Why are faculty positions in Management Information System (MIS) going down? A few years ago, for every fresh PhD graduate in Management Information System (MIS), there were three open faculty positions. Then the ratio of graduates to positions dwindled to 1:2, then to 1:1.5, later to 4:1. Finally, MIS departments all over started shutting down or being merged into Management, Operations or other departments and today hardly any schools offer a PhD in MIS.

It is possible that there are still many fields where for every PhD graduate there are two, three or more open faculty positions. Are there any areas with faculty shortages these days? Animal Sciences? Genetics? Psychology? Sociology? Wildlife Sciences? Mechanical Engineering? Computer Science? Statistics? Any field at all?
At least for central Europe, the number of faculty positions is definitely going down, but instead there is more money for project-based PhD positions. Unfortunetly these are usually just for three years, a timespan in which, at least in my field, most students are not able to finish. So PhD students employed in a project often become project hoppers or are unemployed towards the end of their PhD.

In general, this development from faculty positions to project-based positions is not all bad, since it requires the PIs and professors to constantly improve. The downside is the time lost for writing grant proposals and the uncertainty if a position will be funded or not.