It's a little noticed phenomenon, but there are a batch of colleges and universities that are shedding departments (or parts of departments) in the hopes of cutting costs. Particularly hard hit are departments like history, some sociology, and some foreign languages. At some schools there are also moves to cut some departments like Women's Studies and others with highly politically correct curriculum.
It may be that schools are hearing from graduates with degrees in women's studies that they are not qualified for any particular job. That certainly has been a problem with graduates with degrees in history. In the latest year, there were roughly three times the number of history degrees as there were job openings for people with that qualification.
The cost of a university education has been rising rapidly and without stop for many decades. It seems as if the schools without the enormous endowments have finally started to hit the wall. As costs rise but enrollments don't (or worse yet, they fall), schools will have to cut somewhere. For the first time in a long time, university professors who usually deride the market as some sort of fiction are learning first hand exactly how the markets work. A professor with tenure in the history department of a third rate college will still be unemployed if that department gets shuttered.
This is a situation which needs to be closely watched. No doubt, the next step from the college professors will be to try to mount government bailouts of the schools that have been moving towards these cutbacks.
It may be that schools are hearing from graduates with degrees in women's studies that they are not qualified for any particular job. That certainly has been a problem with graduates with degrees in history. In the latest year, there were roughly three times the number of history degrees as there were job openings for people with that qualification.
The cost of a university education has been rising rapidly and without stop for many decades. It seems as if the schools without the enormous endowments have finally started to hit the wall. As costs rise but enrollments don't (or worse yet, they fall), schools will have to cut somewhere. For the first time in a long time, university professors who usually deride the market as some sort of fiction are learning first hand exactly how the markets work. A professor with tenure in the history department of a third rate college will still be unemployed if that department gets shuttered.
This is a situation which needs to be closely watched. No doubt, the next step from the college professors will be to try to mount government bailouts of the schools that have been moving towards these cutbacks.
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