> Oversupply is part of it, but there's also the issue of Universities offering fewer and fewer full-time tenure track positions. I'd argue that the latter is

> Oversupply is part of it, but there's also the issue of Universities offering fewer and fewer full-time tenure track positions. I'd argue that the latter is a result of the former. The oversupply, enables universities to confidently eliminate tenure track positions and replace them with tenure track positions. The jobs will be filled despite being less attractive because there are just. so. many. newly minted PhDs all fighting over the same scraps. The only limiting factor is that you do need to have a few tenured professors to get your name out there by publishing high profile papers. But there is only so much room in the high profile journals, so you really don't need that many of them. A sprinkle of graduates from one of the 2 or 3 top-ranked schools in their field will suffice. To that end, I think the deeper problem is twofold: First, in order to support their own careers professors need graduate students. Many times as many graduate students as there are open positions that the professor will create by retiring. Second, schools aren't being honest with their students about this fact, and non-top-ranked schools in particular aren't being forthright about admitting, "We probably wouldn't hire one of our own graduates for a full time position, not when we can easily snap up one of the surplus doctors that Yale keeps churning out."