Dear Nadine,

I view the issue as one of competing priorities. We need an intelligensia and academics, but we also need to give people a fair deal. If it were made clear how tough the jobs market is, or universities funded only enough PhDs to provide the 'labour force' (for want of a better word) that academias need, I'm not sure there would be so many takers. As it is, supply is outstripping demand.

Not wanting to go into too much detail at this point, I should say I've done pretty well and I have nothing to complain about. But I do worry a great deal about people being no better off, or worse off, after they've completed their doctorates. My other fear is that this will discredit the Humanities even more, or make it the preserve of the rich, who can afford to change careers regardless of what jobs are available.

All I'm really asking for is greater honesty, and a fair deal for would-be academics.

- Alexander



On 13 November 2014 20:08, Muller, Nadine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Alexander, without replying to the whole list, this is just to say I completely see your point. I worry about the level of (unacknowledged) privilege of those who insist a PhD is simply a leisure activity in the pursuit of knowledge.

Bests,
Nadine

Dr Nadine Muller
Lecturer in English Literature & Cultural History
Liverpool John Moores University

John Foster Building
Mount Pleasant
Liverpool
L3 5UZ

Office: John Foster Building, 1.26
Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Twitter: @Nadine_Muller
Website: www.nadinemuller.org.uk<http://www.nadinemuller.org.uk>



On 13 Nov 2014, at 20:04, Alexander Hay <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

You don't need a PhD to have knowledge, whereas a PhD can cost you time that might be better spent developing a career outside of academia (unless you're from the hard sciences, at which point your odds of employment both within and without academia are much improved).

While it is controversial to say this, a PhD is a means of training for a specific profession, namely academia. It's very hard to be a peripatetic full-time thinker if there aren't enough peripatetic full-time thinker positions to go around.

On 13 November 2014 19:57, John Richardson (Social Sciences) <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
You're wrong Alexander, both on the specific point about a PhD not having much weight outside of academia and the wider point about the 'point' of knowledge.
Really, I do worry if people inside academia have such a narrowly instrumental idea of what a doctorate is for.
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