Preliminary data from the NSF indicate that COVID-19 hit Ph.D. production hard in 2021, but job-placement data are surprisingly rosy—just not in academe. Newly available data from the National Science Foundation suggest that the first full year of the pandemic had a major, negative impact on graduate students’ ability to finish their Ph.D.s. The NSF’s full Survey of Earned Doctorates report isn’t expected until December, and it will include fresh findings on how COVID-19 affected doctorate recipients’ graduate school experiences and postgraduation plans. But according to preliminary data out this week, the number of doctorates awarded in the U.S. dropped 5.4 percent between 2020 and 2021, the steepest decline ever for the NSF’s annual census of new Ph.D.s.
