The graduate student experience in the neoliberal academy

Abstract

This commentary discusses graduate student perspectives on the disjuncture between the neoliberal framing of value as pursuit of economic profit and the academic community’s pursuit of knowledge. Declining opportunities and the devaluing of different frames of knowledge and practice in the academy suppress graduate students’ ability to contribute to their chosen fields of study and to create value in novel ways. Our participation as graduate students in the academic community, including organizations such as American Association of University Professors, has been instrumental in articulating the interconnectedness of the systemic consequences that the neoliberal constitution of value has on the campus and community.

Stalling at the starting line: First-generation college students’ debt, economic stressors, and delayed life milestones in professional psychology.

“…Students pursuing graduate and professional degrees own the highest share of student debt in the United States (Delisle, 2014). Graduate students experience unique challenges to financing their education, such as fewer opportunities for federal and state grants (National Center for Education Statistics, 2015) and an overall decline in graduate assistantships (Jordan & Christie, 2017). Debt in graduate psychology education has also been a widely acknowledged concern (e.g., Doran, Reid Marks, et al, 2016; Lantz & Davis, 2017; Pietrantonio & Garriott, 2017; Wilcox et al, 2021).…”