Conference on College Composition and Communications Presentation:
What's going on with English majors?
Historical
contexts and national trends in undergraduate curricula
Thomas Miller, University of Arizona (last updated 3/18/04) return to presentation homepage
Statistics on majors, graduates and historical trends
Chart of BAs in English and percentages of BAs in English of all degrees, 1950-1997
Statistics on BAs in English and selected disciplines, 1970-2000
Related Studies
The ADE Bulletin has published some two hundred and forty articles on the English major over the last thirty years, including several major MLA surveys of undergraduate curricula. The full text versions of the articles can only be accessed using departmental user names or passwords or through subscribing libraries. However, open access is currently provided to the winter issue, which is devoted to follow up articles on a national study of English majors and related articles. The survey of the major and the related ADE survey of staffing are openly accessible on the ADE website. These are large PDF files and may take considerable time to download.
"Association of Departments of English 2000-1 Ad Hoc Committee Report on the English Major" ADE Bulletin 134-5 (Spring-Fall 2003): 1-89. (An 89 page PDF file).
ADE Reports and Resources (including access to the Winter ADE Bulletin and "Association of Departments of English Ad Hoc Committee on Staffing" ADE Bulletin 122 (Spring 1999): 1-26.
These resources will be of interest to those concerned with the work of revising graduate programs to better prepare practitioners to work in the field.
Nerad, Maresi and Joseph Cerny. "From Rumors to Facts: Career Outcomes of English PhDs Results from the "PhDs Ten Years Later" Study" Communicator: Council of Graduate Schools 32.7 (Fall 1999): 1-11. Also available in ADE Bulletin 124 (Winter 2000): 43-55.
Golde, Chris M.and Timothy M. Dore. "At Cross Purposes: What the experiences of doctoral students reveal about doctoral education." January, 2001. A report prepared for The Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, PA.
Hutcheon, Linda, et al. Professionalization in Perspective. MLA Ad Hoc Committee on the Professionalization of PhDs. 2004.
The Preparing Future Faculty Program is a national initiative concerned with redressing the historical gap between graduate programs in varied disciplines and the responsibilities of those who go on to teach for a living, who represent a majority in many disciplines, though you would not necessarily know that from the graduate programs in those disciplines.