Humanities’ Share of All Advanced Degrees Conferred
- In 2018, the share of all master’s and professional degrees awarded to students in the humanities fell to 3.0%, the lowest level recorded in the three decades for which data are available (Indicator II-21a).1 Humanities master’s degrees awarded each year since the late 1980s have constituted no more than 5% of all degrees awarded at the master’s and professional degree levels, with the high-water mark for the field occurring in 1993.
- At the doctoral level, the percentage of degrees awarded in the humanities fell to its lowest level on record in 2018 (7.6%), from a high of 11.1% in 2000 (Indicator II-21b). The percentage of doctoral degrees awarded annually in the humanities from the late 1980s to 2018 has been consistently at least double the share conferred at the master’s level.
- Completions in a subset of humanities disciplines—English language and literature, history, languages and literatures other than English (including linguistics and classics), and philosophy (designated “Historical Categories” in the graphs)—can be traced back to 1948, providing a longer-term view of the field. These data reveal that graduate humanities programs experienced a substantial loss in their share of degree completions over the 1970s and 1980s, as the number of advanced degrees awarded in the historical categories declined. While the absolute number of advanced degrees conferred in the humanities did rise from its mid-1980s low, the number of advanced degrees awarded in other fields increased more quickly. As a result, the field’s share of all master’s and doctoral degrees remained well below the record levels observed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
- From the early 1990s (the height of the humanities’ recovery from the 1980s slump) to 2018, the share of all master’s and professional degrees awarded in the historical categories of humanities degrees shrank by almost half. At the doctoral level, however, the share increased fairly steadily in the 1990s and then decreased through 2007. Despite upticks in several subsequent years, as of 2018 the field’s share of PhD completions was less than half of its 1973 high.
- Turning from the “historical categories” back to the full complement of humanities disciplines, the share of all master’s and professional degrees awarded in the humanities declined gradually from the early 1990s on, decreasing from the 1993 high of 5.0% to 3.0% in 2018 (Indicator II-21c). Education and law also experienced a substantial loss of share over this time period. In contrast, the share of degrees conferred on graduates from the fields of engineering, health/medical sciences, and natural sciences grew considerably.
- While the share of all doctoral degrees that were granted in the humanities decreased from a high of 11.1% in 2000 to 7.9% in 2018, engineering and the health/medical sciences experienced notable increases in share (Indicator II-21d).2
* Including professional practice doctorates (JD, MD, DVM, etc.).
** English language and literature, history, languages and literatures other than English (including linguistics and classics), and philosophy. Please see the Note on the Data Used to Calculate Humanities Degree Counts and Shares for an explanation of the differences between the two sets of degree counts.
Source: Office of Education/U.S. Department of Education, Survey of Earned Degrees, Higher Education General Information System, and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
All data for years 1987 and later have been tabulated using the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). For an explanation of the advantages of using the CIP to tally humanities degree completions, see the Note on the Data Used to Calculate Humanities Degree Counts and Shares.
For an inventory of the specific degree programs that together constitute the academic humanities as they are conceptualized by the Humanities Indicators, see the Degree Program Code Catalog.
See also the Note on the Definition of Advanced Degrees.
* Excluding professional practice doctorates (JD, MD, DVM, etc.).
** English language and literature, history, languages and literatures other than English (including linguistics and classics), and philosophy. Please see the Note on the Data Used to Calculate Humanities Degree Counts and Shares for an explanation of the differences between the two sets of degree counts.
Source: Office of Education/U.S. Department of Education, Survey of Earned Degrees, Higher Education General Information System, and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
All data for years 1987 and later have been tabulated using the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). For an explanation of the advantages of using the CIP to tally humanities degree completions, see the Note on the Data Used to Calculate Humanities Degree Counts and Shares.
For an inventory of the specific degree programs that together constitute the academic humanities as they are conceptualized by the Humanities Indicators, see the Degree Program Code Catalog.
See also the Note on the Definition of Advanced Degrees.
* Including professional practice doctorates (MD, DVM, etc.). See “About the Data” for important information about a shift in 2010 in the way the National Center for Education Statistics, the collector of these data, classifies advanced degrees in health/medical sciences.
Source: Office of Education/U.S. Department of Education, Survey of Earned Degrees, Higher Education General Information System, and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
See the Note on the Data Used to Calculate Humanities Degree Counts and Shares and the Note on the Definition of Advanced Degrees.
Through 2009, many advanced degrees in the health/medical sciences were classified by awarding institutions not as “first professional” degrees (the way in which the National Center for Education Statistics [NCES] required M.D.’s be classified) but as doctorates. With the elimination by NCES of the generic doctoral degree category in 2010, institutions began classifying such degrees as “professional practice” doctoral degrees, which the Humanities Indicators includes in its master’s degree and professional degree counts. This change in the classification of health sciences doctorates is partly responsible for the observed increase after 2009 in the medical and health sciences’ share of master’s and professional degrees.
For an inventory of the specific degree programs that together constitute each of the academic fields as they are conceptualized by the Humanities Indicators, see the Degree Program Code Catalog.
* Excluding professional practice doctorates (MD, DVM, etc.). The appearance of a dramatic shrinkage in 2010 in the share of all doctorates that went to students in the health and medical sciences is attributable to a change made by the National Center for Education Statistics in the way it asks institutions to classify doctorates. Please see the “About the Data” information associated with this indicator for details. (See also the Note on the Definition of Advanced Degrees for a description of this shift and the steps the Humanities Indicators has taken to help ensure comparability of the advanced degree counts it provides for different years.)
Source: Office of Education/U.S. Department of Education, Survey of Earned Degrees, Higher Education General Information System, and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. Data analyzed and presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).
See the Note on the Data Used to Calculate Humanities Degree Counts and Shares and the Note on the Definition of Advanced Degrees.
Through 2009, many advanced degrees in the health sciences were classified by awarding institutions not as “first professional” degrees (the way in which the National Center for Education Statistics [NCES] requires M.D.’s be classified) but as doctorates. With the elimination by NCES of the generic doctoral degree category in 2010, institutions began classifying such degrees as “professional practice” doctoral degrees, which the Humanities Indicators includes in its master’s degree and professional degree counts. This change in the classification of health sciences doctorates, in combination with the relatively small number of doctoral degrees completed each year, creates the false impression that the health and medical sciences field experienced a profound loss of doctorate “market share.”
