Florida Governor Asks Why More Psychology Majors Aren’t Employed
Florida governor Rick Scott wants to know why taxpayers in his state are funding college studies that don’t lead to higher employment. That’s a fair question, isn’t it?
Josh Logue reports at Inside Higher Ed.
Psych!
Governor Rick Scott of Florida made headlines in 2011 when he suggested that the state didn’t need any more anthropology majors. Now, he’s going after psychology majors.
Scott summoned the state’s public university presidents to a meeting Thursday at which he’ll ask them to make sure that their two most popular majors have 100 percent employment rates, leaving out those who go to graduate school.
Psychology ranks as one of the top two programs at six of the state’s 10 universities. And indeed, National Center for Education Statistics data show psychology to be one of the five most popular undergraduate areas of study nationwide, alongside business and the social sciences. The other popular majors vary by campus and include such sure-employment fields as nursing — so the focus Thursday is expected to be on psych.
The question of undergraduate psych major employability is a raw one in Florida. Last year, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and current presidential candidate, suggested a psychology (or philosophy) major is likely to put a graduate behind the counter at Chick-fil-A. His comments prompted a speedy social media backlash from happily employed psychology majors. And several years before that, a state senator singled out psychology as undeserving of state support.
“When the No. 1 degree granted is psychology and the No. 2 degree is political science, maybe before we ask $100 million more of taxpayers we should redeploy what we have,” State Senator Don Gaetz said. “That way we make sure we’re not sending graduates out with degrees that don’t mean much.”
Scott mirrored those concerns in announcing the newest part of what’s called the “Ready, Set, Work” University Challenge.
“Far too many university students are graduating today, some after spending years of their family’s savings and others after taking on decades of debt, not able to find a job. Our state-funded universities can and must do more to help graduates get a good-paying job,” he said in a release. “I am challenging all state universities to better align their degrees with a student’s opportunity to get a job when they graduate.”
Florida governor wants to know why all psychology majors aren't employed (Inside Higher Ed | News)
Comments
universities are basically propaganda mills, churning out ideological robots.
There are lots of majors which will not lead to a good job. If the student is dumb enough to study an easy major and not look into how many with that major are employed, then a pox on them. People willing to purchase something useless will always find someone willing to take their money. Let the beware!
Once upon a time, before the government stuck their nose in the student loan tent, private lenders would consider such things as “intended major” in making their decision whether or not to lend money to college students. Students who went into crap majors had a much more difficult time securing loans for their education. It was all related to that whole risk thingy that normal financial institutions are generally interested in. Crap majors were formerly considered a type of moral hazard.
Good times, good times ~