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Anyone investigating the statistical literature on this subject, especially graphs and tables, should be forewarned that "humanities" and related terms can cover a multitude of sins. Thus, the category of "liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities" in the Digest of Education Statistics' table of bachelor's degrees conferred should not be confused with the rigorous, traditional humanities disciplines, which have separate listings, e.g., "foreign languages and literatures." The Condition of Education 1997 includes not only "liberal/general studies" under humanities, but "multi-interdisciplinary studies" as well (page 126)! Harvard is somewhat unusual in classifying history not as one of the humanities but as one of the social sciences--except when conferring honorary degrees, that is.
~ James Engell & Anthony Dangerfield
U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Digest of Education Statistics. Washington, D.C. (Published annually; the most recent edition available to us was the 1997 volume. This report supplies such information as the national average scores in the SAT and GRE exams and the national totals of degrees granted broken down by discipline.)
Office of Institutional Research at Oklahoma State University. Faculty Salary Survey of Institutions Belonging to National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. Stillwater, Oklahoma. (Published annually since 1974-75, the NASULGC is the most authoritative source of information on trends in faculty salaries by discipline.)
College and University Personnel Association. National Salary Survey by Discipline and Rank. Washington, D.C. (This study, published annually since 1982-83 in two volumes--one each for public and private institutions--includes data from a great many smaller colleges. The NASULGC, however, is more thorough.)
Starting in the July/August issue of 1985, Academe (a journal published by the American Association of University Professors) has provided useful tables based on the NASULGC reports. Since 1987, these have appeared, on a fairly regular basis, in the annual special issue on the economic status of the profession, most recently in March/April 1994.
National Center for Education Statistics. 1991. Profiles of Faculty in Higher Education Institutions, 1988. Washington. (See table 3.17 on page 114 for a general idea of the significance of consulting income in various disciplines.)
Goldberger, Marvin L., Brendan A. Maher, and Pamela Ebert Flattau. 1995. Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. (An important study--conducted by the National Research Council or "NRC"--documenting changes in research-doctorate programs grouped according to discipline and quality ranking within that discipline. See especially pages 45-50.)
Higher Education Research Institute. The American Freshman: National Norms. UCLA, Los Angeles. (This annual report is the standard study of changing student attitudes.)
American Council on Education. 1998. Fact Book on Higher Education, 1997 edition. Phoenix: Oryx Press. (A handy reference for trends in degrees granted, though less handy than the previous edition--see below--due to a change in the format of the graphs.)
American Council on Education. 1989. 1989-90 Fact Book on Higher Education. New York: Macmillan.
National Science Foundation. 1964. Comparisons of Earned Degrees Awarded 1901-1962. Washington, D.C.
National Academy of Sciences. 1978. A Century of Doctorates. Washington, D.C. (Good graphs and tables for rates of change in the granting of doctorates.)
National Science Foundation. Federal Funds for Research, Development and Other Scientific Activities. Washington, D.C. (This series of reports covered the years 1950-1981. By means of clear graphs and tables, these reports were very helpful in showing not only which agencies supported scientific research but also the extent and nature of that support. In 1979 the title of the series changed slightly, to Federal Funds for Research and Development, and shortly thereafter it was terminated, its only continuation being unreadable "detailed statistical tables.")
Lewis, Lionel S., and Altbach, Philip G. 1996. "Faculty Versus Administration: A Universal Problem." Higher Education Policy 9: 255-258.
Levine, Arthur. 1997. "How the Academic Profession is Changing." Daedalus (Fall): 1-20. (Relying on very inclusive surveys, Levine finds reassuringly little change in professors' dedication to teaching; once one concentrates on institutions with an established research culture, however, the picture changes markedly.)
Yuker, Harold E. 1984. Faculty Workload: Research, Theory, and Interpretation. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Research Report No. 10. Washington, D.C.: Association for the Study of Higher Education. (This study concentrates on research-oriented institutions. See pages 34-56 for findings on faculty interest in teaching, variation in preparation time among disciplines, the typical overvaluation of class size and class level as measures of time expended, and the role of consulting.)
Fairweather, James Steven. 1996. Faculty Work and Public Trust: Restoring the Value of Teaching and Public Service in American Life. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon. (A more recent study which, however, tends to concur with Yuker. See, for instance, pages 86 and 110.)
