Administrators at the University of Hertfordshire are eliminating not just philosophy (as reported last week) from the school, but also undergraduate programs in English Language and Linguistics, English Literature, Creative Writing, and History. The reason given for these cuts is that the programmes are ‘no longer financially viable’. We have been given no other information about the courses, redundancies, or our futures at the University, even though we have requested it. These decisions have been made without staff consultation.  That text is from a petition that has just been launched in an effort to protest the attack on the humanities at Hertfordshire. It continues: These closures follow a longstanding disregard for the Humanities at Hertfordshire, as our School was first merged with Education and then within the year merged again into the School of Creative Arts. At each stage, the University has shown a lack of belief, care, or vision for what a Humanities education is and can be. This sits alongside the removal of Languages as Minors in the Humanities degrees, the closure of many joint programmes, and the absence of meaningful marketing. We were asked last year to redesign our degrees, and we all spent months on this project and were recruiting for them until last week; these courses have not had the chance to run, yet are being cancelled.  While we were told that finances are the reason for the course closures, the Vice Chancellor sent out an email the next day stating that ‘The University remains in a stable financial position, and these decisions are not being taken in response to an immediate financial crisis, but as part of a responsible approach to maintain a strong, focused and sustainable academic portfolio’. We thus question the argument of financial viability. We also question the explicit message that a Humanities education is not ‘strong’ or ‘focused’. You can read (and sign) the full petition here. As of the writing of the post, the petition has 531 signatories.

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