Overcrowded Professions

Abstract

AN 'unemployment' problem which has for years baffled university and State authorities in many countries and has, in some, assumed an aspect of tragic intensity for the individuals immediately concerned and of menace for the community, is dealt with by Prof. W. M. Kotschnig in a valuable survey of the subject recently published*. It is scarcely too much to say that the magnitude of the problem is not yet fully appreciated. Here, in Great Britain, where unemployment of university graduates has been on a relatively small scale, although it has given rise to some anxiety in the case of the teaching profession, it has not been 'in the news', but it has been the subject of intermittent investigation and discussion since 1930, and a series of precautionary and preventive measures were suggested at last year's congress of the National Union of Students. The consideration of any such suggestions will be greatly facilitated by reference to Prof. Kotschnig's lucid account of the conditions of the problem and of solutions attempted in various countries, and his comments, criticisms, and suggestions which are evidently the fruit of close observation and long study. In his “Planless Education” , published in 1935, he gave a preliminary report of the results of the world-wide survey of the situation undertaken in 1932 by International Student Service, Geneva, of which he was formerly general secretary. For the present volume, that report has been revised, brought up to date, amplified, and developed.