The death of tourism scholarship… unless…

Caring for our graduate academy

“…The situation in tourism and hospitality higher education is getting dire. In a recent commentary titled The Death of Tourism Scholarship, K. S. Lee and Benjamin (2023) shined a light onto the questionable trajectory that the tourism and hospitality academy is heading towards. They critiqued the "publish or perish" regime, the questionable strategies academics employ to cope with the rising publishing expectations, and the detriments the "publish or perish" mantra poses to not only our graduate students' experiences, but also the legitimacy of higher education.…”

“…Researchers across domains have documented the prevalence of stress and anxiety impacting academic performance and personal well-being (e.g., Myers et al, 2012;Schmidt & Hansson, 2018), work-life balance (e.g., Benjamin et al, 2017), advisor-advisee dynamics (e.g., Boluk & Miller, 2021), and increased publishing pressures amid the pursuit of a doctoral degree (e.g., Alrawadieh, 2020). Critical commentaries have also emerged, often centering critiques regarding the "publish or perish" rule, the speed of academic publishing, and the deflation of academic knowledge and higher education (e.g., K. S. Lee & Benjamin, 2023). The evidence is skewed pessimistically, and it is therefore incumbent upon us to honestly ask ourselves: should we expect otherwise?…”

“…Graduate students today are put into a production regime, a corporate system with intensified expectations that prioritizes research outputs and productivity over intellectual training and nurturance. The ways in which the academy evaluates academic success does little to emphasize well-being, as the institution of higher education promotes and rewards productivity, and evaluates achievements via the lines of publications where high impact factor scores are valued (Horta & Li, 2023; K. S. Lee & Benjamin, 2023). There are increasingly worrying reports across continents indicating exploitations of graduate students in research and publishing.…”

Dear chef, do you really want a PhD?

“…Programs and institutions chasing accreditations and prestige require employed faculty members to be "academically qualified," which implicitly requires faculty members to possess some form of recognized terminal degree, preferably the Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD). Such credential mandates are evident and have been a subject of great criticism across disciplines, causing some scholars to question whether academia is prioritizing form over substance (e.g., Dostaler & Tomberlin, 2013; K. S. Lee & Benjamin, 2023;Sarrico, 2023).…”