New School proposal for Humanities disciplines

A proposal to move the three subject departments within the School of Humanities into other existing Schools is being considered to better support them into the future, and preserve their important place in our broad-based University.

Following two recruitment processes for a Head of School for Humanities this year ending without an appointment, a proposal is being explored to realign History, Classics and Philosophy with other academic Schools. This would increase their resilience, while continuing to support excellence in research and teaching in these subjects.

Any changes would be structural only, meaning there would be no changes to any modules and programmes in these departments, and therefore no changes for student. PGR supervision relationships would also be unaffected.

Colleagues in all the departments and executive team within Humanities will be fully engaged with in the coming days and weeks as they will all play an important role in developing the plans.

The choice of School to realign the three subjects with would be based on existing links and opportunities for collaboration. The Schools under consideration are Literature and Languages and Politics, Economics and International Relations, with either all the departments moving to one of these, or being split between the two.

A final proposal will be taken to Council on 22 November for approval. After this, a full formal consultation with colleagues would take place under our Restructuring Procedure, including appropriate engagement with the UCU and Staff Forum.

Professor Gail Marshall therefore remains as temporary Head of School for Humanities until the end of 2023, and so any realignment would take place from 1 January 2024.