With budget cuts in humanities departments and a drop in tenure-track humanities teaching positions, one may think that students would get the hint and turn towards different disciplines; instead the humanities remain popular among students and remain important to the missions of many universities, reports The Chronicle last week.
A survey conducted by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences confirmed an increased reliance on non-tenured teaching positions in the humanities and a drop in tenured positions. In the 2006-2007 academic year, 49% of positions in the English departments were non-tenure-track, higher than in any other department. In general, the survey found “less-than-rosy job prospects” for future humanities scholars.
And yet, even with that bad news, most universities (87%) include a significant portion of humanities courses in their core requirements. And while job prospects and tenured positions are down, interest in the humanities remains stable.
In fact, according to a second Chronicle article, there has been a 2% increase in the number of humanities majors since 1987. This slight increase follows a huge decrease in humanities degrees between the years 1967 and 1987. A recent study predicts that by 2013 the number of bachelor’s degrees in history and foreign languages (the two highest growth categories in the humanities department) may surpass their peak numbers from the 1960s. Degrees in English, on the other hand, have a long way to go before even coming close to the numbers in the 1960s and 1970s.
This Chronicle chart illustrates some of the decline and regrowth of certain humanities fields:
|
Degrees awarded |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Late ’60s/ |
2007 |
|
|
English |
64,286 (1971) |
53,040 |
|
Foreign languages |
21,793 (1969) |
17,907 |
|
History |
44,931 (1971) |
34,571 |
|
Humanities, selected fields* |
138,646 (1971) |
121,542 |
| * Includes English, history, history of science, languages, linguistics, and area and ethnic studies. Does not include art history, philosophy, religion, and film studies. | ||
| Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Education Department data obtained from the department and the National Science Foundation | ||
The Other Liberal Arts
The Academy of Arts and Sciences Humanities Department Survey was conducted in 2008, based on research from the academic year 2006-2007. Certainly with the economic mess of the last few years things have changed, reports a third Chronicle article. Newer research shows that more than half of all undergraduates major in engineering, business, or nursing and that while interest in the humanities may have been on the slow increase a few years ago, it is no longer.
According to this third article, the days of popular liberal arts degrees are waning. Yet some argue that now is the time that American students need the inculcation of traditional liberal arts messages—”traditions of robust inquiry, curricular breadth, and a focus on critical thinking.” It seems that current financial distress is distracting students from those ideals and is drawing them towards programs that “pay off in terms of good jobs.”
On the other hand, there are still quite a number of liberal arts colleges that remain true to their initial campaign to build an education upon a humanities foundation. While “true intellectual exploration” may be harder and harder to find these days, there are still some institutions that remain committed to such an ideal, and maybe when the economy picks up, so will the number of humanities majors.
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Read the full article: Humanities Ups and Downs
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