Humanities weathering the storm?: humanities departments largely remain stable 2007-2017. From the survey:

In fall 2017, languages and literatures other than English (LLE), English, and history had the largest estimated number of departments at four-year colleges and universities (1,221, 1,062, and 921 respectively), just as they did in 2007, the first year for which the HDS was conducted….

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, in four of the six largest humanities disciplines, the number of colleges and universities granting degrees declined from 2012 to 2017…. The number granting degrees in religion fell 3.2%. Conversely, the number of institutions granting degrees in communication increased 5.1% over the period, and the number granting English degrees increased 0.5%. Looking back further, however, the number of institutions granting degrees in every discipline grew at least 5% from 1999 to 2017, with a 58% increase for communication….

1B: Number of Institutions Granting Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Doctoral Degrees in Selected Humanities Disciplines, 1999–2017 Academic Years*

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* The count for each year includes institutions that granted at least three degrees in the three-year period including that year and the previous two.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Data System; accessed via the National Science Foundation’s online integrated science and engineering resources data system, NCSES Table Tool (online at https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/ids/)….

A common perception is that tenure-track faculty lines are being displaced by nontenured and part-time adjunct positions. In the repeat disciplines, the Humanities Department Survey (HDS) found no statistically significant increases from 2012 to 2017 in the share of faculty employed off the tenure track (see Table 2 in the Appendix). An estimated 62% of all humanities faculty members were tenured or on the tenure track in 2017…. The two disciplines with the smallest estimated share of faculty in tenure-line positions were communication, with 45% of faculty members in tenured or tenure-track positions, and LLE, with 51%. In most humanities disciplines, the share of faculty either tenured or on the tenure track was greater than 70%….

An estimated 30% of departments in the humanities offered at least one fully online course in the 2016–17 academic year, and only 15% offered a hybrid course (i.e., one with both online and on-site components…).

h/t Robert Townsend (@rbthisted)

For other posts from Humanities Indicators, see here.