Courses in the Social Science division are facing a shortage of graduate student teaching fellows as Harvard’s Ph.D. cohorts have shrunk following the Covid-19 pandemic and amid a general shift away from the humanities and social sciences.
Though the total number of doctoral students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has “remained relatively unchanged,” according to a GSAS report released last year, more students are enrolling in STEM programs, while Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences have seen a steady decrease.
Now, professors in the Social Sciences division told The Crimson that they have struggled to find enough Ph.D. students with relevant expertise to help teach their courses.
Matthew Blackwell, a professor in the government department who teaches Gov 50, faced the challenge of finding enough TFs for his class this fall.
“In Fall 23, our enrollment was around 250, which would have required at least 8 TFs, but the department was only able to provide 5,” Blackwell wrote in an emailed statement.
Edward L. Glaeser, an economics professor and the department chair, faced similar challenges for finding TFs for Ec1011a, a class he taught in the fall.
“Finding teaching assistants for Economics 1011a, which is a hard course, is incredibly difficult,” Glaeser wrote.
“The problem is getting worse, and this year, Economics 1011a had a single teaching fellow for the entire class,” he added.
