A PUBLIC LETTER FROM QUB HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY STAFF - regarding the recent controversy over the social value of History / Humanities degrees

In this post I include A PUBLIC LETTER FROM QUB HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY STAFF - regarding the recent controversy over the social value of History / Humanities degrees caused by the comments of the QUB vice chancellor, Professor Patrick Johnston. 

This letter has been sent to the Belfast Telegraph. An article containing extracts can be found here: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/…/queens-staff-criticise-…

But we feel it important to publish the letter in its entirety.

7 June 2016

Dear editor

As staff members of the School of History and Anthropology at Queen’s University Belfast, we are writing in response to recent public controversy over the value of our disciplines to society in Northern Ireland, and indeed more broadly. We were disappointed to read in the interview published on 30th May with our vice-chancellor, Professor Patrick Johnston, comments which appeared to question the value of the study of History, and of the humanities subjects more generally. We welcome the subsequent apology made for these remarks, and the vice chancellor’s statement that he has the highest regard for students, colleagues and alumni from History.

At the same time we welcome the opportunity thus raised to discuss the social value of humanities subjects we teach and research. The disciplines of History and Anthropology foster core skills in research, analysis, cultural literacy, critical thinking, communication and persuasion that are valued by a wide range of employers. Our graduates often go on to productive careers in media, heritage, teaching, the civil service, development work and non-governmental organisations, while others find that the skills gained in undergraduate study easily transfer into fields as diverse as software engineering, business management and law. In an uncertain and rapidly changing employment market, we believe the adaptability of our graduates prepares them well for the future.

The School has a long tradition of producing outstanding leaders – including three of the eight departmental ministers in the recently appointed Northern Ireland Executive, and senior figures in organisations such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, ITN and the BBC.

University education is not just about employment skills however. Through our disciplines students gain a critical and sophisticated comprehension of how human societies and cultures work, and how they have changed and how that change has been remembered over time (from the ancient and medieval world to our own period). Through this they acquire understanding of social, political and cultural problems not only within our own society, but internationally. We aim to produce informed and critical global citizens.

The great strength of university education for students lies in learning within an intensive research environment. The School of History and Anthropology is well-known globally for the outstanding quality of its research, covering subjects as diverse as Christianity in the Roman Empire, mathematical thought in 6th-century Ireland, popular song in Stuart England, slave emancipation and black culture in the American South, revolution in modern China, gender relations and religious belief systems and practices from New Guinea to the Scottish Highlands, and the emotional power of flags and emblems in Northern Ireland.

We bring this knowledge into dialogue with society not just through teaching but via collaborations with a large number of bodies, including museums, theatres and galleries, schools and colleges, national and regional government departments and councils, NGOs such as ‘Healing through Remembering’, as well as via the print and broadcast media.

To take this agenda forward and stimulate further discussion, we will be organising, with our colleagues in other disciplines at Queen’s, a public event in the autumn on the social value of the humanities. We deeply appreciate the widespread support voiced by students, alumni and colleagues at home and abroad over the past week, and see this as testament to a shared belief in the value of historical and anthropological enquiry for understanding our past and present.

We look forward to congratulating our graduating students in July and welcoming our new student intake in History and Anthropology in September and seeing them develop as critical thinkers, active citizens and future leaders.

Yours sincerely

Dr Dominic Bryan, Prof. Brian Campbell, Dr Ian Campbell, Dr Evi Chatzipanagiotidou, Dr Marie Coleman, Dr Kieran Connell, Prof. Sean Connolly, Dr John Curran, Dr James Davis, Dr Aglaia De Angeli, Dr Scott Dixon, Dr Elaine Farrell, Prof. Peter Gray, Dr Leonie Hannan, Prof. David Hayton, Dr Andrew Holmes, Dr Zoe Hyman, Dr Martijn Icks, Prof. Lisette Josephides, Dr Brian Kelly, Prof. Liam Kennedy, Dr John Knight, Dr Jon Lanman, Prof. Fiona Magowan, Dr Ashok Malhotra, Prof. Christopher Marsh, Prof. Fearghal McGarry, Dr Ida Milne, Dr Eric Morier-Genoud, Prof. Sean O’Connell, Prof. Mary O’Dowd, Dr Sinead O'Sullivan, Dr Olwen Purdue, Dr Emma Reisz, Dr Paulo Sousa, Dr Antony Stanonis, Dr Alexander Titov, Dr Ioannis Tsioulakis, Dr Katy Turton, Dr Immo Warntjes, Dr Joe Webster, Dr Todd Weir, Prof. David Whitehead.

