Philosophy at Dundee Saved—In Part, For Now (guest post)

“A small programme with a large international reach has bucked the trend of closures across the arts and humanities.” Over the summer, administration of the University of Dundee announced a plan to cut costs by, among other things, no longer offering students the option of majoring in philosophy. A campaign was launched to save the philosophy program there, and a petition in support of it garnered close to 6000 signatories. As a result of the petition, statements from academic organizations, and the efforts of faculty and students, philosophy at Dundee will continue, as the Philosophy Team at Dundee explains in the following guest post. Thanks to Oisin Keohane for keeping us informed. A Statement from the Philosophy Team at the University of Dundee Philosophy at Dundee will continue. Three joint honours degrees—Art and Philosophy, English and Philosophy, and Philosophy and Psychology—will carry on recruiting, and our plans to develop proposals for new undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in Philosophy and AI have been approved, with support on record from Luciano Floridi and Shannon Vallor. Neither of those things were on the table in June when the proposal to suspend all named philosophy degrees was first announced. The ground shifted because of you. Nearly 6,000 people have signed our petition, including academics at 450 universities in 51 countries, from Harvard to Tokyo, Sydney to Stellenbosch. A small programme with a large international reach has bucked the trend of closures across the arts and humanities. The picture is not all good. The University still intends to suspend single honours Philosophy and multiple joint honours degrees, including Philosophy and Politics, Philosophy and Film, and History and Philosophy, without providing evidence of any clear financial rationale or assessment of the risks. Moreover, Philosophy staff remain at risk of redundancy, and the University is still seeking 154 cuts (in addition to the hundreds they made last year). We want to thank the people who made the difference. As well as Floridi and Vallor, Jack Reynolds and Katrina Mitcheson wrote personally to the University’s management. The British Philosophical Association, the Scots Philosophical Association, the American Philosophical Association, the Australasian Association of Philosophy, the International Federation of Philosophical Societies, the Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy, The British Society..


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https://dailynous.com/2026/08/28/philosophy-at-dundee-saved-in-part-for-now-guest-post/