The Royal Historical Society (RHS) today publishes its latest briefing, ‘The Value of History in UK Higher Education and Society’.
‘The Value of History’ draws on the Society’s work with historians in UK higher education during the 2020s.
The briefing highlights a growing divergence between the popularity of history—as a subject of study and public interest—and the security of historians within UK higher education. In many ways, history is in good health. It remains a major degree subject with strong student enrolment. History is likewise prominent in public life. At the same time, the Society is seeing an increasing number of history departments hit by cuts and closures.
One purpose of this briefing is to summarise our data and analysis, based on the Society’s daily engagement with historians. This includes the results of a recent RHS survey of its members who work as academic historians in the UK. These show that the extent and impact of cuts is far greater than the Society’s previous work suggests. The survey also confirms how negative change is concentrated in departments at post-92 universities.
News of cuts in history departments makes for difficult reading. But this is far from being the full story.
History is, and remains, a major subject in UK higher education, while student enrolments for history at GCSE and A-Level are increasing significantly. For those studying history at university, the experience is positive. Having entered the labour market, and contrary to popular rhetoric, history graduates perform strongly in terms of employability and earnings.
By demonstrating these positives, we look to encourage more students to pursue the subject they enjoy, confident that theirs is an informed choice, with clear rewards and opportunities for professional and personal development.
‘The Value of History’ also considers what we risk losing if cuts continue. Cuts are hitting hardest in history departments in post-92 universities. These departments play a distinctive and vital role in maximising the diversity, opportunity and value of history in UK higher education. As departmental opportunities shrink, we risk history becoming more concentrated in selected universities, and increasingly the preserve of students with greater mobility, wealth and family experience of higher education.
Copies of ‘The Value of History in UK Higher Education and Society’ are available to download under a Creative Commons licence: (CC BY-NC 4.0)
The tables and charts within the briefing are also available for separate download and use.
In addition, the Society’s new briefing is available in a browsable format, below:
‘The Value of History’ also signals an enhanced role for the Royal Historical Society as a champion of history and historical understanding in its many manifestations. This, of course, extends well beyond higher education. Future work will therefore consider intersections between academic and public historians, the public appetite for the past, and history’s contribution to civic and national life.
This work will greatly benefit from the experience and talents of the historical community. Please get in touch if you would like to comment on specific aspects of the text and / or to propose further approaches to demonstrating the value of history: academic.director@royalhistsoc.org.