QUB vice chancellor's comments represent a glimpse of how he regards all Arts and Humanities subjects

Queen's University Belfast vice-chancellor, Professor Patrick Johnston, put his foot in his mouth last Monday (30th May) when he said that 'society doesn't need a 21-year-old who is a sixth century historian' during an interview with the Belfast Telegraph's Rebecca Black. A week after these remarks were recorded, John McCaul Jnr, a 2015 QUB modern history and politics graduate, explains why Professor Johnston's comments represent a glimpse of how he regards all QUB Arts and Humanities subjects.  

QUB vice chancellor since March 2014, Professor Patrick Johnston.

Last Monday, the Belfast Telegraph published the transcript of its interview with QUB vice-chancellor, Professor Patrick Johnston. It is available here. The interviewer, Rebecca Black, begins the conversation by questioning Professor Johnston about his own background in education prior to discussing university funding cuts, corporation tax and the vice-chancellor's salary (£250,000 per annum). 

Given previous cuts to the Department for Employment and Learning budget during the last Assembly mandate, as well as QUB's voluntary redundancy scheme and ongoing Institutional Size and Shape Review 2016, it is unsurprising that the most substantial part of the interview relates to recent past and future cuts to QUB's budget.   

Indeed, it is in response to a question about future cuts that Professor Johnston comments:

"There aren't any more cuts this year. What we have done now through the resizing and reshaping of the university is we looked at every subject area, and the good news is we are not stopping any subjects nor closing any schools. We are amalgamating several schools, because some of them are not large enough in terms of scale."

"We are also stopping single honours sociology and anthropology, but intend to strengthen those subjects by allowing them to partner with other subject areas which actually make their relevance more connected. Society doesn't need a 21-year-old who is a sixth century historian."

"It needs a 21-year-old who really understands how to analyse things, understands the tenets of leadership and contributing to society, who is a thinker and someone who has the potential to help society drive forward. I don't talk about producing graduates, I talk about producing citizens that have the potential for leadership in society." 

The audio clip concerning the above response is accessible here and QUB's clarifying tweet regarding Professor Johnston's remarks is here. 

It is worth noting that, in addition to declaring the uselessness of a 21-year-old sixth century historian to society, Professor Johnston also contradicts himself. The vice chancellor states that 'we [the University Executive Board] are not stopping any subjects...' but still informs the interviewer that 'we are also stopping single honours sociology and anthropology.' Although Professor Johnston notes that 'we intend to strengthen those subjects by allowing them to partner with other subject areas...', the vice-chancellor fails to outline how this will happen and if it will even definitely occur. Moreover, Professor Johnston fails to acknowledge that this plan involves single honours sociology and anthropology being swallowed up by other subject areas and being deprived of their own individual identity. 

In addition to seemingly speaking on behalf of N. Ireland society, Professor Johnston implies that a 21-year-old sixth century historian does NOT know how 'to analyse things', does NOT 'understand the tenets of leadership and contributing to society', who is NOT 'a thinker' and someone who does NOT have 'the potential to help society drive forward.' In other words, for Professor Johnston, 21-year-old sixth century historians are NOT citizens who 'have the potential for leadership in society.'

For me, QUB Students' Union vice-president community, Paul Loughran, is correct in his assertion that Professor Johnston's views represent a slipping of his mask before the general public. Having read previous Professor Johnston interviews with the Belfast Telegraph as well as other newspapers and QUB press releases, it is clear that Professor Johnston prioritises subject areas like medicine (Professor Johnston was Dean of QUB's School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences before becoming vice chancellor), dentistry, engineering and cyber security whilst stigmatising the Arts and Humanities subjects because, as the Save Our Schools- Queen's University Belfast campaign accurately acknowledge, the former subjects have 'a high monetary value.' 


Professor Patrick Johnston's comments represent a glimpse of how he regards all Arts and Humanities subjects, not just history, anthropology and sociology. They demonstrate the utter contempt in which he holds them privately.