first death knell for this pipeline. Since many professor jobs are tenured, there just aren’t many open spots for young scholars unless the country is building more universities — which it no longer is.. Do a quick Google search for trends in any academic field — history, anthropology, English — and you’re likely to find scary numbers showing a decline in tenure-track faculty openings.
>
> Another reason for the job shortage is that colleges, under immense pressure to cut costs, have been shifting away from tenured faculty toward lower-paid lecturers and adjuncts. That pressure has been exacerbated as undergraduate enrollment has flatlined."
>
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/america-is-pumping-out-too-many-phds/ar-BB1cstvI
>
> A lot of PhDs in China have their degrees in STEM. The Chinese came up with the idea of Made in China 2025. The hope is that more government sponsored research would boost manufacturing and more high paying jobs. It backfires in the sense that it alarms many countries uneasy including the US
>
> US government would have tougher job satisfying its excess number of PhDs in humanities.

Yes, including you, huh, LT Lee? and my son, daughter-in-law,...
And close by where I live, a new apartment complex where a lot of new PhD's graduated from UC-Merced are living...
And more unemployment, more going back to school... chumming out more PhDs....