ByGina Stewart. Many, if not most, doctoral students enter graduate school with the hope of becoming faculty members. But graduate students at the University of California at Berkeley recently hosted a conference, titled “Beyond Academia,” that focused on landing nonacademic jobs. The conference sold out. According to a
Berkeley news release, “a study published last year in the journal
Science suggests that only 20 percent of U.S. doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics will land a tenure-track position within four to six years of completing a Ph.D. Meanwhile, the National Science Foundation reported that in 2009 nearly 50,000 students earned Ph.D.’s in the U.S., the highest number ever recorded. And, between 2005 and 2009, American universities conferred 100,000 doctoral degrees but only 16,000 new professorships, according to the 2010 book
Higher Education?”.
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