In 1903, the polymath Harvard University professor William James published a screed decrying the trend toward requiring professors to attain the then-new Ph.D. degree. Researchers may need the degree, James argued, but someone teaching undergraduates should be hired on the basis of their talents and capability to impart knowledge through instruction—skills at best uncorrelated with possessing a doctorate.
The essay’s distinguished author and its arresting title—“The Ph.D. Octopus”—guaranteed it a lasting readership. Its fame persists, even though it had no effect whatsoever. Over the succeeding century, doctoral degrees became an all-but-universal qualification for holding an instructional position in most disciplines—despite any evidence that professors trained as researchers deliver the instructional goods.
