State of the Humanities 2022: From graduate education to the workforce

Given the recent decline in students earning bachelor’s degrees in the humanities, a great deal of concern is focused on undergraduate education. But many of the questions received by the Humanities Indicators staff have to do with outcomes for those who earn a graduate degree in the field. This report explores several key topics related to graduate education, including degree trends, the demographics of degree recipients, the extent to which programs engage students in career preparation activities, and graduates’ career outcomes. The report relies heavily on the high-quality data collected by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, and also the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, several of whose surveys yield valuable information about graduate degree holders in the humanities. This report reflects the ongoing mission of the Humanities Indicators, a nationally recognized source of nonpartisan information about the field. The Indicators website (https://HumanitiesIndicators.org) covers 121 topics and includes more than 340 graphs detailing the state of the humanities in schools, higher education, and the workforce; levels of support for research and other key activities; and the role of the humanities in the day-to-day life of the nation. The project draws on data sources that meet the highest standards of social scientific rigor, relying heavily on the products of the U.S. federal statistical system.