Daly, William T. 1994. "Teaching and Scholarship: Adapting American Education to Hard Times." Journal of Higher Education (January/February): 45-57. (See especially page 49.)
Katz, Seth R. 1995. "Graduate Programs and Job Training." Profession 95: 63-67. (For an impression of the pressure to publish within a "teaching institution," see page 64.)
Readings, Bill. 1996. The University in Ruins. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (A thought-provoking analysis of changes in the function of universities, but somewhat vitiated by grandiose speculations about the decline of the nation-state.)
Holub, Robert C. 1994. "Professional Responsibility: On Graduate Education and Hiring Practices." Profession 94: 79-86. (Criticizes the widespread and unscrupulous overproduction of Ph.D.s--see especially page 83.)
Schuster, Jack H. 1995. "Speculating about the Labor Market for Academic Humanists: 'Once More unto the Breach.'" Profession 95: 56-61. (A tellingly guarded intimation of renewed interest in teaching.)
Bowen, Howard R., and Jack H. Schuster. 1986. American Professors: A National Resource Imperiled. New York: Oxford University Press. (See especially pages 3-8 and 113-162.)
Rivlin, Alice M. 1961. The Role of the Federal Government in Financing Higher Education. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution.
Finn, Chester E. 1978. Scholars, Dollars, and Bureaucrats. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. (Notes, page 117, that private institutions may be compelled to turn to "tuitions and fees" to make up losses in federal support.)
James, Estelle. 1986. "Cross-Subsidization in Higher Education: Does It Pervert Private Choice and Public Policy? In Private Education and Public Policy. Ed. Daniel C. Levy. New York: Oxford University Press. (Beginning in the late 1970s, James's research has raised the possibility of "cross-subsidization" and indicated that it is in fact taking place.)
Brinkman, Paul T. 1989. "Instructional Costs Per Student Credit Hour: Differences by Level of Instruction." Journal of Education Finance 15 (Summer): 34-52. (Also detects cross-subsidization. This article, by no means the hardest, gives some idea of the rather off-putting complexity of cost analyses.)
Getz, Malcom, and John J. Siegfried. 1991. "Costs and Productivity in American Colleges and Universities." In Economic Challenges in Higher Education. Eds. Charles T. Clotfelter et al. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (On pages 296-97, they express the reasonable presumption of the funding agencies that external funding will not support more than its designated project.)
Rothschild, Michael, and Lawrence J. White. 1993. "The University in the Marketplace: Some Insights and Some Puzzles." In Studies of Supply and Demand in Higher Education. Eds. Charles T. Clotfelter and Michael Rothschild. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Argues, pages 13-16, against Estelle James by asserting that undergraduates and parents of undergraduates wouldn't pay so much for an education at research universities if they weren't getting something in return. We don't doubt that they are getting "something" in return, but too often what they do get is not rigorous classroom instruction.)
Garvin, David A. 1980. The Economics of University Behavior. New York: Academic Press. (Explains how "prestige" is of greater practical value to an institution than "quality," and how more prestige can entail less quality.)
Heinzelman, Kurt. 1986. "The English Lecturers at Austin: Our New M.I.A.'s." Academe (January/February): 25-31.
Collins, Randall. 1979. The Credential Society. New York: Academic Press. (On the disconnection between the degree of education actually needed to perform most jobs in the American economy and our perception of those education requirements. Collins originated the term "credentialism." See pages 15-16, 54, and 91.)
Berg, Ivar. 1971. Education and Jobs: The Great Training Robbery. Boston: Beacon. (A critique of American.credentialism before the term was coined.)
Brown, David K. 1995. Degrees of Control: A Sociology of Educational Expansion and Occupational Credentialism. New York: Teachers College Press. (Interesting historical account of the growth of this phenomenon, dating it back to the late 1880s and offering an explanation for the mainly irrational demand for bachelor's degrees that has sustained credentialism.)
Middaugh, Michael F., and David E. Hollowell. 1992. "Examining Academic and Administrative Productivity Measures." In Containing Costs and Improving Productivity in Higher Education. Ed. Carol S. Hollins. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. (For the administrative expansion at the University of Delaware, see pages 61-62.)
Parkinson, C. Northcote. 1957. Parkinson's Law. Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press.
