CS PhD production up 71.6% since 2015 while humanities degrees fall 20%
plopesresearch · x · 2026-10-23
A chart based on the NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates shows stark divergence across fields since 2015: computer and information science PhD production surged 71.6%, engineering rose 16.8%, and math climbed 19.8%, while humanities and arts fell 20%, education dropped 9.6%, business declined 11.6%, and social sciences slipped 3.4%. Overall PhD output is still rising.
NYU psychology professor Jay Van Bavel warns the humanities collapse is spreading to social sciences, with funding cuts, a tight academic job market, and AI rapidly reshaping universities and cratering graduate programs.
More from AGI Musings
- Why 'Omega' muddies causal ordering in decision problems, and how to fix it — jessi_cata · 2026-10-23
- Thiel called it: wordcels may fare better than math and science bros in the AI era — max_paperclips · 2026-10-23
- Arianna Huffington asks Anthropic president Daniela Amodei: AI gets intelligence, humans keep wisdom — PeterDiamandis · 2026-10-23
- Assistant tasks are the wedge for personal agents becoming your new computer — manosaie · 2026-10-23
- Veteran designers embrace AI most: a strange generation gap in design — soleio · 2026-10-23
- Ex-80,000 Hours Researcher Jokes: He Believed in AI Safety to Buy the Dip — lxrjl · 2026-10-23