A Forum for Friends of Classics@Leeds

Update June/July 2011

A few months ago, as part of the University review process, Classics put together a detailed case arguing for a potentially greater strategic fit for its subject within the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (SMLC). This case was subsequently endorsed by university management, and the potential for Classics is now being explored within the context of the official review process for SMLC.

This is a very positive development but, as with all subject areas within SMLC, nothing can be ruled in or out at this stage until the review has completed its work. Present uncertainty aside, the Head of Department, Dr. Steven Green, who continues to represent Classics on the working group for the SMLC review, is delighted by the current developments: "I am very much looking forward to working with colleagues in SMLC to explore mutually beneficial collaborative activities on both the research and teaching fronts. Classics shares SMLC's passion for language, literature and culture, and I have no doubt that Classics will prosper at Leeds in the future."

The Department is very appreciative of all the support it has received so far, and would encourage everyone to keep an eye on this blog, and to sign their petition (see below) if you have not already done so.

Further updates will be posted here as the review progresses.

What's happening?

In the context of current government cuts in funding to UK universities, the University of Leeds is going through an ‘economies exercise’. The number of staff in Classics has already been reduced this year, as is likely to be happening in other departments around the country as the implications of the national cuts become clearer.

But the University has also been considering a proposal to remove Classics altogether. This would mean the end of over one hundred years of Classical research and teaching at Leeds. The final decisions on all proposals rests with the University itself and is subject to a University-wide review and consultation.

Our position continues to be that, while we recognise that some restructuring is necessary and even desirable, we do not accept that it is desirable or necessary to destroy popular and healthy degrees in Classical Civilisation (BA) and Classical Studies (MA). Because of the reduction in staffing we are already facing, we have been forced to propose that our degrees in Greek and Latin be discontinued. Our plan would be to maintain our successful 'Fast-Track' course (beginners to A-level standard) in both languages within the Classical Civilisation degree.

Any decision on this proposal is, however, subject to the review. The University has guaranteed that teaching will be safeguarded for all existing students, and for the intakes of September 2010 and September 2011. This means that we will be continuing to offer advanced level Greek and Latin language for at least the next four years. While this is is good news at one level, it does mean that the remaining staff will be under the pressure of increased workloads, a problem which we hope the review will be addressing.

We welcome the review as an opportunity for the Department to find a financially viable way forward - with your help.

What can you do?

We invite you to continue to support our efforts to remind the University of the value of Classics as a subject, the contribution that Classics at Leeds has made both nationally and internationally, and the need to protect the expertise and provision of the only remaining Classics department in Yorkshire.

Please sign our petition

Please write in support of keeping our subject at Leeds

Thanks to those who have already signed and written. We have delivered two tranches of letters to the Vice-Chancellor, along with a digest of comments from the petition. We plan to use further letters and comments to keep up a dialogue with the Vice-Chancellor. Please keep them coming!

Public Support for Classics

There has been quite a bit of support for Classics in the media recently, and especially for the value of learning the ancient languages. Radio 4's Any Questions on 19th November, for example, aired an excellent question and answers on the subject: you can catch it again here (it's the final question of the programme, at c.44 minutes).

Why keep Classics at Leeds?

Why keep Classics at Leeds? For many reasons - not least the opportunities we open up for our graduates. Elton Barker, of one of our former students, has given his perspective in a recent post on his blog (save Classics @ Leeds).

One minor correction, though: it is not quite true to say that "the University of Leeds is seeking to close its department of Classics": that is an option that it is considering. We're asking for your help in making the case that this option would be damaging - to the university, to the region, to the subject nationally and internationally, and to the people who will lose the opportunities that Elton and many others have had.

You may be interested to visit the site of Elton's HESTIA project, and to read the report in his paper 'Mapping an ancient historian in a digital age: the Herodotus Encoded Space-Text-Image Archive (HESTIA)'.

Writing your letter of support

We would like people to write their own personal letters of support, but we understand that it might be useful to offer advice and suggestions on how to go about it.

Your letter will have most impact if it includes the following points:

* why you think Classics should be kept at Leeds
* what you think the consequences of closing Classics at Leeds would be
* why you are personally concerned.

