Reflections on History closures

This intervention uses UK university History redundancies as an optic for exploring the broader issue of closures and restructuring in SHAPE (and STEM) subjects. (SHAPE stands for social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy, in contrast to the science, technology and mathematics subjects of STEM). It focuses on four topics. The first is the problematic nature of the data we have to analyse these developments. The second is the financial drivers (including perverse incentives) that shape redundancies and closures. The third is the ‘lumpy’ institutional impact of closures nationally. Finally, the intervention asks how these changes may affect student choice and the wider health of academic disciplines in the UK. This article is published in the thematic collection ‘On recent closures and threats of closure in the Humanities and Social Sciences’, edited by Regenia Gagnier.