The variety of school college students graduating with levels in philosophy continues to extend, as does the gender and racial variety of this group.
Within the following visitor put up, Eric Schwitzgebel (UC Riverside) shares a few of his current analysis on variety in philosophy. A model of this put up initially appeared at his weblog, The Splintered Mind.
[Lillian Blades – Windows of Reflection]
The Philosophy Main Continues to Recuperate and Diversify within the U.S.
by Eric Schwitzgebel
The Nationwide Heart for Schooling Statistics has launched their information on bachelor’s diploma completions within the U.S. by the 2019-2020 tutorial 12 months, and it’s largely excellent news for the philosophy main.
Again in 2017, I noticed that the variety of college students finishing philosophy levels within the U.S. had plummeted sharply between 2010 and 2016, from 9297 in 2009-2010 to 7507 in 2015-2016, a decline of 19% in simply six years. The opposite giant humanities majors (historical past, English, and overseas languages and literatures) noticed related declines within the interval.
A few years in the past, the trend had started to modestly reverse itself — and moreover the philosophy main gave the impression to be attracting the next share of ladies and non-White college students than beforehand. The latest information present these traits persevering with.
Methodology: The numbers under are all from the NCES IPEDS database, U.S. solely, utilizing CIP classification 38.01 for philosophy majors, together with each first and second majors, utilizing the NCES gender and race/ethnicity classes. Annually ends at spring time period (thus “2010” refers back to the 2009-2010 tutorial 12 months).
Pattern since 2010, complete variety of philosophy bachelor’s levels awarded within the U.S.:
2010: 9274
2011: 9298
2012: 9369
2013: 9427
2014: 8823
2015: 8186
2016: 7491
2017: 7575
2018: 7669
2019: 8075
2020: 8195
As you possibly can see, numbers are up about 9% since their nadir in 2016, although nonetheless properly under their peak in 2011. (The numbers are barely totally different from these in my earlier put up, presumably to small post-hoc changes within the IPEDS dataset.)
One consequence of the decline, I believe, was on the job marketplace for philosophy professors, which has been weak because the early 2010s. This has been arduous particularly on newly graduated PhD college students within the discipline. With the main declining so sharply within the interval, it’s comprehensible that directors wouldn’t prioritize the hiring of latest philosophy professors. If numbers proceed to rise, the job market may correspondingly recuperate.
Complete levels awarded throughout all majors has additionally continued to rise, and thus in share phrases, philosophy stays properly under its peak of just about 0.5% within the late 2000s and early 2010s — solely 0.31% of scholars, a tiny share. Philosophy received’t be overtaking psychology or biology in recognition any time quickly. Philosophy majors, you’re particular!
Again in 2017, I additionally seen that, going again to the Nineteen Eighties, the percentage of philosophy majors who were women had remained entirely within the narrow band of 30-34%, regardless of a rise in girls within the undergraduate inhabitants total. Nonetheless, in the newest 4 years, this share rose to 39.4%. [ETA 1:48 p.m.: Since 2001, the overall percentage of women among bachelor’s recipients across all majors has stayed fairly constant at around 57%.] That may not look like a giant change, however given the consistency of the sooner numbers, it’s truly fairly exceptional to me. Right here’s a zoomed-in graph to present you a way of it:
The philosophy main can also be more and more racially or ethnically numerous. The share of non-Hispanic White college students has been falling steadily since NCES started accumulating information in 1995, from 81% then to 58% now. Total, throughout all majors, 61% % of bachelor’s diploma recipients are non-Hispanic White, so the philosophy main is definitely now barely much less non-Hispanic White than common. (All of the race/ethnicity figures under exclude “nonresident aliens” and “race/ethnicity unknown”.)
The actual patterns differ by race/ethnic group.
Native Hawaiian or Different Pacific Islanders represent a tiny share: about 0.2% of diploma recipients each in philosophy and total because the class was launched in 2011.
American Indian or Alaskan Native can also be a tiny share, however sadly that share has been steadily declining because the mid-2000s, and the group is very underrepresented in philosophy. In accordance with the U.S. Census, about 0.9% of the U.S. inhabitants in that age group identifies as non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaskan Native.
The next chart shows traits for the opposite 4 racial classes utilized by the NCES. In 2011, “two or extra races” was launched as a class. Additionally earlier than 2011, the Asian class included “Pacific Islander”.
As you possibly can see from the chart, the share of Hispanic college students graduating with philosophy levels has surged, from 4.3% in 1995 to 14.4% in 2020. That is roughly consultant of an identical surge amongst Hispanic college students throughout all majors, from 4.8% in 1995 to fifteen.7% in 2020. Multiracial college students have additionally surged, although it’s unclear how a lot of that surge has to do with altering methodology versus the composition of the coed inhabitants.
The share of philosophy majors figuring out as Asian or Black has additionally elevated in the course of the interval, however solely slowly: From 5.4% and three.3% respectively in 1995 to six.8% and 5.6% in 2020. For comparability, throughout all majors, the numbers rose from 5.4% to eight.1% Asian and seven.6% to 10.2% Black. So, in 2020, Asian and particularly Black college students are disproportionately underrepresented within the philosophy main. Apparently, some data from the Increased Schooling Analysis Institute means that there was a really current surge of curiosity within the philosophy main amongst Black college students simply getting into school. We’ll see if that performs out amongst Bachelor’s diploma recipients in just a few years.
