Can Yale Reform Its Humanities Doctoral Programs? - Opinion Piece

Leonard Cassuto writes: Doctoral education has changed very little since the late 19th century, when it took on the structure and requirements — such as the adviser-student apprenticeship and the dissertation — that remain familiar today. The collapse of the tenure-track job market over decades called that apprenticeship model into question long ago. But universities at the top of the prestige ladder have been slow to acknowledge that most of their Ph.D.s won’t become tenure-track professors. Instead, elite institutions have long acted as though the winds of doctoral reform would never reach their altitude.