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

Analysis by the British Academy found some subjects were now virtually impossible to access at less selective universities. Photograph: Yuri Arcurs/Alamy View image in fullscreen Analysis by the British Academy found some subjects were now virtually impossible to access at less selective universities. Photograph: Yuri Arcurs/Alamy Humanities among degrees being ‘extinguished’ by hard-up universities Exclusive: Experts fear rise in education ‘cold spots’ and social immobility as 4,000 academic posts lost in one year 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.” Business and media at Russell group universities 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. Subjects worst affected by humanities jobs cuts 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