Tapsearch Com EditorOverloaded with Ph.Ds
From 1995 and still applys today
An oversupply of Ph.Ds. Based on Plain Dealer article by Daniel S. Greenberg 6/20/95
While President Clinton proclaimed economic prosperity, an article appeared in the newspapers about the chronic crowded Ph.D.s population.
This post is based on the article
A study concluded that doctoral production in science and engineering average about 25 percent above the available openings. Due to economic conditions many also stay in school longer due to not enough jobs overall in the economy.
"Doctoral production depends more on academic production than on the job market for Ph.Ds." Professor William Massey of Stanford University, who conducted the study with Charles Goldman of RAND, says graduate departments need student to serve as teaching and research assistants and to provide intellectual sitmulation for professors. As graduates come out of the Ph.D. pipeline and can not find appropriate jobs, many educators call for more federal money for research in universities. However, the study says, it would make things worst by providing jobs for professors who, in turn, would produce more Ph.D.s.
The Ph.D. - production system is out of balance with the needs of the economy. The study may underestimate the actual figures since Ph.d.s who , in desperation, are underemployed as technicians or those who move from low paying fellowship to another. Because of this, it is difficult to collect the actual extent of Ph.ds. unemployment. ( Actually the same applys to most other pursuits since workers making only $100 a month in America are reported as employed.)
There is a bigger problem beyond this. It makes no sense to use taxpayers money to support more research and development if the production stage goes outside the USA.
Free trade as made production portable ready to be moved from place to place for the sake of cheaper labor. Decent paying jobs that support education are being exported to other lands. And the problems grows larger if foreign students account for a large proportion of graduate school enrollements in the U.S. or even in other lands.
Today the current rant is about creating new "green" jobs in the USA to attack the energy issues and the economic crisis. However, no matter how you do it through research and development with the government funding projects - you still need a vast tax base of workers who make a decent living. Nothing adds up if production is portable for the sake of cheaper labor to other countries. In order to make anything work, the jobs would have to be kept in the USA with the workers are paid a decent wage to pay the taxes that are needed to support the efforts. Currently under President Obama's bail outs and stimulus package, we have put a tariff on future generations to stir up our economy. However, there seems to be no way to stop any jobs - no matter what the skill levels are, from going somewhere else. Free trade has produced this imbalanced process and no one in high places are willing to talk about it - not even Ph.d.s
An oversupply of Ph.Ds. Based on Plain Dealer article by Daniel S. Greenberg 6/20/95
While President Clinton proclaimed economic prosperity, an article appeared in the newspapers about the chronic crowded Ph.D.s population.
This post is based on the article
A study concluded that doctoral production in science and engineering average about 25 percent above the available openings. Due to economic conditions many also stay in school longer due to not enough jobs overall in the economy.
"Doctoral production depends more on academic production than on the job market for Ph.Ds." Professor William Massey of Stanford University, who conducted the study with Charles Goldman of RAND, says graduate departments need student to serve as teaching and research assistants and to provide intellectual sitmulation for professors. As graduates come out of the Ph.D. pipeline and can not find appropriate jobs, many educators call for more federal money for research in universities. However, the study says, it would make things worst by providing jobs for professors who, in turn, would produce more Ph.D.s.
The Ph.D. - production system is out of balance with the needs of the economy. The study may underestimate the actual figures since Ph.d.s who , in desperation, are underemployed as technicians or those who move from low paying fellowship to another. Because of this, it is difficult to collect the actual extent of Ph.ds. unemployment. ( Actually the same applys to most other pursuits since workers making only $100 a month in America are reported as employed.)
There is a bigger problem beyond this. It makes no sense to use taxpayers money to support more research and development if the production stage goes outside the USA.
Free trade as made production portable ready to be moved from place to place for the sake of cheaper labor. Decent paying jobs that support education are being exported to other lands. And the problems grows larger if foreign students account for a large proportion of graduate school enrollements in the U.S. or even in other lands.
Today the current rant is about creating new "green" jobs in the USA to attack the energy issues and the economic crisis. However, no matter how you do it through research and development with the government funding projects - you still need a vast tax base of workers who make a decent living. Nothing adds up if production is portable for the sake of cheaper labor to other countries. In order to make anything work, the jobs would have to be kept in the USA with the workers are paid a decent wage to pay the taxes that are needed to support the efforts. Currently under President Obama's bail outs and stimulus package, we have put a tariff on future generations to stir up our economy. However, there seems to be no way to stop any jobs - no matter what the skill levels are, from going somewhere else. Free trade has produced this imbalanced process and no one in high places are willing to talk about it - not even Ph.d.s
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