PROTECT HIGHER EDUCATION - PROTECT HISTORY AND THE HUMANITIES

We the undersigned are totally opposed to the current threat posed by the Browne report to the future of our university system, and in particular to the discipline of history. We consider the potential for damage to the education and life-chances of future generations to be an issue of the utmost seriousness.

At a time when OECD countries are investing in higher education as a way out of recession, we question the wisdom of withdrawing government funding from most academic subjects at tertiary level and from history in particular. These proposals will not only burden young and more mature students with a future of debt but also be more expensive to the taxpayer in the long term.

We are committed to working with student organisations, vice-chancellors, other learned societies, parents’ groups and others interested in the defence of history, whether academic, public or local, in order to challenge these proposals. We urge the UK government to recognise the humanities and social sciences as a public good and to invest fully in their future rather than leaving them to the vagaries of the market.