HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: U.S.C. Shelves Plans for Tax LLM Program.

Launching master of law programs in tax seemed like a great idea when employers were confident that there would be a demand for the credential. But the legal market has changed dramatically since then, and the University of Southern California Gould School of Law is backing off a plan to add a tax LL.M. program.

“We started talking about it when things were going great in the legal market,” said Dean Robert Rasmussen. “Quite frankly, the demand was drying up and people coming out of the tax LL.M. program would not have had the same prospects as students coming out with a J.D. from USC. The recession hit, and we just didn’t feel comfortable saying, ‘Please give us $50,000 and a year of your life,’ unless we could improve their job prospects.”

Is this kind of thinking the wave of the future?