The state of play in higher-ed humanities: the findings of a new survey by Humanities Indicators:

Overall, the chairs in this sample expressed a high level of concern about the status of the humanities. Approximately half had a strongly pessimistic outlook about the future of their department…. Only six of the thirty chairs had an overall optimistic outlook about the status of their department at their institution, describing it as “a happy story” or “well supported.”

ON STAFFING

Chairs frequently cited faculty age as a reason for faculty turnover (primarily through faculty retirements), and nearly half of chairs said they did not expect to see retiring tenure-line faculty members replaced or had already seen tenure lines cut when faculty left. An inability to replace a tenured faculty line was a major source of pessimism among chairs in our sample…. One chair … noted proudly, “We have been able to hire.” In our sample of thirty, this chair was one of only three to report being able to hire and successfully retain faculty.

ON EMPLOYMENT

The perception that humanities degrees severely limit your employment options as a graduate—especially if you aspire to have a high-paying job—was by far the dominant reason that chairs felt today’s students are gravitating away from the humanities…. Chairs frequently described their institutions and higher education generally as increasingly “transactional” or “focused on professionalization,” ideas that for many of them clash with the role of the humanities. …. [A]round one-third of chairs described parents as driving antihumanities sentiments. Parents, more so than students, see students’ education as an investment in their future career and want a sure bet.

ON AI

The humanities chairs in our sample described AI causing seismic changes in the classroom. For the most part, they were pessimistic about the potential effects. Half of the chairs we spoke to had overall negative opinions of AI’s impact on teaching and learning in the humanities, often emphasizing feelings of being overwhelmed, demoralized, and frustrated. Only three chairs expressed a mainly positive outlook.

CONCLUSIONS

1. Humanities chairs feel helpless in the face of societal and administrative forces beyond their control.

2. Departmental strengths and success strategies are often undermined by a lack of administrative support.

3. Humanities chairs believe a massive marketing campaign is needed to sustain their disciplines.

4. Humanities chairs wish for a more critical and measured approach to generative AI from their institutions.

h/t Rob Townsend

For other posts from Humanities Indicators, see here.