Popular College Majors Changed Abruptly After the Financial Crisis (qz.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Ten years have passed since the 2008 financial crisis, and the effects linger. For one thing, the crisis produced a significant shift in American higher education. Scared by a seemingly treacherous labor market, since the downturn college students have turned away from the humanities and towards job-oriented degrees. It's not clear they are making the right decision. The humanities were humming along prior to 2008, according to an analysis by the Northeastern University historian Benjamin Schmidt. Over the previous decade, disciplines like history, philosophy, English literature, and religion were either growing or holding steady as a share of all college majors. But in the decade after the financial crisis, all of these majors took a nosedive. The popularity of the history major is an illustrative example. From 1998 to 2007, the share of college students graduating with a degree in history averaged around 2%. By 2017, it had fallen closer to 1%. (All data in this article are based on reports that colleges submit to the US Department of Education.) Other humanities majors saw a similar fall. "Declines have hit almost every field in the humanities... and related social sciences," wrote Schmidt in the The Atlantic. "[T]hey have not stabilized with the economic recovery, and they appear to reflect a new set of student priorities, which are being formed even before they see the inside of a college classroom."

Comments

Re: Humanities has been redefined

[Anonymous Coward]

They are everything but Betrand Russell now.

They used to be great thinkers who ponders every possibility, now they are feeble-minded media-controlling SJWs that try to just silence everyone who isn't black, Muslim, or sexually preferred.

It's all Derrida's fault.

Re:Humanities degrees are anything but useless

[PopeRatzo]

but universities are bastions of intolerance and group think so there is in fact a negative correlation between universities and ability to think critically.

My guess is that you're get your notion of what's happening on college campuses from critical thinkers like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. What was the last time you've been on a college campus or spoken to any university professor?

They are not heirs to such lofty ideals as "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" or "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

I bet you have no problem with lofty ideals such as telling people not to "monkey things up" by electing a black candidate.