Too Many Doctoral Programs. Well, of course. Duh!

The Association of American Universities has a new leader, Hunter R. Rawlings.  His opening shot?

Mr. Rawlings did, however, make clear that he's concerned some universities, seeking the prestige of a top ranking, may be operating too many doctoral programs, producing students without good job prospects.

Way to go,  Dr. Rawlings.
(BTW, why does the Chronicle use a dull "Mr." ... is that their editorial policy?)

"It's thrilling to have a genuine humanist be the head of an organization like that," said Stanley N. Katz, a legal historian and higher-education policy expert at Princeton University. "He's one of the most deeply thoughtful people I'm acquainted with in higher education."
At the same time, Mr. Katz questioned the plausibility of Mr. Berdahl's suggestion that the country trim its number of research universities, and predicted that Mr. Rawlings will be no more successful in cutting down on doctoral programs.
... "It's not whether we will have fewer research universities—I think inertia will keep them going—but whether they'd be willing to police themselves," Mr. Katz said. "And the answer there is just clearly, flatly no. There's absolutely nothing in the history of research universities to suggest that they're capable of the kind of self-evaluation that he's talking about."

Every time I go to the annual meeting of scholars in my current discipline, and watch the many, many, eager beaver doctoral candidates, I can't but think about Marx's phrasing of the "army of unemployed."



The story is similar in most disciplines, and even more horrific in a few.  Yet, universities continue to churn out PhDs.