“An Irish Independent article, ‘Education chief hits attitude of arts academics’, citing comments from the new head of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), has caused quite a furore amongst Irish academics, especially those already outraged by the recent revision of the Employment Control Framework (#ecf11), which imposes stringent measures by the state on hiring and firing within universities …” (more)
[The Norman Wyse Commentary, 20 March]
“New RIA Report – Key Performance Indicators to Research in Arts and Humanities disciplines http://www.ria.ie/Our-Work/Policy.aspx” (tweet)
[Royal Irish Academy, 28 February]
“… Politics got us to this point in the first place. By politics, I mean two things. First, the state continually exerts more and more control over higher education in America. Whereas once ninety percent of higher education was private, today state-governed educational institutions now educate over three fourths of all students in America. This trend means that the humanities are largely government-controlled, and state universities cannot defend the humanities using particular metaphysical foundations. Second, as a result of the first point, faculty end up looking to particular political justifications for the humanities …” (more)
[Perry L Glanzer, Minding the Campus, 27 February]
“A new blue-ribbon commission has been assembled in a bid to put the humanities and social sciences on an equal footing on the public agenda with science, technology, engineering and mathematics …” (more)
[Dan Berrett, University World News, 27 February]
“In the context of only one of the debates that has been provoked by the Con-Dem Government’s vandalism of everything we all hold dear (there urgently need to be more debates about more of the vandalism, including the scrapping of free swimming for children and the elderly, the scrapping of ‘book start’ to encourage a love of reading …)” (more)
[Cultural Studies, 12 January]
“Speak to anyone working in the humanities within academia right now and you will hear that this country is about to enter a new Dark Age. The reason lies in the coalition government’s decision to impose swingeing cuts on almost all departments …” (more)
[HT: Tom Byrne]
[Alain de Botton, BBC News Magazine, 7 January]
“I am writing a piece at the moment on whether it is possible, or indeed even wise to start a journal in the humanities that has a similar market profile as Nature‚ the critical and popular science journal …” (more)
[Christopher Pressler, Exquisite Life, 22 December]
“A group of scholars at the Freie Universität in Berlin is distributing via E-mail and their website alarming information about downsizing of the EU research funding in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The EU is currently drawing up its 8th framework program, in which it decides how to allocate its money …” (more)
[Ingrid Robeyns, Crooked Timber, 13 December]
“As Ireland faces up to its economic failings after a $111 billion European Union bailout was finalized this week, it must gather strength from its literary and artistic tradition to pull itself back from the brink, academics have argued …” (more)
[Hannah Fearn, Inside Higher Ed, 2 December]
“Drew Gilpin Faust does a reasonably good job of defending the study of the humanities in this brief interview, especially after interviewer Tamron Hall’s second question puts the concepts of ‘critical thinking’ and ‘imagination’ on the table. But I have to say that the whole thing gets off to a false start — no, wait, hold the phone, make that two false starts …” (more)
[Michael Bérubé, Crooked Timber, 16 November]
“… But what can be done? We cannot force students to choose courses they don’t want to study, and research funding models are unlikely to change dramatically. But there are things we can do. We can point to the significant social (and even economic) need for expertise in humanities subjects …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 10 November]
“David Willetts announced today the phasing out of Humanities funding and, to show how ridiculous an idea this is, I’m going to focus on a meeting I attended where it was quite clear businesses do not seem to understand education …” (more)
[Politicrit, 26 October]
“… Over at Larvatus Prodeo, Mark has written a piece that riffs on two arguments (one Australian, one American) that boil down to the following: the humanities are being driven headlong out of the university in favour of the sciences and the professions. This driving varies in its severity depending on how wealthy the university in question happens to be, whether it is wholly state-funded or can fall back on private resources and endowments, and whether it is entrepreneurial. Both in the post and the thread there is much talk of research and research targets, and whether and how humanities research can get its mojo back …” (more)
[Skepticlawyer, 24 October]
“One of my favourite reads online is the journal First Monday, one of the first openly accessible, peer–reviewed journals on the Internet, solely devoted to the Internet …” (more)
[Eoin O’Dell, Cearta, 20 October]
“The Conservatives, along with their consistency-free Lib Dem allies, are to preside over the greatest assault on the arts and humanities in the history of modern Britain. Lord Browne’s review paves the way to the privatisation of higher education …” (more)
[Priyamvada Gopal, Guardian, 18 October]
“It has by now become received wisdom: college students today are less interested in traditional subjects, and have become more professionally oriented. They’ve voted with their feet, choosing business, pre-med, and engineering majors over German, art history, or comparative literature. Clearly, it’s in the zeitgeist. Unfortunately for humanities professors, however, lower enrollment can translate into the elimination of entire departments …” (more)
[Dan Edelstein, Inside Higher Ed, 14 October]
“In a response to last week’s column on ‘Howl’, the movie about Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem, Charlie from Binghamton asked, ‘What happened to public investment in the humanities and the belief that the humanities enhanced our culture, our society, our humanity?’ And he speculated that it ‘will be a sad, sad day if and when we allow the humanities to collapse’. What he didn’t know at the time is that it had already happened …” (more)
[Stanley Fish, New York Times, 11 October]
“… This current Report underlines the significant role that the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) play in our economy and society both directly and indirectly. It recognises that while the AHSS provide skills for specific economically important occupations and sectors, they also enhance quality of life generally and help to make Ireland an attractive place in which to live and do business …” (PDF, 7Mb)
[IRCHSS and HEA, 29 September]
“Study shows wealthiest students dominate humanities and academics fear tuition fee rises will deepen problem …” (more)
[Jessica Shepherd, Guardian, 26 September]
“Economic recovery will be encouraged by successfully promoting the country’s strength in areas such as the arts and humanities, according to a report published today. The study, conducted by the Higher Education Authority and the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, calls for more cooperation at third level between arts and the sciences …” (more)
[RTÉ News, 24 September]
Ninth Level Ireland 