The humanities’ peril and promise: the long view from Wisconsin. From the article:

When looking at the data, a dissonance between reality and mentality emerges. Humanities have been labeled as generalist degrees, according to Brian Reed, the divisional dean of humanities in the [UW] College of the Arts and Sciences, which leads students and the greater public to question their viability in a market dominated by skills-based degrees.

Though the job data is quite stable, and humanities unemployment is 4.3% compared to the national unemployment of 5.2%, students are still leaving the majors.

“Whatever environment you are going to find yourself in, the kinds of communication skills, the kinds of research skills, the kind of project management and planning skills that are involved in any kinds of humanities experience will be transferable and will be valuable,” Reed said….

According to Reed, the history of American higher education has been underpinned by a lack of state support in general. Majors with the highest profitability post-graduation, even if by a small margin, are now dominating the funding allocation.

When he was serving primarily as a professor in the English department, Reed spent time in China giving lectures about his area of study: poetry. Though their economy is tech-focused like the United States, there is still a reverence for the arts, so much so that Chinese is referred to as the language of poetry.

While professors at the UW argue that there is value in generalist degrees, and the data agree, the College of Arts and Sciences still recognizes that there needs to be a growing emphasis on professionalization in the humanities.

An over reliance on the older model of liberal arts education which encouraged students to spend four years in college developing critical thinking skills has become out of touch with the job market….

Though [scholarly] research is valuable, [Paul] Atkins and other administrators in the humanities are looking forward to promoting engagement and overseeing a concerted effort to provide meaningful resources to graduates.

“What we need to be able to do is talk to students about how to connect their passions to their futures,” Reed said. “There can be many routes to that, and we don’t want to discount the importance of nuts and bolts issues, but we also want to be able to talk about what is it to have a plan for the future that allows for a variety of different possibilities.”