Are the Humanities Doomed?

[Hibush]

- "The working group suggests recording and assessing student outcomes beginning at three years out from their doctorate in four categories: (1) those who place in non-tenure-track academic positions, whether as adjuncts, lecturers, or visiting assistant professors; (2) those who work in positions related to and enhanced by the skills in research and teaching developed by doctoral training; (3) those who work in positions with no clear relationship to doctoral training; and (4) those who leave Yale without completing the doctoral degree."

The fact that they have "historical entitlements" is interesting. We have to earn each assistantship annually from a great diversity of sources, so that concept is long gone. It definitely results in greater responsiveness, but not necessarily responses to strategic priorities.

Tying future assistantships to career success, and recognizing success as "positions related to and enhanced by the skills in research and teaching developed by doctoral training" seem reasonable. It should provide admissions committees and advisors some motivation to invest assistantships and advising time in students with likelihood of success.

The text above suggests that late attrition is a significant problem. That strikes me as a big concern. Are these students failing out of the program so late, or are they simply disillusioned by the poor prospects and changing direction? Is that late attrition a consequence of poor advising, or lax admission? Both of those problems can arise if faculty feel that assistantships are an entitlement.

[Durchlässigkeitsbeiwert]

The fact that they have "historical entitlements" is interesting. We have to earn each assistantship annually from a great diversity of sources, so that concept is long gone. It definitely results in greater responsiveness, but not necessarily responses to strategic priorities.
Tying future assistantships to career success, and recognizing success as "positions related to and enhanced by the skills in research and teaching developed by doctoral training" seem reasonable. It should provide admissions committees and advisors some motivation to invest assistantships and advising time in students with likelihood of success.

I wonder if "historical entitlements" may refer to "number of students normally accepted" as opposed to "number of fully-funded positions available". Departments may respond to reduced funding available by decreasing funding per student instead of reducing enrollment (e.g. recent "big mistake" thread). Vice versa, a department awash in cash would not necessarily increase enrollment.
So, for me it looks like as if they want to add a new constraint on enrollment semi-independent of funding (hopefully, preventing departments from getting a bunch of underfunded students so that somebody can teach an "advanced basket weaving" seminar).

[spork]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

[dr_codex]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

I'm glad you posted this. I was going to respond to a comment from a month ago to the effect that the largest percentage of degrees awarded in my (large) state CC system is in Liberal Arts and Sciences.

[marshwiggle]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

I'm glad you posted this. I was going to respond to a comment from a month ago to the effect that the largest percentage of degrees awarded in my (large) state CC system is in Liberal Arts and Sciences.

From the article:

In 2018, the nation's community colleges conferred 413,246 associate degrees in liberal arts and the humanities, the highest level on record. The number of associate degrees conferred in these disciplines increased almost every year from 1987 to 2018, rising by an average of 4.3 percent annually.
Unlike the humanities degrees conferred at the baccalaureate level, almost all of the degrees counted here were classified by the conferring institution as being in "liberal arts" and "liberal studies" rather than specific humanities disciplines.

To me, "associate degree" with no specific discipline sounds an awful lot like box-checking credential for jobs that "require" a degree, rather than for any preference by students.

[dr_codex]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

I'm glad you posted this. I was going to respond to a comment from a month ago to the effect that the largest percentage of degrees awarded in my (large) state CC system is in Liberal Arts and Sciences.

From the article:

In 2018, the nation's community colleges conferred 413,246 associate degrees in liberal arts and the humanities, the highest level on record. The number of associate degrees conferred in these disciplines increased almost every year from 1987 to 2018, rising by an average of 4.3 percent annually.
Unlike the humanities degrees conferred at the baccalaureate level, almost all of the degrees counted here were classified by the conferring institution as being in "liberal arts" and "liberal studies" rather than specific humanities disciplines.

To me, "associate degree" with no specific discipline sounds an awful lot like box-checking credential for jobs that "require" a degree, rather than for any preference by students.

Could be.

Could also be that a large number of students attend Community Colleges, and pursue these degrees, because they don't share your preferences about higher education.

[Parasaurolophus]

It can be a challenge to get an associate's degree in a specific field up and running. You need the faculty and the upper-level courses, and to get those you need the enrollments. Most of the time it's probably easier for an institution to bundle its existing courses into a catchall like Liberal studies. Doing so requires basically no work. Of course, it's also not super attractive to students if you want to retain them. But if you're doing fine as a transfer school...

