I read recently that there are shortages of professors in Canada, to quote:

"Universities need to increase their masters and doctoral students by 35 per cent in the next decade if Canada wants to avoid a crippling shortage in highly educated employees, including professors, warns a national post-secondary education group."

Link is here.

Do you know whether this is true? Are there developed countries that have shortages of professors, and in which fields? It would be helpful to me and to others on this forum if you could share such information. I had also heard that shortages were reported in the USA, but it seems from anecdotes and from this article I read that it is not so.

Please share any shortages you hear about and in which fields.

This relates to shortages in the business discipline

According to the Doctoral Faculty Commission (DFC)by 2012, the commission estimates a shortage of more than 2,400 doctoral business faculty members. Those numbers do not represent the worst-case scenarios put forth, which estimated shortages of 3,043 and 5,689 for 2007 and 2012, respectively.

According to the DFC report, inaction will lead to the following grim consequences:

• Business doctoral production will fail to meet the growing global demand.
• All business faculty – research and teaching – will be increasingly burdened by teaching and service requirements and will be forced to concentrate less on their research mission.
• A smaller percentage of business faculty will successfully meet the research requirements for tenure in research-based universities because of the diversions away from research, leading to even higher percentages of non-tenure track faculty.
• Business school faculties, already comprised of about 50 percent part-timers, will further increase their percentage of adjunct faculty.
• The quality of learning by business students will suffer with the erosion of the research mission of the business professoriate.
• The respectability of business schools in academia will decline because of their reduced research activities and contributions to scholarship.

According to a recent report 34,000 new professors will have to be recruited in the first major hiring program since the 1970s. Experts predict a similar hiring surge in Florida, Texas and Arizona, where there is also rapid enrollment growth. This is attibuted towards the 'greying' of professors in the U.S. According to a study released in August by UCLA, 32 percent of faculty members at the nation's two- and four-year colleges are 55 or older.

Indeed this is a wonderful time to consider getting into doctoral programs, and plan a future as an academic.

I believe the shortages, at least in the United States, are overstated. Granted, my evidence is mostly anecdotal. Certainly there are retirements that open up new positions. Two major issues though: Number one is the recession from hell. I heard on the news today that Harvard University has lost 30% of its endowment die to the economic downturn (plus some profligate spending too!!) Another version of this story is found at this link.

The point is that many schools have taken great hits to their endowments and from cuts in state funding as well. This has resulted in hiring freezes (including Harvard), which will last for a few years, depending on quickly the economy recovers.

Secondly, most university professors do not have a retirement age. 55 year old professors still have perhaps 20 or even 30 years to go, especially since their retirement accounts have taken major hits. Therefore, in my book, these shortages will not be as plentiful as projected.