Dive Brief:
- UC Irvine is launching a new model for humanities graduate students that would offer additional funding to prompt faster completion of dissertations.
- Inside Higher Ed reports the 5+2 program, an option for this year’s visual studies and philosophy cohort, provides higher-value fellowships and funded summers to get students through the Ph.D. program requirements within five years and then offers them a two-year post-doc position as assistant adjunct professors, from which they can build up teaching credentials and work on professional development.
- The program has mixed reviews with some saying it will hurt students who work hard and need more time or reduce the qualifications in the pool of adjunct professors at UC Irvine, but supporters say graduate students need the financial support and incentive to finish their programs more quickly.
Dive Insight:
It is not uncommon for humanities students to spend 10 years or more in doctoral programs. Depending on the area of research and the skills needed to get to the meat of the research question, that length of time is sometimes justified. In its report, Inside Higher Ed included commentary from a professor pointing to the need to learn Italian and Latin for successful research about the Renaissance. Should the 5+2 program become mandatory, they may no longer have a place in academia. On the other side of the equation, the longer a student takes to complete a doctoral program, the less money and fewer resources a university has to support students in later cohorts, until that student graduates. When money is a concern, the 5+2 program looks especially attractive.