Dramatically fewer University of Wisconsin System students are pursuing degrees in the humanities — including English, history and the arts — than a decade ago.
Meanwhile, degrees in computer science, business and engineering have soared, according to UW System data reviewed by the Badger Institute.
Economic factors like concerns about return on investment, tougher job markets and climbing student loan debt are the principal reasons behind these trends, according to the experts we spoke to.
“The number one thing is … students don’t see a direct translation from a humanities degree to a lucrative or successful job,” said Shannon Watkins, a research and policy fellow with the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. “I think that’s particularly so now because there’s a lot of awareness on return on investment with a degree.”
Last year, the 13 UW System schools awarded 3,548 bachelor’s degrees in the humanities, down 1,436 or about 29 percent from the 4,984 awarded a decade earlier, the data showed. In our analysis, we defined “humanities” as degrees in visual and performing arts, communications and journalism, English, history, foreign languages, liberal arts, legal studies, philosophy and religious studies.
Comparing 2014-15 to 2024-25, the number of UW System students earning bachelor’s degrees in English was down 39.2 percent, from 673 a decade ago to 409 last year. Steep drops also came in communications and journalism — 31.7 percent from 1,581 to 1,080 — and history, down 30.6 percent from 415 to 288.
This trend is not unique to Wisconsin. A data analysis by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in Cambridge, Mass., found that the number of humanities degrees conferred nationwide dropped nearly 25 percent between 2012 and 2022. It noted a “particularly sharp” 7.3-percent drop from 2021 to 2022, during the pandemic.
Conversely, bachelor’s degrees in STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — and business fields are on the rise.
UW System degrees awarded in computer and information sciences were up 80 percent, 1,653 awarded last year compared to 918 a decade ago, according to system data.
The system awarded 14.2 percent more engineering degrees, and business, management, marketing and related programs increased by 11.7 percent. Health professions degrees increased by just 2.5 percent.
STEM graduates earn more on average than non-STEM grads — a gap in earnings that’s widest with entry-level roles, Watkins said. A 2018 Harvard study found that a typical STEM grad starts with a salary advantage of 30 percent, though, a decade into their career, that advantage dips to 18 percent.
The UW System has “been expanding educational opportunities in high-demand fields, including engineering; nursing and other health care professions; business and finance; and data/computer science,” Mark Pitsch, director of media relations for the Universities of Wisconsin, told the Badger Institute. “At the same time, we continue to provide students with a comprehensive education that provides them the critical thinking and adaptability skills necessary for lifelong careers.”
Isthmus in Madison found that of the 63 UW System degree programs suspended or eliminated without a replacement since 2022, a little more than half were in the humanities or social sciences.
Universities and the media often prioritize “what is perceived as the new frontiers of knowledge” in response to the latest demands in the economy, Russ Castronovo, director of UW-Madison’s Center for the Humanities, told the Badger Institute. “A lot of times, I think higher education plans for the short-term.”
When a school cuts or defunds some humanities programs, it makes it more difficult for students to complete other humanities majors because there are fewer classes, professors and resources available, Castronovo said.
The decline diminishes something very important, he said. “We would lose out on everything that makes us human. We lose out on our sense of ethics, our sense of creativity, our sense of curiosity, our sense of discovery. I think all those things are wrapped up in the humanities.”
Some worry artificial intelligence could also threaten the humanities — or at least significantly change how they’re taught. For example, some professors Watkins has spoken to have replaced lengthier take-home assignments with in-class essays to prevent students from using programs like ChatGPT.
On the other hand, Robert Townsend, director of Humanities, Arts, and Culture at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, said some universities are encouraging humanities students to flex their writing, fact-checking and information literacy muscles when crafting AI prompts “that actually deliver the results they want” and verifying information retrieved by AI — skills Townsend said will be valuable in tomorrow’s workforce.
Humanities courses are also competing in a smartphone marketplace of diminished attention spans. Townsend said today’s students are intimidated by the sheer amount of reading in disciplines like English and history. Students struggle to “really grapple with texts” and comprehend large quantities of written information, he said. Very few of them regularly read for pleasure.
“These teenagers will say ‘I’m very comfortable with science because there’s one fixed problem. … I just don’t have the attention span to read anything longer than a page or two,’” Townsend told the Badger Institute.
Some students, especially those with conservative values, are put off by the political biases they perceive in some humanities courses and departments, Watkins said.
“Back when I was an undergrad,” she said, “I was studying the fine authors of medieval Spain, and all of a sudden, I was presented with a very skewed, politically charged, feminist interpretation of what the texts mean.”
Castronovo thinks in a world of job-hopping and ever-changing technology, students with a foundation of storytelling, information literacy and interpersonal skills might be better equipped for the future than those who focus on skills, like specific programming languages, that are bound to become obsolete.
“If we’re just concentrating on skills in a very narrow sense, it’s hard to retool the mind,” Castronovo said. “But, if we’re focusing on … lifelong habits of learning and engaging with the world in a critical way, then the humanities really equip us for a world that is rapidly changing.”
Claire Reid is a Milwaukee-based freelance journalist and graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
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