Some Colleges Go on Hiring Sprees
Not everyone is slashing hiring during this economic downturn. A number of colleges and universities in New England are using the weak job market to snap up top-notch faculty, the Boston Globe reports. Northeastern is trying to fill 46 professor positions; Tufts is out for 52. Emerson, Holy Cross, and Amherst are looking, too.
Not surprisingly, the few spots that are open have gotten extreme amounts of interest.
Northeastern has seen its applicant pools swell between 10 percent and 25 percent, depending on the position, compared with last year. At Emerson, more than 100 candidates have applied for an assistant professorship in world history—four times as many as in a similar search several years ago. . . .
Jeff Abernathy, a vice president and dean at Augustana College in Illinois, explained his decision to accelerate hiring by quoting billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
"The path to riches, he says, is to be 'fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful,' " Abernathy wrote in a column this month for the Chronicle of Higher Education. "Being greedy now, in this most fearful of markets, might just be the right path to the kind of riches we value most: excellence in student learning and growth."
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Cap in FL
Your only concern is business. A university is so much more than business. Look at the humanities and sciences. The business of engineering is, well, engineering. The business of the humanities is society, politics and culture.
Understanding the hard facts of the business world might be helpful for, well, business majors, but that's only a small part of any university.
The pre-professional programs I know of, in advertising, journalism, public relations, accounting, etc., are not necessarily the best ways to break into those fields. In fact, companies in those fields sometimes prefer students who have a broader background.
The job market, for Mark
Mark, in good times, a PhD will stand you in good stead in the corporate workd. I know plenty of people who landed good jobs because companies needed people with research capabilities, among other skill sets developed by many people with PhDs.
The problem now is, a bad economy AND no university jobs. A double whammy, if you will.
educational system scam
We are victims of the best ponzi scheme in the world. If you have children in school (from elementary to college) ask the instructors how much official contact there is between any department and a private sector business owner or manager. You'll receive a blank look. Traditional academia has no relation with the decision makers in the job market place. Teachers push specific disciplines based on their personal (unreal) view of the market will demand. Who can predict if your or your child's degree will be demand in 4 or more years from now? Even worse, you may the right degree but no connections based on the closed academic circle. CEO's making speeches at schools are cute, but the "sales manager for the NE territory" is in the trenches and knows what he/she needs in a new hire.
There needs to be a structured mentoring process integrating small biz and corp America. Not summer intern projects but weekly "part of the curriculum" participation that lets students know in real time if they've made the right decision.
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