Some important facts on which you might draw are that Classics at Leeds:

* is the only remaining Classics department in Yorkshire and Humberside
* offers 9% of the undergraduate places available for the study of Classics in the UK
* admits around 73 single honours and 30 joint honours students for undergraduate degrees each year
* has around 15 students on the MA degree and 11 studying for a PhD
* ranks 8th among UK universities for the number of taught postgraduates per member of academic staff
* ranks 7th among UK universities for the number of research students per member of academic staff.

Who we are and what we offer:

* a busy and research-active group of scholars who speak and publish regularly in Classical forums both nationally and internationally, with strong representation on professional Classical bodies nationwide
* a vibrant research culture, featuring national and international speakers at regular conferences and seminars hosted by the department
* an online journal publishing scholarly articles
* a strong record of attracting research funding for both individual and major collaborative projects
* a large and lively postgraduate community with their own research seminar and forthcoming conference
* a thriving undergraduate curriculum, with an overall satisfaction rating in the National Student Survey consistently above the Leeds University average for the last three years (87% satisfaction in 2009-10)
* a major contribution to a thriving and diverse Faculty of Arts at Leeds
* regular widening participation activities, bringing the benefits of active engagement with the study of Classics to local schools and individuals.

Sending your letter:

In the letter itself please identify the Vice-Chancellor, Professor M.J.P. Arthur, as the addressee (e.g. ‘Dear Professor Arthur’). BUT we ask you to send your letter direct to us at the Department, using the following address:

Classics@Leeds
Department of Classics
University of Leeds
Leeds
W. Yorks
LS2 9JT

This is so that we can keep track of the volume of letters, and choose the right opportunity to present your letter to the Vice-Chancellor.

Thank you for your support.

Welcome support today from Tony Keen (Open University) via his own blog, Memorabilia Antonina:

"Classics at Leeds under threat"
"... We're already seeing the effects of the recession on Classics, even before this latest round of cuts was announced. The Open University has cut its intermediate Greek course, the University of Glasgow advertised for a post in Classics and then cancelled the search, and proposals were made at King's College London that included the loss of the Chair in Palaeography and two posts in Classical Art/Archaeology.
But the biggest threat so far is at Leeds, where one of the proposals being considered is to abolish the department altogether. I am absolutely flabbergasted that a long-standing institution such as Leeds could consider such a closure. On a personal note, when I was a postgraduate in Manchester, I used to visit Leeds regularly for seminars. I found the staff there to be amongst the most welcoming of departments I've ever encountered; I still enjoy catching up with them at conferences."

Some thoughts from elsewhere.....

I found some interesting comparisons on the website of our partner institution Copenhagen University. There Classical languages, Archaeology,History and Ethnology are combined in the SAXO Institute within the Faculty of Humanities. The range of research interests can be found at http://saxoinstitute.ku.dk/research where one of the themes is "Mediterranean culture and history from the antique world to the present". It links archaeology, history, languages and literature and declares that this research area "is an undeniable foundation for achieving renewed understanding of our own time and cultural group."

There's also a confident tone in Copenhagen's Centre for Canon and Identity Formation in the Earliest Literate Societies. This is in fact based in their disciplines of Egyptology and Assyriology, so at least as "obscure and esoteric" as some might consider Classics, but the describe themselves as follows:

"The project focuses on a range of fundamental aspects of the the intellectual history of man. These include the conceptualization, assembly, canonizing and application of knowledge and how innovation was processed in tradition; how centres and institutions of knowledge were formed, organsed and operated; how social and ethnic identity was defined aqnd expressed in the written media and for what purpose; and what the intellectual response was to political and social changes brought about through cultural encounters."

http://cif.tors.ku.dk/

It seems to me crucial that in writing in support of the future of Classics at Leeds we say that we need to retain the discipline and to say how and why we make a key contribution to the life of the University.

The financial problems caused by funding cuts are of course real and painful. Institutions have to find some way to balance the books. But it's clearly crucial that a university like Leeds which aspires to be considered a world leader works out its financial plans in the context of a considered academic and intellectual long-term strategy. For information on events at King's College London see today's Education Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/mar/23/university-funding-cuts