Struggles in the post-secondary sector

Even before the appalling Trump re-election, there have been deep problems in the post-secondary and university space. COVID was obviously a disruption to everyone, but there are also deeper and longer-term forces changing how universities operate and how students interact with them.

Sadly, the near-to-medium future seems certain to be characterized by further resource conflicts, tough decisions by schools, and continued political contention about higher education. It is particularly worrisome to see cost-saving measures eroding things which likely can never be replaced: when you get rid of the specialist ancient language training that makes history possible, you effectively close down those historical fields by ending the pipeline of new experts. More broadly, universities are full of important fields of work which nonetheless have trouble defending their value to legislators and an angry public.

Ironies abound in a world where knowledge is more important than ever yet education is suffering – where technical knowledge is more indispensable than ever for being politically informed, yet dominant political movements sideline and disparage expertise. Collectively, we have a lot to survive and overcome in the decades ahead and in order to have a fighting chance we need trained and informed minds.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

21 thoughts on “Struggles in the post-secondary sector”

  8. This week, in an announcement that stunned New Zealand’s research community, the country’s center-right coalition government said it would divert half of the NZ$75 million Marsden Fund, the nation’s sole funding source for fundamental science, to “research with economic benefits.” Moreover, the fund would no longer support any social sciences and humanities research, and the expert panels considering these proposals would be disbanded.

    Universities New Zealand, which represents the nation’s eight universities, called the planned disinvestment in social science and humanities “astonishing.” It was among several academic groups and many scientists calling for the government to reverse the unexpected decision.

    In announcing the change, Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins said the fund should focus on “core science” that supports economic growth and “a science sector that drives high-tech, high-productivity, high-value businesses and jobs.”

  12. “This process of self-sidelining may not attract much public attention, but it can be highly consequential. Facing looming investigations, promising politicians—Republicans and Democrats alike—leave public life. CEOs seeking government contracts, tariff waivers, or favorable antitrust rulings stop contributing to Democratic candidates, funding civil rights or democracy initiatives, and investing in independent media. News outlets whose owners worry about lawsuits or government harassment rein in their investigative teams and their most aggressive reporters. Editors engage in self-censorship, softening headlines and opting not to run stories critical of the government. And university leaders fearing government investigations, funding cuts, or punitive endowment taxes crack down on campus protest, remove or demote outspoken professors, and remain silent in the face of growing authoritarianism.”

    https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/path-american-authoritarianism-trump

  13. In many countries, one of the biggest factors deterring students from pursuing doctoral degrees is the high cost of living relative to how much they get paid.

    In Australia, the average PhD stipend is roughly Aus$32,000 (US$20,000). “It is well under the minimum wage,” says Louise Sharpe, president of the ACGR, based in Melbourne, Australia. And although it is just above the poverty line for people who are single, the average doctoral student in the country is in their late thirties — often having come with experience working in different sectors — and have families and other responsibilities, Sharpe adds.

    Financial insecurity is also one of the chief concerns for doctoral students in Japan, where the number of PhD students has been dropping since the early 2000s. In 2023, the number of domestic PhD enrolments was 15,014, compared with a high of 18,232 in 2003. In response to this issue, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), announced plans last year to provide extra funding for doctoral students.

    People have also been losing an interest in postgraduate education on the other side of the ocean. Last year, the Brazilian Federal Agency for the Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) released a report revealing that, in 2022, the country saw its lowest number of domestic PhD entrants in almost a decade. One factor was the COVID-19 pandemic, but that was not the only reason for the drop, says CAPES president Denise Pires de Carvalho, headquartered in Brasilia. The economic crisis in Brazil, along with the government’s unwillingness to increase funding for science and technology were also major contributors, Pires de Carvalho says.

    Things are beginning to shift. In 2023, the Brazilian government increased the value of grants for master’s and doctoral students by 40% — the first increase in a decade. This change brought with it a slight increase in enrolments in that same year.

    In Canada, where PhD numbers haven’t yet dropped, a need for more funding to provide a living wage for doctoral students has been a big discussion over the past few years, says Adam Sarty, president-elect of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, who is based in Halifax. Last year, the Canadian government responded to this need by increasing graduate-student scholarships for the first time in more than two decades. This has been a welcome change, but Sarty notes that these grants only go to the top students — and extra changes are needed to provide more financial security to those who don’t win these scholarships.

    But many Canadian universities are under financial strain because of a dip in enrolments in professional graduate programmes, such as MBAs, owing to a cap on international students that was put into place in 2024. Countries such as the United Kingdom have seen similar rules put in place in recent years — raising concerns about universities’ abilities to support early-career researchers.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00425-4

  18. Late on Friday, J.J. McMurtry, dean of York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, alerted department leaders of the decision to not admit incoming students this fall in the following majors: German, Italian, Portuguese and Luso-Brazilian, and Spanish languages; classics and classical studies; East Asian studies; Hellenic studies; Indigenous studies; Jewish studies; religious studies; gender and women’s studies; and sexuality studies.

    That news came a day after staff were told new admissions would be placed on hold for two science undergraduate programs: environmental biology and biomedical physics. And on Tuesday, four additional majors, at York’s bilingual Glendon campus, joined the list: sociology; global history and justice; English; and Spanish and Latin American cultures and societies.

    https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/york-university-halting-new-admissions-for-18-degree-programs/article_0b9d264e-ee17-11ef-85a2-f77769dff39b.html

  20. It goes without saying that the economic conditions in the academy are dire. Knowing that is the pre-condition of applying for a PhD: have you read the terms and conditions, which are that there are no jobs and the jobs that do exist barely pay? Check and check. To take on the odds, you either have to be extremely practical or a little delusional. Either this journey goes on for as long as you can get paid, which might just be a funded PhD, or you believe in your ability to succeed against all odds. The crucial thing here is that by the time you’re doing your PhD, you’ve been trained to see yourself as exceptional. You might (will) have impostor syndrome, but deep down you know you’ve done incredibly well to make it through increasingly competitive rounds of applications to get to do a funded research degree. That you might get lucky again doesn’t seem too out of the question.

    The problem is the odds are always getting worse. I went into my undergrad wanting to go into academia, and while I was largely insulated from the realities of the job market, it is clear to me in retrospect that the academia I thought I was getting into in 2014 is one that, ten years later, no longer exists. Even going into my PhD, I was told that while getting a permanent job required ‘a few years of hell’, once you had one you were set. Four years of cuts to various humanities departments and degree programmes later, I don’t think that’s the case. I’ve seen established academics in prestigious programmes suddenly lose their jobs, with nowhere to go, because other departments certainly won’t be taking on more senior academics when they can underpay some postdocs instead. The analogy I often fall back on here is that academics in permanent roles are like faraway stars, whose light takes years to reach us on earth. Looking at them, you’re looking into the past. It takes so long for academics get a permanent contract that by the time they do, their experience of the job market is already out of date, as it will have changed so drastically from the time they entered it.

    https://hannahvoss.substack.com/p/the-life-changing-magic-of-leaving

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