Humanities

Expert views conflict on humanities graduates’ employment prospects, and whether Australian funding changes will make arts the preserve of the elite

The economics are murky but the damage that closing departments will do to universities’ missions is crystal clear, says Peter Tregear

Critics underestimated the human imagination’s capacity to render concepts flexible, says Frank Furedi

Latin American university leaders tell THE summit that countries will need skills of non-science graduates as they recover from coronavirus

Scholars put the case for experts in philosophy, narrative, literature and culture to work along the scientists in fighting Covid-19

While Australia’s fee and subsidy reshuffle favours job-growth areas, student and institutional recalcitrance may blunt its impact

Government’s proposals are contradictory and will torpedo its jobs agenda, humanities lobby warns

In contrast to other countries, philosophers, historians, theologians and jurists have played a major role advising the state as it seeks to loosen restrictions

Research centre meant to support ‘politically useful ideas’ such as Orbán’s claim of Turkic ancestry for nation as government pivots away from EU, scholars claim

We should not be apologising for the way the humanities have been used in the Trump era, but striving to harness their force, says Sara Guyer

Even as medics scramble to address the coronavirus, research into its social and political entanglements is vital, says Robert Peckham 

The humanities can embrace certain forms of vocationalism without betraying their essential nature and value, argues Kevin Vanzant

Prince Andrew’s fall from grace a full decade after Jeffrey Epstein’s conviction underlines academia’s failure to probe modern power, says Jason Lee

Ever since it emerged from English departments in the 1970s, media studies has been routinely dismissed as the archetypal ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree. But in an era of fake news and media hegemony, has this multifaceted subject finally found its place in the zeitgeist?

New Social Democrat administration drops annual 2 per cent saving target, but could end teaching subsidy for humanities and social sciences

Funding scholarships rather than a whole new course ‘would benefit hundreds more students’

Lennard Davis’ recent THE article was wrong to dismiss the utility of subversion, says David Palumbo-Liu

There have been big declines in the proportion of humanities and social science papers published in Norwegian, conference told

Conference on subject area’s future hears warnings against making it mere ‘problem-solving for the sciences and engineering’

Agreement with controversial Ramsay Centre follows divisive internal debate

As in the UK and the US, universities face questions about whether their curricula feature enough non-white voices

The Pulitzer winner discusses the lack of national alarm over the lives of black communities in the US and how art can help Americans overcome barriers of race

Several years on from Rhodes Must Fall, the hoped-for revolution in South African university teaching has not happened, says Saloshna Vandeyar

Efforts to make college cheaper should not detract from attempts to improve the other side of the value-for-money equation, says Kevin Vanzant

‘Pockets of excellence’ in non-Russell Group institutions could be emptied, some fear

The New Education Policy breaks with India’s post-independence preference for vocational avenues of upward mobility, says Saikat Majumdar

The conservator of threatened language explains why two people are as important as 2 billion, from a linguistics point of view

Consumerism, technology and the culture wars threaten to render critical thinking an unwanted skill, worries Victor Ferrall

Book of the week: Robert Eaglestone praises a dazzlingly wide-ranging analysis of the choices we don’t make

Australian university says board of studies veto does not directly affect approval process

Stanford University’s insistence that its press break even is another bleak milestone in corporatisation, says David Palumbo-Liu

The expert on ancient Syria was forced to flee his homeland – but has been able to continue his work thanks to a German scholarship

Apparent moves to increase university autonomy will have the opposite effect given the government’s authoritarian tendencies, says Jarosław Płuciennik

Controversial course proposals a test for governance, opponents say

Agreement that EU research funding should continue to be distributed according to quality is an important step forward, writes Jan Palmowski

University of Queensland signals enthusiasm to proceed with Ramsay Centre-funded courses

Experts say university council should intervene in Western civilisation degree row

University insists resolution will not affect plans for ‘Western civilisation’ course

College of Arts and Law tells scholars to spend more time on grant applications as quality-related funding dwindles

Australian university releases details of curriculum for philanthropically funded degree

Narratives of decline fail to take account of the recent revival of the liberal arts in India, says Saikat Majumdar

Ramsay partnership provides ‘a unique opportunity and substantial uplift in funding’, university leadership says

Staff, council and senate at Wollongong ‘did not know talks were under way’

Maintaining a breadth of curricular offerings is crucial if subjects outside the sciences are to retain their attraction in the digital age, says Dean Forbes

Academics staging events on everything from ‘pseudo-death’ to convict ballads claim that public events can often drive future scholarship

Political efforts to silence academic critics are unlikely to end despite clarification that universities are not obliged to ban them, says Pushkar

Asia scholar says continent’s progress in STEM fields has been ‘to the detriment of the social sciences and humanities’

Storm of protest across academia against Simon Birmingham's scuttling of humanities grants worth A$4.2 million (£2.3 million) 

Sydney sets ground rules for controversial Western civilisation programme before talking ‘tin tacks’

Cambridge fellow also calls for arts to be excluded from research excellence framework

The Dutch anthropologist discusses growing up in the sectarian Netherlands, following the hippie trail and whether religious tolerance has a future

Seekers of dispassionate truth may be irritated by the moral passion of the likes of Dostoevsky, Zola and Chekhov, but it is a much stronger influence on public opinion, says David Aberbach  

New Zealand university library vault delivers blast from the past as history and politics come full circle

The EU’s proposal for its next research and innovation funding framework focuses too narrowly on technology, say Gabi Lombardo and Jon Deer

When the alt-right made highly dubious claims about historical Irish slavery, Natalie Zacek realised that a rebuttal from an expert would make no difference

Ramsay Centre insists that negotiations with other institutions are under way

THE Emerging Economies Summit hears senior university leader call for reform to address nation’s graduate employment crisis

Humanities subjects set to be hardest hit by restructure

A lack of intellectual and cultural willingness to open up historical discussions about the UK’s imperial past make it a difficult subject for students and scholars to get to grips with, argues Scott Anthony

If elements of society feel they have no stake in humanities and social science research, their support for it will evaporate, warns Musa al-Gharbi