THE COLLEGE BUBBLE DEFLATES.

Where is the prestige in turning out a reserve army of adjuncts in the evergreen disciplines?

Twelve doctoral programs at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, have temporarily halted the admission of new students, The Star Tribune reported. The programs include English, history and political science. The university says the halt is related to budget cuts brought on by the pandemic. An additional 15 departments will only admit a small number of students.

The linked story doesn't name all the departments that are curtailing admissions.

English, history, political science, theater arts, and gender, women and sexuality studies are among 12 Ph.D. programs that have temporarily halted admissions. Fifteen additional liberal arts doctoral programs will only accept a limited number of new students this fall. No doctoral programs outside the U's College of Liberal Arts have paused admissions, according to the university.

The university anticipates resuming admissions on a more normal scale once the pandemic lockdowns and the Biden^* macroeconomic torpor passes.

The history department will re-examine its curriculum and structure during the hiatus, [history department head Ann] Waltner said. The job market for history students is "grim," she said, with most graduates bouncing between postdoctoral and adjunct faculty positions. Even when admissions resume, the department may opt to accept fewer students going forward.

"We don't want to produce more Ph.D.s than there are jobs for, so I think a smaller, more focused program may not be such a bad idea," Waltner said.

In the English department, the average new class of doctoral students has shrunk over the years from as many as 20 to about a dozen, said department chair Andrew Elfenbein. He expects yearly cohorts will average about five to six students post-pandemic.

The job market for doctoral candidates in the evergreen disciplines has been "grim" for a long time. Perhaps the pandemic is a convenient excuse for universities to do what they likely would have had to do anyway.