• The HDS estimates that in fall 2017 at least 124,000 students were pursuing a graduate degree in humanities departments. Total enrollment in graduate-level humanities courses was almost 400,000 (though students enrolled in more than one course were counted in each course in which they were enrolled).1
• The study estimates that linguistics and religion had the highest average enrollment in graduate courses (just above 93 per department), with anthropology and communication departments not far below that level (around 85 each; Figure 4A). The difference between the average and the median for these and several other disciplines suggests that a handful of very large departments skewed the average upward.
• Anthropology had the largest average number of graduate students per department (an estimated 81.5), by a substantial margin (Figure 4B). Several other disciplines (art history, classical studies, communication, English, linguistics, philosophy, and race/ethnic studies) were in the 54–64 student range, while the other disciplines had considerably lower averages. Folklore had the smallest average number of graduate students per department (6). In only two repeat disciplines—English and LLE—did the survey find a statistically significant decline from 2012 to 2017 in the average number of students per department pursuing graduate study.
• An estimated 78% of full-time, first-year doctoral students received full funding for their studies (Figure 4C). Another 12% received partial funding, and the remaining 10% received none. In departments of history of science, philosophy, and women/gender studies, all full-time, first-year doctoral students received full funding. Departments of race/ethnic studies had the smallest share of such doctoral students receiving full funding (33%) and the largest share receiving no funding (31%).
• Anthropology programs had the largest average number of graduate students providing grading and classroom support (an estimated 14.5 per department employing at least one such assistant; Figure 4D). Departments of communication and race/ethnic studies had the smallest number of graduate students serving in that capacity (3.3). In most humanities disciplines, the estimated average was between four and eight. However, across all the disciplines surveyed, a nonnegligible number of departments granting only bachelor’s degrees used graduate-student labor, which indicates that at least some departments were using graduate students from other disciplines.
• In most humanities disciplines, the estimated average number of graduate students providing grading and classroom support was considerably larger than the number serving as instructors of record for a class of their own.2 The notable exception was philosophy, where an average of 4.6 graduate students per department provided grading support and almost 12 led their own classes. In departments of American studies, communication, English, and LLE, the average number of graduate students serving as the instructor of record was also somewhat larger than the number just grading.

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Endnotes

• 1See Tables 14a, 14b, and 15 in the Appendix, Part A. For disciplines that were included in earlier rounds of the survey, this study does not capture all departments granting degrees in 2017–18, only those still granting degrees in 2017–18. The estimated student count and enrollment total do not reflect those departments that began granting degrees since the year a discipline was first included in the study.
• 2Average calculated over the number of departments reporting that they employed a graduate student in this capacity.