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A Skeptic's View of Corporate Jobs and New Academic Programs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2022

Roy E. Licklider
Roy E. Licklider*
Affiliation:
Douglass College, Rutgers University
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Extract

Like the leading edge of the hurricaine, the first signals of the approaching depression in the academic job market are upon us. The change in expectations from 1968 to 1978 is hard to overstate. Departments that assumed their students would get “appropriate” jobs without help must now organize to get any employment for some of their graduates. It is not uncommon for graduates from second-level institutions to find that there simply are no academic jobs in their specialty anywhere in the country. Increasingly, departments are haunted by the fear of being “tenured up,” so even tenure-track junior positions may not lead anywhere. Already we are seeing the first consequences of this, as people rejected for tenure compete with new Ph.D.s for entry-level positions. All this is merely prelude, however, since the first actual population decline in the 18–22 year age bracket will not occur until the early 1980s, just about the time that people now entering graduate school will come on the job market.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , Winter 1979 , pp. 26 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1979

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References

* My thinking on this subject has been influenced by many generous people. My special thanks to Jim Rosenau, Susan Strange, Jonathan Aronson, and our colleagues at the Conference on Graduate Education in International Political Economy at the University of Southern California in March, 1978; Steven Blank of the Conference Board; Hobart C. Gardiner, Harold C. Roser, Jr., and Lynn B. Russo of Exxon Corporation; Donald L. Snook of Esso, Middle East; Dennis M. Sherman of Mobil Oil Corporation; and especially to the Exxon Education Foundation for the incentive and the resources to study this question during the three semesters I spent as program officer there. This paper was first presented at the American Political Science Association meeting in 1978 and benefited from general discussion by Rhonda Crane, AT&T; Larry Noble, Atlanta University; Karen Dol-match Shaw, Bank of America; Alan Stone, University of Houston; and John Tatlock, Shell Oil Corporation. Assistance of this magnitude makes it even more necessary to state that the conclusions are entirely my own responsibility.

1 Tatlock, John, “The Paradox of Corporate Political Scientist,” remarks prepared for delivery at the American Political Science Association meeting, September 2, 1978, p. 2.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 1.

3 LaPalombara, Joseph and Blank, Steven, Multinational Corporations in Comparative Perspective. Report No. 725, The Conference Board, New York, 1977, pp. 59–69.Google Scholar

4 For discussion of this and related issues, see Business and International Education, a report submitted by the Task Force on Business and International Education to the Government/Academic Interface Committee, International Education Project, American Council on Education, Washington, D.C., 1977.