The next Research Excellence Framework takes place in 2029, with work now underway to create the structures that will determine the form and scope of latest next ‘REF’ assessment. Most recently, the REF2029 steering group has issued a call for applications to join one of the 34 subject panels, including History, whose members will assess submissions in four years’ time. In this post, the Society reviews changes to the appointment method for subject panels, and considers how REF2029's bid for more diverse panel membership sits with the realities of growing inequality of opportunity for historians within UK higher education.

In this post, co-editors Stewart Beale, Andrew Hopper and Ann Hughes introduce their new volume in the Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series: 'The Household Accounts of Robert and Katherine Greville, Lord and Lady Brooke, at Holborn and Warwick, 1640–1649' (December 2024). Robert Greville, 2nd Lord Brooke, was a prominent figure among the aristocratic opposition to Charles I, a religious radical and intellectual who emerged as a successful popular leader in the early months of the English Civil War. This volume publishes the richly detailed household accounts kept for Brooke and then for his widow, Katherine, on an annual basis between 1640 and 1649. These texts make an illuminating source for Brooke’s capacious intellectual, religious, and political networks, and for his mobilisation of popular support for Parliament in 1642.

Last week UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, released its end of cycle data for the 2024 applications round to UK higher education. This release provides information on numbers of applications, offers and accepted applicants for degree subjects, including History. This post highlights selected data for accepted applications in History, in 2024, and for annual cycles since 2019. Trends for the past five years are provided for accepted applicants, with refinement to consider accepted applications by students' age, gender and place of residence. UCAS figures for applications and offers to study History, 2019-2024, are also included for context at the end of the post.