Grassmuck, Karen. "Throughout the 80s, Colleges Hired More Non-Teaching Staff Than Other Employees." Chronicle of Higher Education (14 August 1991): A22. (Administrative growth nationwide.)
Nicklin, Julie L., and Goldie Blumenstyk. "Number of Non-Teaching Staff Members Continues to Grow in Higher Education." Chronicle of Higher Education (6 January 1993): A43-A46. (Administrative growth nationwide.)
Nussbaum, Martha C. 1997. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Goodheart, Eugene. 1997. "Reflections on the Culture Wars." Daedalus (Fall): 153-175.
Postman, Neil. 1995. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School. New York: Knopf.
Traub, James. "Drive-Thru U." The New Yorker (20/27 October 1997): 115-123.
Marc, David. 1995. Bonfire of the Humanities: Television, Subliteracy, and Long-Term Memory Loss. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Roszak, Theodore. 1994. The Cult of Information. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lasch, Christopher. 1979. The Culture of Narcissism. New York: Norton.
Kaufmann, Walter. 1977. The Future of the Humanities. New York: Reader's Digest Press.
Jones, Howard Mumford. 1959. One Great Society. New York: Harcourt, Brace.
Boyer, Ernest L. 1983. High School. New York: Harper and Row. (See page 99 for a table showing the decline in high-school foreign-language enrollments since 1915.)
Tompkins, Ellsworth and Walter H.Gaumnitz. 1954. The Carnegie Unit: Its Origin, Status, and Trends. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Bulletin 7: 1-58. (A helpful description of the Carnegie Unit, with arguments for and against its utility in secondary education. As it has fallen out of favor, we have lost our closest approximation to an objective measure of quantity of foreign language instruction--and, in language acquisition, quantity of classroom time is a component of quality of learning.)
LaFleur, Richard A. 1993. "Foreign Languages, the Classics, and College Admissions." ADFL [Association of Departments of Foreign Languages] Bulletin 24 (Spring): 29-35. (The period from the late 60s through the 70s were the darkest days for foreign language programs; measures taken in response have borne some fruit.)
Brod, Richard and Bettina J. Huber. 1996. "The MLA Survey of Foreign Language Entrance and Degree Requirements, 1994-95." ADFL Bulletin 28 (Fall): 35-43. (Both types of requirements are significantly less common than in 1965, but the trough was 1982-83. The situation is complex, the more so because stringency of requirements must be taken into account as well, and that is not the focus of this article. Our search of recent college catalogs revealed that among the most elite institutions, a year of foreign language study often sufficed for the degree requirement--if there was any degree requirement at all!)
Brod, Richard and Bettina J. Huber. 1997. "Foreign Language Enrollments in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 1995." ADFL Bulletin 28 (Winter): 55-60. (Foreign language enrollments have lagged behind total enrollments for decades, settling into a steady low of just over 7.5 percent from 1977 on.)
Shorris, Earl. 1997. New American Blues. New York: Norton. (Includes observations on the perversity of the culture wars within the humanities. The quotation is from page 343 in a chapter entitled "Radical Humanism.")
Brodhead, Richard H. 1994. "An Anatomy of Multiculturalism." Yale Alumni Magazine (April): 45-49. (A critique both of multiculturalism, in its current form, and of those who are opposed to it in any form.)
Massy, William F. 1990. "Commentary." In Higher Education in a Changing Economy. Eds. Katharine H. Hanson and Joel W. Meyerson. New York: Macmillan. (An important statement, candidly expressing the writer's growing persuasion of the reality of "cross-subsidization" of research and graduate studies by undergraduate studies--and this from the vice president for business and finance of Stanford University.)
Hopkins, David S.P. and William F. Massy. 1981. Planning Models for Colleges and Universities. Stanford: Stanford University Press. (For a sense of Massy's earlier, more status-quo view of internal allocations at research universities.)
Kernan, Alvin. 1997. What's Happened to the Humanities? Princeton: Princeton University Press.
National Commission on Student Financial Assistance. 1983. Signs of Trouble and Erosion: A Report on Graduate Education in America. Washington, D.C.
President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. 1997. Creative America. Washington, D.C.
