Rob Townsend, Director of the Washington office of the American Academy of  Arts & Sciences, writes:

Quick note to let you know I’ve posted up another item that philosophers might find of interest—this time on the relationship between funding and time to the humanities PhD (at http://bit.ly/1LqJMc4 ). On average, we find that recent humanities PhDs who relied primarily on personal savings or income take more than a year longer to earn their degrees—almost a year-and-a-half longer than graduates who relied on fellowships and assistantships. The other finding that will be of interest to philosophers is that in comparison to the other disciplines, philosophy PhDs who rely on personal sources of income (including loans and family support) seem to spend more time at the dissertation stage. I hope it will provide some useful data points for discussions about reforming PhDs.

Comments open for readers who have thoughts about this data.