The APDA Blog

2024 Data Collection Results: a focus on recent graduates

Carolyn Dicey Jennings -

Over the spring and summer we updated the database using placement pages and other public sources of data (h/t Ricardo Rodriguez), inviting program representatives to edit their dashboards at the end of the summer. This effort led to 406 new graduates in the covered period (2013–2023), over 2/3 of which are from 2023. We have updated the interactive graphic on the homepage with this data, and you can explore individual program data through the website (e.g. ASU). Below is a chart comparing new and old data.

New data (from 9/29/24) and old data (from 9/7/23) on number of graduates per graduation year in the APDA database, with new data marked in gray and labeled above.

This update gives us a fuller picture of the state of employment for graduates in the last 10 years (2013–2023). Over this period, 6,408 graduates earned a PhD in philosophy, 41% of which (2,610) have found permanent academic employment; 33% if we look only at the past 5 years (2019–2023). These numbers are comparable to those we reported following our 2021 survey: 40% and 31%, respectively (for 2011–2021 and 2016–2021). They are also similar to the numbers from our first report on this project in 2015: of 1,964 graduates over a 4-year period, 33% of graduates were in permanent academic employment. Thus, it is unlikely that permanent academic employment has gone down in the past few years.

While individual program data can be noisy, two programs are two standard deviations away from the mean for the proportion of 2019–2023 graduates with permanent academic employment—but both are small: Cincinnati and UVA (10 and 12 graduates in this period, respectively; 70% or more in permanent academic jobs). A further ten programs were more than one standard deviation away from the mean (52% or more in permanent academic jobs) while also being at or above the mean program size (21+ graduates for 2019–2023; listed in alphabetical order): BU, Columbia, MIT, NYU, Purdue, Rutgers, SLU, CUA, Michigan, and Yale. A few of these satisfied the same criteria in the 2021 report (51% ore more in permanent academic jobs and 23+ graduates for 2016–2021): MIT, Rutgers, and CUA. (Note that I am a BU alum, a potential COI.)

A total of 25 programs have a higher than 52% permanent academic employment for 2019–2023 graduates (1 SD above the mean). These programs had higher mean recommendation ratings (4.3 vs. 3.9) and climate ratings (4.1 vs. 3.9) in the 2023 survey than all other programs covered by the project. They were twice as likely to be associated with keywords like analytic, epistemology, metaphysics, mind, and religion and half as likely to be associated with keywords like biology, german, history and philosophy of science, and political in that survey. Thus it may be that mainstream philosophy departments with higher student ratings do better with respect to permanent academic employment. (Of course, better employment rates might also be a source of higher ratings.) All covered programs are listed in a table at the end of this post, in alphabetical order (Table 1).

Similarly, looking at permanent academic employment for AOS's can be noisy. Four have rates that are one standard deviation above the mean, but three of these have a very small number of 2019–2023 graduates (listed in alphabetical order): African Philosophy (<10), American Philosophy (including Latin American; <10), Asian Philosophy (<10), and Philosophy of Law (35, 57%). Two of the large AOS's (one SD more than average) have better than average permanent academic employment: Ethics (276, 37%) and Social/Political Philosophy (239, 40%). On the other end of the spectrum, two small AOS's have rates that are one standard deviation below the mean: Philosophy of Economics (<10) and Philosophy of Math (23, 13%). Two large AOS's have below average rates: Metaphysics (131, 32%) and Philosophy of Mind (170, 28%). Thus, it may be that graduates specializing in certain philosophical traditions and areas of value theory currently do better in terms of permanent academic employment than those in more mainstream and formal areas. See the full table below (Table 2).

In the next few weeks I plan to post more results from the 2023 survey, so stay tuned!

You can link to this blog post at https://apda.ghost.io/2024-data-collection-results-a-focus-on-recent-graduates

