Subjects to change
Fittingly, perhaps, how you define “the humanities” is up for debate. The National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency established in 1965, sets out at least 12 subjects within the field — the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, on the other hand, whittles it down to just 4 core areas in one measure. We’re opting for the latter in our analysis, but however you choose to slice and dice the data, the conclusions leave little room for nuanced discussion: the humanities are in trouble.
With the cost of college rising with nearly every year that passes, students are beginning to question the inherent worth of humanities majors. Whether it’s exploring the linguistic intricacies of James Joyce’s Ulysses, digging into the military strategies of Chinese dynasties, or attempting to pick apart the theories of long-standing titans in the philosophical arena, fewer college goers are willing to devote years of their educational careers to the traditionally “softer” subjects.
Les Misérables
The fall of the humanities is not a new phenomenon — there was a swathe of pieces written on the topic this time 10 years ago. But since then, humanities majors have become an even rarer sight on campuses: the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in English, a subject often placed at the heart of the decline, has fallen every year since the 2011-12 academic period. Indeed, last year only 33,249 students completed bachelor degrees in English Language and Literature/Letters, compared to over 55,000 in 2009. Other key humanities subjects like history and foreign languages, literature, & linguistics have followed similar trajectories, down 39% and 36%, respectively, from their 2010s peaks.
While the popularity of courses in the humanities has been taking a serious hit, other subjects have been making up ground, as students look to put their increasingly-costly college focus in other areas.
