After spending four years working in higher education, trying to effect piecemeal improvements, I’m convinced that the picture is more dire than most people realize: There’s no one single problem to fix or villain to defeat, no buzzword-y panacea that will get things back to normal.
As the spouse of a graduate student in the humanities, all of this resonates with me. In particular, the need to teach more undergraduates without wanting to hire more professors leads to many graduate students (to take up the teaching load) who are then unable to find jobs (nobody’s hiring tenure track jobs). Replacing tenure with something guaranteeing academic freedom without providing perpetual job security for underperforming, apathetic, or downright mean faculty is another good step.
Source: I have one of the best jobs in academia. Here’s why I’m walking away. – Vox
Anonymous Function 