Comments on: It’s time for a new ‘normal’ in academe

By: phil

phil — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:18:45 +0000

I am empathetic to the plight of our current post-graduates. I “doctored up” at the end of the Harris era in Ontario. Hiring freezes pocked that inglorious time and it took me four years of demoralizing contract teaching (and no publications) before I got my first of three successive LTAs. Seven years out I finally secured a tenure-track position, and then very early tenure. The sad fact is that my academic biography is not unique. As a contract prof at Queen’s, I met a female sociologist who had just wrangled a t-t position six years after graduating (this for all those who think there is an overt feminization of hiring). I have friends who’ve had their PhDs for more than 10 years and who still need a t-t. I guess my point is that a PhD is not for the bourgeois faint of heart, and certainly not a guarantee of employment (is this why we do it?). Some lucky ones simply breeze into a job before they graduate. But some suffer–I use that word deliberately–and that condition for many is not unique to the last decade.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:01:08 +0000

i agree with Grace: it’s not easy to get a job outside the academe when you’ve devoted your whole life (assuming people get their degree at 28-30) to precisely continuing inside the academe.

By: Grace

Grace — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:42:32 +0000

Carolyn, thank you for the follow-up article. I wonder how many of those graduates who don’t become teachers and researchers with universities will actually “permeate other sectors of society” in some way that fully uses their knowledge. The longer one is out of academe, the harder it is to get back in, particularly in a faculty position. The disheartening part is that recent PhDs who don’t want to change cities are even more limited in their already limited choices (but this goes for any type of job). The alternative of pursuing a pdf doesn’t even seem viable when it pays less than the take-home pay for someone with non-taxable doctoral awards plus other income. Personally, I’ve spent as much time during the last few months as a doctoral candidate writing my thesis as I have planning, talking with faculty, and applying for/creating opportunities for jobs that will use my skills and pay at least what I was making as a doctoral student. So yes, it’s not surprising that 74% said they wouldn’t have pursued a PhD if there weren’t a faculty position at the end of it.