last revised February 11, 2003
The following table presents approximate counts of academic positions advertised through ACM.
For the years 1996-2002, counts come listings in the Communications of the ACM between September and January in each of the past seveal years.
In 2001-2002, ACM allowed ads to appear on line as well as in the Communications of the ACM. While this permitted institutions to have ads displayed with less time lag, it meant that not all institutions advertixed in the Communications itself. Since the counts below for that year reflect only Communications ads, the true ACM listings may be somewhat lower than shown.
Beginning with the 2002-2003 academic year, the counts below reflect ads that appear either in ACM on-line or in the Communications of the ACM between September and January in each of the past seveal years.
| Designated Numbers | Multiple Positions | Lower Bound for Total Positions | Number of Schools | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postdocs | |||||
| 1996-1997 | 2 (0) | 2 (0) | 6 (0) | 3 (0) | |
| 1997-1998 | 0 (0) | 4 (1) | 8 (2) | 4 (1) | |
| 1998-1999 | 0 (2) | 4 (0) | 8 (2) | 4 (2) | |
| 1999-2000 | 0 (0) | 6 (0) | 12 (0) | 5 (0) | |
| 2000-2001 | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | 1 (1) | 1 (1) | |
| 2001-2002 | 1 (2) | 1 (0) | 3 (2) | 2 (1) | |
| 2002-2003 | 3 (1) | 1 (0) | 5 (1) | 4 (1) | |
| Non-Tenure-Track Positions | |||||
| 1996-1997 | 17 (3) | 2 (0) | 21 (0) | 19 (2) | |
| 1997-1998 | 21 (1) | 7 (3) | 35 (7) | 28 (4) | |
| 1998-1999 | 29 (0) | 9 (1) | 47 (2) | 35 (1) | |
| 1999-2000 | 14 (7) | 10 (2) | 34 (11) | 23 (4) | |
| 2000-2001 | 19 (3) | 15 (5) | 49 (13) | 30 (7) | |
| 2001-2002 | 18 (8) | 8 (1) | 34 (10) | 23 (3) | |
| 2002-2003 | 70 (29) | 15 (9) | 100 (47) | 63 (23) | |
| Tenure-Track Positions (Any Level) | |||||
| 1996-1997 | 251 (31) | 46 (11) | 343 (53) | 235 (27) | |
| 1997-1998 | 291 (37) | 73 (9) | 437 (55) | 292 (32) | |
| 1998-1999 | 415 (63) | 94 (15) | 603 (93) | 323 (49) | |
| 1999-2000 | 445 (80) | 109 (16) | 663 (112) | 405 (44) | |
| 2000-2001 | 450 (29) | 127 (21) | 704 (71) | 436 (37) | |
| 2001-2002 | 394 (46) | 112 (25) | 618 (96) | 364 (45) | |
| 2002-2003 | 260 (25) | 86 (7) | 432 (39) | 288 (17) | |
| Total Positions | |||||
| 1996-1997 | 370 (53) | ||||
| 1997-1998 | 480 (64) | ||||
| 1998-1999 | 658 (96) | ||||
| 1999-2000 | 709 (123) | 412 (46) | |||
| 2000-2001 | 754 (85) | 438 (38) | |||
| 2001-2002 | 652 (108) | 367 (46) | |||
| 2002-2003 | 537 (87) | 327 (40) | |||
| Graphical representation of data: ( JPEG format / color pdf / b&w postscript / color postscript ) | ||||||||
| Position Categories | Numbers | Domestic/Foreign | Schools | Notes | Trends | Starting Date | Acknowledgements | |
The Communications of the ACM and ACM on-line ads were chosen for this review, because one might expect that most colleges and universities will advertise their open positions. Further, the months September through January were chose, because one might expect that most permanant positions for a following year would be advertised in those issues. However, some openings clearly are missed in this counting.
CRA's 1997-98 Taulbee Survey estimated that the number of new Ph.D. graduates entering academia was about 360. (The actual survey reflects experience for the year given, although it is taken the following fall.) At the CRA Snowbird Conference in July 1998, Dexter Kozen and Stu Zweben who organize the Taulbee Survey for the CRA indicated that they expected this number to remain about constant ffrom the previousl year. The corresponding figure for 1998-1999 is 425 -- extrapolating from the 80% response rate of the Survey to 100% of the schools. Note, however, that in 1998-1999, the Survey was sent to more schools, identified as granting Ph.D.s. The increase in supply from 1997/8 to 1998/9 can be explained completely by this increased mailing and responding.
The Taulbee Survey indicates that the number of new Ph.D.s going to the 1300+ non-Ph.D.-granting schools seemed decline from about 60 of 360 in 1996-1997 to 45 of 425 in 1997-1998 to 35 of 460 in 1998-1999. The number going to non-Ph.D.-granting schools recovered slighted to 45 of 450 in 1999-2000.
The number of advertised post-doctoral positions and the number of senior level positions has remained about constant over the period.
In 2002-2003, for the first time, the number of non-tenure-track positions has become a signficiant fraction (18.6%) of the total number of positions advertised. Previously, the number of such positions has increased steadily, but the number in percentage terms was always relatively insignificant (5.2% or less).
Even with this limited selection of ads, the supply of new Ph.D.'s was close to the positions announced here in 1996-1997. For the intervening years, demand has been signficantly larger than the new Ph.D. pool, and many positions have been reported informally as going unfilled. While the lower demand in 2002-2003 will help close this gap, the number of new positions reported here still seems higher than the supply reported by the Taulbee Report.
Many schools did not indicate specific starting dates.
The vast majority of both domestic and foreign positions start in the Fall.
The number of schools specifying either a Spring or Fall starting date increased from 8 in 96-97 to 15 in 97-98 to 27 in 98-99 to 34 in 99-00. By 2001-2002, the number had decreased again to 20. In 2002-2003, the number continued to decrease to just 4.
Only 3-5 positions started in the summer each year.
Many thanks also to Mary Heitsman who has continued this work, beginning 2002-2003.
This document is available on the World Wide Web as
http://www.walker.cs.grinnell.edu/dept/cacm-ads.96-03.html
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created March 3, 1999 last revised February 11, 2003 |
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| For more information, please contact Henry M. Walker at walker@cs.grinnell.edu. |