Dive Brief:
- Fordham University professor Leonard Cassuto says graduate schools need to do a better job of giving their Ph.D. candidates more realistic expectations for future work.
- In an excerpt for Salon from his new book, "The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It," Cassuto says graduate programs shouldn’t train their students to be happy only with research-based, tenured professorships.
- While the number of these jobs is small compared to the pool of graduate students, there are other respectable careers for Ph.D. holders, and Cassuto argues a high number of doctoral grads is still good for the intellectual health of the public.
Dive Insight:
After World War II, graduate schools could safely train their students to expect well-paid careers as professors. While the job market and economy have changed, in some ways the expectations with which the new crop of graduate students is prepared have not. There is high competition for research-focused professorships at elite universities, and schools are increasingly relying heavily on adjunct faculty. Figuring out how to avoid making the latter employee a disgruntled one by starting with graduate school training could be an important long-term strategy for the field.