Humanities graduate education shrinks with no signs of potential bounce back: US Report

According to a new report from the Humanities Indicator Project, graduate education in the humanities has been shrinking with no signs of a bounce back to previous levels. The report shows that the number of master’s degrees peaked in 2012 and the number of doctoral degrees peaked in 2015. The report found that recently there were declines in the number of PhDs awarded in every humanities discipline except communication, with history and philosophy demonstrating the largest declines from 2012 to 2020. Diversity in graduates reportedly increased over the past two decades, while the length of time to complete a humanities PhD was consistently longer than PhDs in other fields. The study also found that almost all of those who received humanities graduate degrees are satisfied with their jobs. Chronicle of Higher Ed (Acct. Req.)| Inside Higher Ed (Acct. Req.) Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.