March 11, 2012

Cutbacks in Enrollment Redefine Graduate Education and Faculty Jobs

Enrollment cutbacks redefine curricula as well as faculty jobs

Cutbacks in Enrollment Redefine Graduate Education and Faculty Jobs 1

Matt Roth for The Chronicle

"We are a research institution, and it's very important for faculty to bring their research material to bear in graduate courses," says William L. Pressly (left, at a faculty retreat), chair of the department of art history and archaeology at the U. of Maryland.

By Robin Wilson

Over the past decade, the University of Maryland's department of art history and archaeology has admitted up to a dozen graduate students each year. But when Caroline J. Dubinsky and Jessica Williams arrived on the College Park campus last fall, they were the department's only two new Ph.D. students.

Like many graduate programs in the arts and humanities, Maryland's department is slimming down: Since 2005 its graduate-student population has fallen by a third, to a total of just