Kirschling, Wayne R. 1979. "Conceptual Problems and Issues in Academic Labor Productivity." In Academic Rewards in Higher Education. Eds. Darrell R. Lewis and William E. Becker Jr. Cambridge, Mass: Ballinger. (Useful in providing yet another review of ways one might think about "productivity" in higher education.)
Park, Shelley M. "Research, Teaching, and Service: Why Shouldn't Women's Work Count?" Journal of Higher Education (January/February 1996): 46-84. (Much of what she says about women faculty in general could be said about humanities faculty in general--and, of course, out of all women faculty, the number in the humanities is disproportionately high.)
Konrad, Alison M. and Jeffrey Pfeffer. 1990. "Do You Get What You Deserve? Factors Affecting the Relationship between Productivity and Pay." Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (June): 258-285. (More on the thorny concept of "productivity." The quotation is from page 271.)
Hoenack, Stephen A. 1990. "Costs within Higher Education Institutions." In The Economics of American Universities: Management, Operations, and Fiscal Environment. Eds. Stephen A. Hoenack and Eileen L. Collins. Albany: State University of New York Press. (See pages 143-145 for the benefits to certain administration objectives of "incomplete and ambiguous information" regarding the internal allocation of university resources. See page 148 for the lack of empirical studies of actual rates of depreciation.)
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1994. "n Defense of the Research University." In The Research University in a Time of Discontent. Ed. Jonathan R. Cole et al. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. (The status quo has, needless to say, many advocates. This essay is an especially enthusiastic celebration of things as they are.)
Hofstadter, Richard. 1963. Anti-intellectualism in American Life. New York: Knopf. (Valuable both as a fine historical account of how intellectualism--typified by the humanities--could ever fall into such low esteem in the United States and as an eloquent argument in behalf of the life of the mind. The quotation is from page 33.)
Blackburn, Robert T., and Mary Jo Clark. 1975. "An Assessment of Faculty Performance: Some Correlates between Administrator, Colleague, Student and Self-Ratings." Sociology of Education 48 (Spring): 242-256. (See especially page 244 on the widespread assumption that teaching and research are positively related.)
Huber, Bettina J. 1992. "Characteristics of Foreign Language Requirements at U.S. Colleges and Universities: Findings from the MLA's 1987-89 Survey of Foreign Language Programs." ADFL Bulletin 24 (Fall): 8-16. (See especially page 13, where she reports that "one-year requirements appear to have gained ground during the 1980s.")
Mancing, Howard. 1994. "A Theory of Faculty Workload." ADFL Bulletin 25 (Spring): 32-37. (See especially page 33 on institutional hypocrisy and pages 36-37 on unfair weighting of teaching time.)
Barnett, Ronald. 1990. The Idea of Higher Education. Ballmoor, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Massy, William F., and Robert Zemsky. "Faculty Discretionary Time: Departments and the 'Academic Ratchet.'" Journal of Higher Education 65 (January/February 1994): 1-22.
Chapman, John W. 1983. "The Western University on Trial." In The Western University on Trial. Ed. John W. Chapman. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ben-David, Joseph. 1983. "Research and Teaching in the Universities." In The Western University on Trial. Ed. John W. Chapman. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hearn, James. 1992. "The Teaching Role of Contemporary American Higher Education: Popular Imagery and Organizational Reality." In The Economics of American Higher Education. Eds. William E. Becker and Darrell R. Lewis. Norwell, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers. (Traces the growing emphasis on specialization and specialized research back to the rise of majors and departments in the early twentieth century. Includes striking accounts of the distaste for teaching exhibited by many of the brightest and most ambitious of today's academics.)
Maher, Brendan A. 1996. "The NRC's Report on Research-Doctorate Programs: Its Uses and Misuses." Change (November/December): 54-59.
O'Neill, June. 1971. Resource Use in Higher Education: Trends in Ouputs and Inputs, 1930-1967. Berkeley: Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. (See especially pages 4-6.)
Graham, Hugh Davis, and Nancy Diamond. 1997. The Rise of American Research Universities. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. (Among other things, questions the validity of the NRC's ranking of research-doctorate programs. But see also page 83 for remarks on the painful contraction of institutions following periods of overexpansion.)
Buckles, Stephen. "Identification of Causes of Increasing Costs in Higher Education." Southern Economic Journal 45 (July 1978): 258-265. (See especially pages 263-5.)