The NSF's myth of the impending shortage of scientists and engineers has been debunked. The problem is not a lack of awareness of the current glut of Ph.D.s, but rather a lack of will to address the problem.
Mathematicians have a professional responsibility to work for reform. To ignore the current overproduction of Ph.D.'s is to consign a generation of graduate students to a future of greatly diminished opportunity.
Graduate students should be aware that a Ph.D. by no means guarantees an academic job. What would you do if you were unable suitable academic employment? What marketable skills do you have? If your department isn't preparing you for today's job market, work to change the situation.
Start a dialogue within your department. The essays on the Recommended Reading Page give an eloquent description of the fundamental economic problems the scientific community faces today and provide valuable background material.
As a department, ask yourselves, what can you do to better prepare your students for the current job market? A number of ideas are listed on the Essential Reforms Page. Should you change your course requirements? Offer more options for collaboration with other departments? Add new courses?
How can your department widen its audience? What courses would be valuable for students in other departments? How can you package courses more effectively for non-majors?
In an attempt to initiate such a dialogue here at Dartmouth, I have submitted "Note on the Job Market, 1995" (click here to get a Postscript version) to the chair, the undergraduate program committee, and the graduate program committee of my department. It contains a history and analysis of the economic and political changes facing academic mathematics together with some broad ideas on how my department can prepare for these changes. It concludes with a list of specific recommendations for the program committees. Some of the recommendations are simple and can be implemented immediately; others are more long-term and require departmental debate. By no means do I claim a perfect, complete, or universally applicable solution, but instead offer an example of specific things that can be done in one specific department.
Tell others. Add a link to this page. Give me feedback.
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Last modified: Thu Oct 26 13:18:58 1995