PhD candidates latest casualty of recession – in Texas, too

Don’t expect an automatic postdoc after you get done with a PhD, even in fields where it’s expected. And, after you’re done with either one, definitely don’t expect a tenure-track teaching slot.

That’s especially true in the humanities, where already about half of positions are part-time.

And, staying in school right now? Tight credit makes it tough.

And, don’t expect it to get any better:

“It’s been obvious for some time — witness the unionization movement — that graduate students are caught between the old model of apprentice scholars and the new reality of insecure laborers with uncertain employment prospects,” Andrew Delbanco, the chairman of the American studies program at Columbia University, said. “Among the effects of the financial crisis will clearly be shrinkage both in graduate fellowships and in entry-level academic positions, so the prospects for aspiring Ph.D.’s are getting even bleaker.”

Especially since two of the students who were interviewed are from here in Texas, and all the more ironic, given Gov. Helmethair AND the Lege deregulating higher ed, read the full story.

Having taught college classes in English and the humanities in the past on a contract basis myself, I can vouch for its dog-eat-dog nature.