Living in Liminal Space

The Path Forward: The Future of Graduate Education in the United States

The Path Forward discusses the essential role of graduate education in producing a highly skilled workforce in the United States. In order to secure American innovation and competitiveness in the 21st century, graduate school must remain a viable option for a growing number of Americans.

via www.fgereport.org

Fascinating figures on PhD completions and many other matters in the US.

Amanda Krauss -- Guest Post: How College Died - Worst Professor Ever

[Today's guest post is courtesy of The Byronic Man, another soul who's not-quite-fled the Academy for greener pastures.  You may find his bio a bit suspicious (and just go ahead, ask him about the name) but his writing is very funny. And I'm sure he's not lying when he says he teaches, lives in Oregon, and has done stand-up.  Pretty sure...]

via worstprofessorever.com

More on leaving the academy

Careers for PhDs beyond academia | Money | The Guardian

Much attention has been paid to the problems graduates face in finding jobs in the current economic climate. However, spare a thought for PhD students who, especially in the humanities and social sciences, may be in an even worse position. At the heart of the problem is the adverse effect of the government's cuts on universities, traditionally the primary destination for newly-minted doctorates.

via www.guardian.co.uk

Non-academic careers for PhDs in the UK.

Lonely PhD student? Just log in

I co-supervise a student, who surprised us at lunchtime last week by saying: 'I just don't care any more. Whatever changes you suggest, I'll do. I want this thing out of my life.'

via www.theage.com.au

Article quoting me in The Age, 9 August 2011.

About « Another Academic Bites the Dust

Welcome to my blog about leaving academia. I’m at the finishing stages of  a Ph.D. in English. After one disastrous stab at the job market, I realized that I no longer felt like my life was compatible with life in the academy. I have only vague fantasies about what I will do instead, and part of this will be about sharing the process of turning those into something more concrete.  For the moment, I find myself writing a lot about the emotional, personal side of the career-change process. There is a lot of analysis of academia available on the interwebs, but reading about other people’s affective experience has been one of the most helpful things for me. And I’m still in the thick of my dissertation so my analysis brain is a little preoccupied. As a trained feminist and queer studies scholar, I do not actually think that analysis and personal experience are discrete categories, anyway. I imagine that over time the focus will shift in various ways.

via anotheracademicbitesthedust.wordpress.com

Protecting research degrees: why we must continue to train PhD students | Higher Education Network | Guardian Professional

At around this time of year, at least in the northern hemisphere, we gather to celebrate the achievements of our graduands. Some students leave university to go straight into the workforce, others are looking to secure fast-track jobs in a difficult economic environment, and many will wish to continue studying for advanced degrees. While the destinations of all graduates are important, this latter group remains critical to the UK over the medium term. Last year's Council for Industry and Higher Education report, Talent fishing, suggests that students with master's qualifications have skillsets in high demand from business, and those with PhD qualifications make an important contribution to the national system of innovation through their varied research outputs. So the recent news that research councils are cutting funding for master's and PhD places should be a source of concern to anyone with interests in the UK's innovative capacity. Combined with the loss of Roberts funding for training early career researchers, it suggests that the development of the next generation of researchers will be rather patchy.

via www.guardian.co.uk

UK voice in this debate

Humanities Graduate School: A Response to Pannapacker |

William Pannapacker has published, over the last several years, a number of widely influential pieces in the Chronicle of Higher Education and, this past week, in Slate, criticizing the ethics and economics of graduate programs in the humanities. His most widely quoted take-away point, for would-be Ph.D. students, is: if you don’t have private funds to support you both during and after graduate school, just don’t go.

via theprofessorisin.com

University World News - US: Extra 20 million graduates needed by 2025

Rahul Choudaha writes that an incoherent regulatory framework and lack of standards in Indian higher education are risking the quality and potential of foreign partnerships. See the Commentary section.

via www.universityworldnews.com

US undergrad, but interesting

Speculative Diction: The absurdity of numbers?

A number of recent posts on Inside Higher Ed have highlighted national (U.S.) debates on post-secondary policy and its relation to Barack Obama's economic/policy plan. Obama has repeatedly emphasised the importance of education and research funding, even as the Tea Party have lobbied the Republicans to try to reduce funding. Meanwhile legislation has been introduced for the purpose of regulating private, for-profit career colleges, and it’s being battled every step of the way by the lobby groups associated with said colleges and by their political various allies.

via speculative-diction.blogspot.com

Undergrad, but the principles are similar

Times Higher Education - Postgraduates 'priced out of the market' by sharp fee increases

21 July 2011

via www.timeshighereducation.co.uk