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Humanities Majors Collapsing as Students Face Pressure to Choose Lucrative Careers

By Egleze Editorial Desk · Published July 13, 2026 · Big Think · A philosopher’s argument against the cult of achievement | Zena Hitz: Full Interview
Humanities Majors Collapsing as Students Face Pressure to Choose Lucrative Careers
Big Think
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A philosopher’s argument against the cult of achievement | Zena Hitz: Full Interview

What was said

"In 2015, which was when was being written about, it was beginning to be noticed that contemporary colleges and universities, the study of the humanities was collapsing. So numbers of majors are down, departments are closing. And there's a loss in the common culture of the sense of why these kinds of study matter."

Hitz documents the crisis in humanities education across US colleges and universities, with declining enrollment numbers and department closures. She attributes this to intense pressure on young people to pursue pragmatic degrees that promise lucrative or prestigious jobs, threatening the disappearance of philosophy, literature, and political theory from both academic institutions and common culture.

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Attributed speaker claim

Egleze verified who said this and where. The underlying claim has not been independently established by Egleze.

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Egleze verified who said this and where. The underlying claim has not been independently established by Egleze.

Programme
Big Think
Episode
A philosopher’s argument against the cult of achievement | Zena Hitz: Full Interview
Clip time
5:51
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Big Think
Big Think

A philosopher’s argument against the cult of achievement | Zena Hitz: Full Interview

July 10, 2026 · 48m · 4 Egleze moments
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