The relationship between the number of Ph.D.’s in the sciences and the academic jobs available to them is, to put it scientifically, inversely related. Money for science has stagnated over the last decade and will most likely continue to do so, leading to too many Ph.D.’s competing for too few teaching and research jobs in academe.
Despite that troubling trend, graduate schools across the United States continue to try to increase enrollments of science students, only exacerbating the problem. While one solution would be to limit the number of students entering graduate schools, an alternate, and perhaps more constructive solution, would be to restructure graduate programs to reflect those changes and prepare students for jobs outside of academe.
Most graduate programs in the sciences are research-based, training students to critically evaluate questions in science and then learn to develop and carry out effective plans to answer those questions through research and analysis. While such training certainly fosters qualities useful in and out of science, doctoral students are generally encouraged to pursue tenure-track research-faculty positions or similar careers as independent researchers.
However, there should also be additional options for those who want to go further than their bachelor’s but may have nontraditional needs or desires. Graduate schools could help by: increasing their connections with industry so that students could experience working in the private sector; providing more opportunities for students to engage in elementary- and secondary-school teaching; and encouraging collaboration between science departments and business, communication, and public-policy departments.
Continue Reading – The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/137541/