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

The humanities strike back

[Evtim]

Oooh, so that was the reason....people got wind of the uselessness of (most of) those degrees (especially the WAY they are taught), enrolment decreased, and the response of the humanities was.....the insane politicking and the march against logic, reason, knowledge, discipline, learning, critical thinking, diversity of opinion, open mindedness, freedom of thought and speech....etc.

Figures!

Re:The humanities strike back

[jellomizer]

The thing I have found is that Humanities attracted the wrong type of students.
I always though that Humanities should require up to 200 level of Math and Sciences, Just as STEM Majors are required to have up to 200 levels in Humanities. The fact that humanities are so weak in Math and Science, they attract students who are actively avoiding math and science classes. Academics who are avoiding learning material because they don't do well in the test, doesn't create good academics. If these people decide to join the workforce, it isn't their lack of Math or science skills but their lack of interest in taking on something because it is hard.

Re:The humanities strike back

[Anubis IV]

We need the humanities, but prior to the financial crisis it seemed to me that it was already widely accepted that we had far more graduates in those fields than we needed, and that the vast majority of them were thus incapable of putting their degree to good use. While enrollment may be half of what it was prior to the crisis, that doesn't necessarily mean there's a problem. If anything, I'm inclined to think that the market has corrected itself and that today's supply of graduates is closer to actual demand for people in those fields.

Re:The humanities strike back

[Opportunist]

Oh, the humanities!

(sorry, I know, bad pun... but when do you get to say it?)

Re:The humanities strike back

[Darinbob]

Good universities require a broad level of education to graduate - you may major in one subject but are still required to learn many diverse subjects. But too many places tend to be too tightly focused, bending to the students' desires to not "waste time" on stuff they're not interested in. Some of these universities just seem like overpriced trade schools. I think some of this came about because some engineering majors have so many prerequisites and courses that they're already a 5 year degree without counting in the breadth requirements.

So engineering students should most definitely learn writing.
Writing students should learn math and science.
Everyone should learn political science.

Divide it up into three spheres; math/science, arts, and social sciences. Then everyone should be dabbling into all three of those.

Dichotomy

[JBMcB]

It's an interesting position to take. Humanities are required in the science and engineering fields - I had to take at least six classes of English, languages, arts or philosophy for my engineering degree.

Now universities are eliminating math requirements from humanities curriculums. Because, apparently, structured critical thinking skills are not required in a rounded university education.

At the very least make everyone take a statistics class. That's the one thing everyone seems to botch.