“The University of Dundee has announced it plans to cease offering Philosophy as a named degree from 2027. This news has come as a complete shock to students, staff and the wider Scottish community. We, the philosophy community of Dundee, are determined to fight this.” So begins a petition protesting an aspect of the University of Dundee’s administration plan to address a large financial deficit. According to the BBC, “Despite already cutting about 675 jobs through voluntary redundancies, the university said it still needed to make annual savings of about £20m—mostly from staff costs,” so it “has announced plans to cut 190 more jobs.” In addition to the staff cuts, “the institution intends to suspend some degrees in mathematics, languages and philosophy,” reports The Courier. The BBC also notes: “A critical report in June 2025 into the university’s financial collapse led to the resignations of its interim principal Prof Shane O’Neill and two senior members of its governing body.” The petition in support of Dundee’s philosophy degree program lists several reasons for its preservation, among them: Our programme at Dundee is the only Philosophy programme in Scotland (and one of the few remaining in the UK) that specialises in European philosophy in contrast to the other philosophy programmes that specialise in Anglo-American thought. We run the Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy, an internationally renowned centre for Continental Philosophy research, bringing philosophy scholars to Dundee from around the world.   We rank first in Scotland (and 6th in the UK) for student satisfaction in The Complete University Guide 2027. In the Guardian University Guide 2026 we rank 2nd in Scotland and 12th in the UK. In the Times University Rankings 2026, philosophy is rated as 5th in the UK for teaching quality. Philosophy at Dundee is a small and highly cost-effective programme, one which has a disproportionately large positive impact on Scottish students and the wider community. As evidence of the former, we collaborate with Dundee schools to deliver an innovative outreach programme supporting the transition to Secondary School through ‘Localising Philosophy’ (over 2000 pupils worked with to date, and 37 student internships provided). You can read the full petition here. (via Oisín Keohane)

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