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.