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Matt Hagy's avatar

I largely endorse this advice to adjuncts and grad students (as well as postdocs) as a STEM PhD that transitioned to the tech industry when I graduated in 2013.

As you’ve stated, the supply for PhDs has greatly exceeded the demand—particularly tenure track demand—for decades, and the problem only grows worse every year. This is even true for many STEM fields with associated industries; the one exception being certain fields of computer science.

One challenge that I’ve encountered in offering alternative career paths to friends and colleagues is an immediate visceral discomfort in even considering such a transition. I imagine some of that is loss aversion; not wanting to squander the time and effort already spent on the path to becoming a professor. There may also be some fear of the unknown as well as concerns of failing; at least the agony and failure modes of being an adjunct or postdoc are already well known.

I believe that publicizing alternative paths for PhD students and graduates would be of great assistance to these individuals. I personally benefited from the boom in demand for data scientists in the early 2010’s, in that the tech industry put many resources into publicity and outreach. There may be similar opportunities in other fields.

Further, PhD programs shouldn’t feel threatened by these alternative paths and may actually benefit from them. Even before tech started hunting for STEM PhDs, the finance industry had established academic connections and dedicated recruiting resources to poach these individuals. Students like myself who were aware of these opportunities at the time of application found them a valuable hedge in de-risking the time and effort we were preparing to invest.

Finally, institutional changes in PhD programs would also help. The low odds of tenure for all but the most elite programs should be clearly communicated to applicants alongside alternative career paths. The programs should foster connections with firms in applicable industries and host career fairs.

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Terrance Lindenbergg's avatar

The plight of adjunct teachers in higher education is one of many problems confronting colleges and universities. The economics of the issue may in time resolve some of the difficulties. But there is much more here. Their difficulties are often viewed as necessary form those who head these institutions, or are seen by many as workers exploited in terms of the poor working condition and terrible salaries. The central problem with the excessive use of adjuncts is that these institutions seem to have lost sight of the importance of educating students. This should be their primary mission. Adjuncts and the quality of the education are compromised in a number of ways. This teacher so often has a teaching load far greater than any tenured faculty and are paid for piece work with each course taught. This is done for money that is far short of what they deserve.

There is also a lot of talk about the savings and yet the quality of the offerings will suffer. These schools generate millions of dollars in putting out massive athletic teams and also continue to raise tuition fees each year. The argument continues that budgets have to be balanced and they must remain competitive with other schools. Adjuncts are almost powerless in bringing these problems to the public's attention.

Adjuncts are compromised too in their pursuit of academic freedom. They are beholden to an increasing and demanding student population and administrations looking out for signs of objectionable discussions they perceive as a threat to their schools or a student's ideological preferences. A adjunct's freedom of expression is bound to be sacrificed.

There are so easy solutions to this predicament, and over time the economic supply and demand may resolve some of the difficulties. But let's start to pay these partners in learning a decent wage and to teach with the integrity for which they have giving many years of study.

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