Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities

Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned.

Universities’ finances are so precarious that redundancies are also occurring in business studies, law and English – subjects considered strategically important and traditionally popular courses.

Analysis of the latest official data by the academy for the Guardian shows that nearly 4,000 academic posts in social sciences, humanities and the arts have been axed in one year alone. In the 12 months to December 2024, just under 3,000 social sciences, 820 humanities and 240 arts jobs went.

All but 110 were in non-Russell Group universities, reducing student choice and potentially exacerbating inequalities.

Hetan Shah, the chief executive of the British Academy, said: “This is not just a crisis for higher education – it is a crisis for social mobility, young people’s careers, the skills our economy depends on and the opportunities available in communities across the UK.

“Universities have been forced to scale back subjects across the humanities, social sciences and the arts for years, but the latest data shows the problem is now extending to subjects such as English and business and increasingly affecting Russell Group universities too.”

The subjects with the biggest staff cuts were social work (-9%), English and classics (both -8%), anthropology (-7%) and linguistics (-6%).

Experts raised the alarm that business and management (which also includes accounting, finance, hospitality and tourism, HR management and marketing) lost the most academic posts, with 930 job cuts, a drop of 5% in a single year.

Education and social work together had nearly 1,000 job losses, English 440, media and journalism 235, performing arts 230, languages 225 and law 215.

The British Academy’s analysis also found that regional cold spots were accelerating, and some subjects were now virtually impossible to access at less selective universities.

Students with lower predicted grades cannot study theology in many parts of the UK, while classics is not available outside the Russell Group in north and south-west England.

There are very few language degrees with below average entry requirements in south-west, north and east England and the East Midlands. Language staff cuts and course closures were concentrated in south-east England, the analysis found.

With more than 1,000 further job losses proposed at Russell Group universities, including Exeter, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow, these cold spots will only increase.

“Universities will be central to achieving the regional growth aspirations of our new prime minister, but they are suffering a major financial emergency,” Shah said.

“The result is greater inequalities, fewer opportunities for students and the gradual erosion of the world-leading research our economy, democracy and global standing rely on.

“The alarm bells are ringing, and policymakers should treat these findings as a wake-up call before more lasting damage is done.”

Justine Greening, the former Conservative education secretary who made social mobility in education a priority while in office, said: “Having a range of university courses accessible to a wide range of students from all backgrounds is essential for social mobility, especially for students now staying closer to home to do their degree, due to cost of living pressures.

“While courses respond to changing student demand, universities need to take real care that cuts avoid having a detrimental impact on choices for students from more deprived backgrounds.”

Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said: “Humanities are being extinguished by university bosses across the country, and we are now rapidly heading towards a situation where academic institutions as we’ve known them for centuries will no longer exist. What kind of legacy is that for a government meant to be reversing national decline?

“We desperately need to see a different approach from the new prime minister, with an emergency rescue package to stop the death-rattle of Britain’s great universities.”

Vivienne Stern, the chief executive of Universities UK, which represents 142 institutions, said financial pressures were forcing universities into difficult decisions.

But she added: “We should be collectively concerned about a reduction in the pipeline of humanities graduates and the cold spots in knowledge it creates. In an age of AI, we’ll value the understanding of how humans think and act more, not less, in the future.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Universities are independent from government and are responsible for managing their own finances, but we are committed to creating a secure future for our world-leading universities so they can deliver for students, taxpayers and the economy.

“We have taken action to put the sector on a secure financial footing, including raising the maximum cap on tuition fees annually and refocusing the Office for Students to support universities’ financial stability.

“Through our ambitious reforms announced in the post-16 education and skills white paper we will restore universities as engines of growth, aspiration and opportunity.”