Rising unemployment rates among PhDs gave relevance to a crisis narrative revolving around the assumed oversupply of doctorate holders. The discourse, which originated in established systems of higher education two decades ago, has not been duly tested in the Global South. Taking Tunisia as a case in point, this article probes the validity of the association between high unemployment rates and the oversupply narrative to answer the question of whether Tunisia actually trains more PhDs than necessary. Using quantitative data from national and supranational databases, the state of affair in Tunisia is put into perspective with some neighbouring and OECD countries along four axes: stock and flow of PhDs, student experience, qualification of academic staff and transition to employment. Overall, the paper's main finding discredits the oversupply claim as Tunisia trails in a number of respects but calls for upgrading the static and rather obsolete doctoral training system. Doctorate holders' unemployment is mainly rooted in structural economic and bureaucratic deficiencies as well as a traditional occupational structure that fails to grasp PhDs outside academia. A more exhaustive policy mix is required to streamline the management of doctoral output and address the signs of a degrading research potential.