Table 1: Philosophy PhD Programs

University Graduates 2019–2023 Permanent Academic Job Permanent Academic Employment Rate
Arizona State University <10
Arizona State University (HPS) <10
Australian National University 23 4 17%
Baylor University 15 10 67%
Binghamton University 16 5 31%
Bogazici University <10
Boston College 29 13 45%
Boston University 22 15 68%
Bowling Green State University 10 5 50%
Brown University 18 4 22%
Carnegie Mellon University 13 5 38%
Columbia University 36 19 53%
Cornell University 28 9 32%
Dalhousie University <10
Deakin University <10
DePaul University 29 8 28%
Duke University 20 11 55%
Duquesne University 11 2 18%
Durham University 24 1 4%
Eindhoven University of Technology <10
Emory University 30 10 33%
Florida State University 17 9 53%
Fordham University 26 7 27%
Georgetown University 18 4 22%
Graduate Center of the City University of New York 48 8 17%
Harvard University 24 10 42%
Indiana University Bloomington 14 4 29%
Indiana University Bloomington (HPS) <10
Institut Jean Nicod 52 3 6%
Johns Hopkins University 19 6 32%
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven <10
King´s College London 24 6 25%
London School of Economics and Political Science 13 7 54%
Loyola University Chicago 20 4 20%
Marquette University 22 8 36%
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 25 13 52%
McGill University 25 6 24%
Michigan State University 12 7 58%
National University of Singapore <10
New York University 21 12 57%
Northwestern University 20 10 50%
Ohio State University 23 7 30%
Pennsylvania State University 19 12 63%
Princeton University 31 15 48%
Purdue University 29 15 52%
Rutgers University 25 17 68%
Saint Louis University 23 12 52%
Simon Fraser University <10
Southern Illinois University 10 5 50%
St Andrews and Stirling Graduate Programme in Philosophy 44 10 23%
Stanford University 30 10 33%
Stony Brook University 16 11 69%
Syracuse University 12 3 25%
Temple University <10
Texas A & M University-College Station 13 7 54%
The Catholic University of America 27 16 59%
The New School 37 4 11%
The University of Manchester 28 2 7%
The University of Melbourne 23 0 0%
The University of Western Australia <10
Tilburg University <10
Trinity College, Dublin <10
Tulane University 22 4 18%
University at Albany 10 3 30%
University at Buffalo 17 7 41%
University College London 19 4 21%
University of Alberta <10
University of Arizona 27 11 41%
University of Arkansas <10
University of British Columbia 12 3 25%
University of Calgary 12 1 8%
University of California, Berkeley 21 9 43%
University of California, Davis 20 5 25%
University of California, Irvine 23 6 26%
University of California, Irvine (LPS) 30 11 37%
University of California, Los Angeles 24 10 42%
University of California, Riverside 13 3 23%
University of California, San Diego 19 9 47%
University of California, Santa Barbara 10 4 40%
University of California, Santa Cruz 14 4 29%
University of Cambridge 21 9 43%
University of Cambridge (HPS) 12 6 50%
University of Chicago 28 13 46%
University of Chicago (CHSS) 10 1 10%
University of Cincinnati 10 7 70%
University of Colorado Boulder 23 6 26%
University of Connecticut 22 10 45%
University of Dallas <10
University of Edinburgh 39 5 13%
University of Florida <10
University of Geneva <10
University of Georgia 15 10 67%
University of Graz <10
University of Guelph 10 1 10%
University of Hawai´i at Manoa <10
University of Illinois at Chicago 19 7 37%
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign <10
University of Iowa <10
University of Kansas 11 5 45%
University of Kent <10
University of Kentucky 15 8 53%
University of Maryland, College Park 20 7 35%
University of Massachusetts Amherst 14 8 57%
University of Memphis 19 9 47%
University of Miami 13 4 31%
University of Michigan 25 17 68%
University of Minnesota Twin Cities <10
University of Missouri 10 1 10%
University of Nebraska, Lincoln 11 1 9%
University of New Mexico <10
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 30 9 30%
University of Notre Dame 43 15 35%
University of Nottingham 16 1 6%
University of Oklahoma 13 3 23%
University of Oregon 23 7 30%
University of Otago <10
University of Oxford 63 18 29%
University of Pennsylvania 26 13 50%
University of Pittsburgh 21 7 33%
University of Pittsburgh (HPS) 21 7 33%
University of Reading 16 3 19%
University of Rochester 11 3 27%
University of Salzburg <10
University of Sheffield 23 4 17%
University of South Carolina 13 3 23%
University of South Florida 29 8 28%
University of Southern California 20 12 60%
University of Tennessee 12 2 17%
University of Texas at Austin 28 9 32%
University of Toronto 47 16 34%
University of Toronto (IHST) 21 4 19%
University of Utah 16 5 31%
University of Virginia 12 9 75%
University of Warwick 24 3 13%
University of Washington 18 7 39%
University of Waterloo 14 0 0%
University of Wisconsin-Madison 17 8 47%
University of York 17 0 0%
University of York 17 0 0%
Vanderbilt University 19 10 53%
Victoria University of Wellington 10 0 0%
Villanova University 20 6 30%
Washington University in St. Louis 16 6 38%
Wayne State University <10
Western University 33 4 12%
William Marsh Rice University <10
Yale University 24 15 63%
York University 13 5 38%

Table 2: Areas of Specialization

First-Listed Area of Specialization 2019–2023 Graduates Permanent Academic Job Permanent Academic Employment Rate
19th / 20th 46 16 35%
Action 14 6 43%
Aesthetics 28 8 29%
African <10
American (incl Latin American) <10
Analytic (History of) <10
Ancient 111 54 49%
Applied Ethics (incl Bio and Medical) 89 27 30%
Asian <10
Biology (incl Environmental) 32 10 31%
Cognitive Science / Psychology / Neuroscience / Linguistics 75 22 29%
Comparative <10
Continental (incl Phenomenology) 70 24 34%
Decision Theory 23 7 30%
Economics <10
Education 10 4 40%
Epistemology 163 56 34%
Ethics 276 102 37%
Gender / Race / Sexuality / Disability Studies 73 36 49%
German (incl Kant) 69 25 36%
History (General) 33 10 30%
Language 83 30 36%
Law 35 20 57%
Logic 48 19 40%
Math 23 3 13%
Medieval / Renaissance 27 11 41%
Meta-Ethics 35 10 29%
Metaphilosophy (incl Experimental) <10
Metaphysics 131 42 32%
Mind 170 48 28%
Modern 50 18 36%
Other <10
Physics 39 12 31%
Religion 33 10 30%
Science (General) 99 31 31%
Social / Political 239 96 40%
Technology 28 9 32%
Value (General) 33 11 33%