[marshwiggle]

From the article:

In 2018, the nation's community colleges conferred 413,246 associate degrees in liberal arts and the humanities, the highest level on record. The number of associate degrees conferred in these disciplines increased almost every year from 1987 to 2018, rising by an average of 4.3 percent annually.
Unlike the humanities degrees conferred at the baccalaureate level, almost all of the degrees counted here were classified by the conferring institution as being in "liberal arts" and "liberal studies" rather than specific humanities disciplines.

To me, "associate degree" with no specific discipline sounds an awful lot like box-checking credential for jobs that "require" a degree, rather than for any preference by students.

Could be.

Could also be that a large number of students attend Community Colleges, and pursue these degrees, because they don't share your preferences about higher education.

I'd be interested to know how holders of those degrees stack up against graduates of good high schools. Much of the "requirement" of an unspecified degree for a job is probably because the high variability of high schools makes a diploma unreliable as a measure of basic literacy and numeracy.

[Hibush]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

Is a major in "Liberal Studies" at a community college really a humanities degree? Or is it more of a general education category?  The article says the explicit humanities majors, like English and History, are down. So either humanities enrollment is down at CCs as well, or it is up but not as narrow as individual majors.

[dr_codex]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

Is a major in "Liberal Studies" at a community college really a humanities degree? Or is it more of a general education category?  The article says the explicit humanities majors, like English and History, are down. So either humanities enrollment is down at CCs as well, or it is up but not as narrow as individual majors.

You'd have to look at the HEGIS codes to know for sure. Often these degrees are subcategorized, especially for education streams, but also to separate arts-flavored from math/science-flavored.

[spork]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

Is a major in "Liberal Studies" at a community college really a humanities degree? Or is it more of a general education category?  The article says the explicit humanities majors, like English and History, are down. So either humanities enrollment is down at CCs as well, or it is up but not as narrow as individual majors.

This is not my corner of higher ed, but I do not know of any occupation that specifically requires, or confers a benefit of higher wages because of, an associate's degree in English, history, or liberal studies. I would not be surprised if most recipients of liberal studies associate's degrees are actual or intended transfers to four-year universities who are completing gen ed requirements at CCs prior to transfer.

[ciao_yall]

Many of these are just transfer degrees. The student completes their general eds in a CC, then transfers their units to a 4-year school and declares a major.

[Parasaurolophus]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

Is a major in "Liberal Studies" at a community college really a humanities degree? Or is it more of a general education category?  The article says the explicit humanities majors, like English and History, are down. So either humanities enrollment is down at CCs as well, or it is up but not as narrow as individual majors.

Could be anything at my school (a university in name only), including sciences, because we have almost no degrees (associate's or otherwise). Pretty much the only things it can't be are music, animation, or graphic design, which do have degrees attached.

[spork]

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/06/14/study-finds-community-colleges-are-only-colleges-world-growing-humanities

Is a major in "Liberal Studies" at a community college really a humanities degree? Or is it more of a general education category?  The article says the explicit humanities majors, like English and History, are down. So either humanities enrollment is down at CCs as well, or it is up but not as narrow as individual majors.

This is not my corner of higher ed, but I do not know of any occupation that specifically requires, or confers a benefit of higher wages because of, an associate's degree in English, history, or liberal studies. I would not be surprised if most recipients of liberal studies associate's degrees are actual or intended transfers to four-year universities who are completing gen ed requirements at CCs prior to transfer.

Matt Reed agrees with me: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions-community-college-dean/gen-ed-and-humanities-majors.

[Hibush]

IHE has another column along the same lines as the one that inspired this thread.

"You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the cries of anguish from graduate students, especially those in the humanities, who feel that their prospects of ever getting a full-time tenure-track job are negligible."

We must be a stone-hearted bunch here who expect graduate students to make some sort of data-based interpretation that they can apply to their own professional trajectory.

The author, Steven Mintz, professor of history at UT, seems to work in a bubble where expectations are quite different from mine where we have long ago achieve his dream, where "those of us fortunate enough to teach in a Ph.D.-granting department have assumed a big ethical responsibility: to do everything we possibly can to prepare our graduates for a fulfilling career, whether inside or outside the academy."  But we also expect students to take primary responsibility for identifying and developing a career path that is realistic.