UK writers call for retention of English Literary degree

This week, writers including Mark Haddon accused the government of "unfounded prejudice" against the humanities and asked universities not to give up English degrees despite declining applications.

By January 2021, only 7,045 UK students were planning to enroll in English language programs. Compared to 2012, the number of such applicants had dropped by 1/3, according to UCAS. According to experts, this is due to the fact that not many students are studying English at A-level. During the same period, there was a boom in applications for subjects such as computer science, psychology and mathematics.

May 27 University of Cambria said that from September it will not accept students for English language programs because there are too few applicants. But applicants will be helped to find alternative English courses elsewhere. The university's website promises that students will be able to study literature in the Lake District, "whose landscapes have been the inspiration for generations of poets and writers," such as William Wordsworth, Arthur Ransom and Beatrix Potter. The university's location at Ambleside makes it "the only university campus in Britain that is on a Unesco World Heritage Site."

This month, academics at Lester University went on strike to oppose job cuts in the English department. Last summer, Portsmouth University cut more than half of its English department staff. As applications to study English decline each year, academics fear there will be fewer jobs.

Haddon, whose novels include the award-winning The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night, said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is "clearly driven by a completely unfounded prejudice in favor of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] subjects and against the humanities."

Williamson angered many scholars in the humanities when he said in a speech in February that universities should focus on technical fields and filling gaps in the job market "instead of pushing young people into dead-end courses that give them nothing but a mountain of debt."

Haddon, who studied English at Oxford, said Britain "is already poorer" because of the decline in English degrees, English is history, psychology, it's philosophy, languages, sociology, theology. It's about what makes us human."

While English has a value beyond money, Haddon thinks the government has ignored a British Academy study showing that humanities graduates are as easily employed as scientists and mathematicians. The academy found that eight of the 10 fastest-growing sectors employ more humanities and social science graduates than other disciplines.

Haddon said: "You don't have to declare English a special case because of some vague, non-practical, spiritually enhancing quality that business-oriented policymakers are too crude to comprehend. It's a great degree on its own terms."

Patrick Gale, author of 19 novels and the Emmy Award-winning BBC drama "The Man in the Orange Shirt," also stood up for the subject and said English promotes understanding. "If more members of the current cabinet had degrees in English literature, you can be sure that they would not cut our overseas aid budget or so radically underestimate the importance of investing in children whose education has been disrupted by the pandemic."

By Marina Warner, writer and historian, English degrees offer "a vast and rich reservoir of knowledge, insights and experiences from different times." She argues that understanding how people use language to influence others is more important than ever in the age of social media and misinformation, "Shakespearean Iago will teach you a lot about lying and persuasion, about being deceived, misled, deceived by someone's speech."

English scholars say that the decline in applications for the subject is due to a decline in the number of students who want English at A-level. In 2012, English was the most popular, with 90,000 students taking it. But in recent years, that number has plummeted. In the summer of 2021, 57,000 students will be taking English at A-level, according to the latest Ofqual figures, a third fewer than in 2012.

David Duff, chairman of the English Association and professor of Romanticism at Queen Mary University of London: "English is not dying out. It is still the fourth most popular and attracts the brightest students. But it's certainly a complicated statistic."

The English Association and others are analyzing what went wrong. One factor is the influence of parents, who believe former Education Secretary Michael Gove's radical changes to the GCSE English curriculum in 2017 and making the exams more difficult have done the most harm. Says Duff: "Our research shows that GCSE English is the biggest problem that discourages young people from taking A-level English more than any other factor."

Duff also says the government's disproportionate support for STEM at the expense of other subjects has been deeply unhelpful. "They encourage the  reductive narrative that the value of education can be measured by a calculator. The government's rhetoric is dedicated to STEM. But why does it have to be either/or? I took two exams: math and English, and I liked them all."

Alex Thomson, chair of the Department of English Literature at University of Edinburgh and chair of the umbrella group University English, says the government's decision not to count a year of AS study for half-year A-levels has also hit English hard. Previously, when students took AS-level English, many of them went on to take A-level English because they liked it best.

Andrew Miller, author of popular historical novels including Purity, is thrilled that his daughter is going to take the A-level English Literature exam and expects to excel as a result. "STEM subjects are vital, but the humanities are, if not the heart of a serious university, at least one of its ventricles. I believe you can survive with one ventricle, but you won't be healthy."

Joe Grady, general secretary of the University and College Alliance, which is fighting the cuts, said: "If the government continues down this path, we could see one of the biggest raids on the arts and humanities in English universities ever. If courses close, current and prospective students will be at a loss, and brilliant faculty will risk being laid off."

Cambria Vice Chancellor Professor Julie Mennell said that while the university has reluctantly suspended its English enrollment for this September because of low student demand, it is developing new options in literary studies for future years, such as environmental writing. "In a region with such a rich literary heritage, we are absolutely committed to maintaining the English literature offerings for a range of students, young and old."

According to Professor Henrietta O'Connor, who directs the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities University of Leicester, like other UK universities, there is a decline in student demand for English and the problem cannot be ignored:

"Our English curriculum offers students the opportunity to study literature from medieval to modern times; but it is essential that we can manage our resources and activities effectively and efficiently."

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: "Our manifesto commits to raising standards for all students, regardless of what they are learning. High-quality instruction in a range of subjects, including English, is critical to our workforce, our public services, and culturally enriches our society. Progress is key to reform, and we have made it clear that it is not measured by how much graduates earn."

Translations of the article Novelists issue plea to save English degrees as demand slumps from the Guardian.

2022-01-14 07:24:20
© Arina Ordina