Recently, there’s been a lot of controversy and concern about the financial strain facing universities across the country. Anyone that is invested in this will have no doubt have heard that Cardiff University is cutting 400 full-time jobs and stopping degrees including ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology. Coverage has focused mainly on the slashes to the nursing department, and the consequences for Wales as a country. Although this is undeniably important, it is clear that the numerous cuts to humanities departments have gone largely unnoticed in the shadow of this medical travesty.
I present the argument specifically from the perspective of an English Literature student. As the end of the world seems to move closer and closer to us every day, media literacy becomes increasingly important. I’m someone that spends an inordinate amount of time online, and it is clear to me how essential proper comprehension skills really are. There is the argument that studying literature is useless – within the discipline, these criticisms are treated with weary irony. Mentioned sarcastically every few lectures, there is an increasing tension in the awareness of the dangers facing this degree and others similar to it. There have been countless defences of the subject – for as long as people have thought about literature, they have had to defend this interest – but for the most it was accepted as a genuine academic endeavour. Now, with a quarter of UK universities facing cuts, it is clear that the humanities are the most at risk.
Although slightly unrelated, as I was writing I was reminded of an article I had read in The Atlantic about the decrease in students that come to college having habitually read full length novels. Thirty-three professors across elite American institutions had noticed how many students do not arrive at college prepared to read books. This can be explained partially by a higher education system that values variety as opposed to specialised interest, and the increasing demands on young people to match this. However, it is not a secret that young people globally are reading less, for both pleasure and academics. Now, am I guilty of skimming the Wikipedia summary of a particularly dry text minutes before a lecture? Of course, but even still, this reprioritisation of what is considered important in the cultural view is indicative of a worrying trend away from critical thinking and active engagement with the media we consume.
There is an overwhelming cultural tendency to desire quantitative results. Reading a long novel does not appear to offer anything immediate, and although I was promised by a lecturer that reading Middlemarch would make me a better person, that’s a tricky argument in the face of increasing economic strain and an overwhelming lack of secure job options. Young people today are increasingly aware of the difficulties they will face post-university, and universities need to do a better job of encouraging these students that what they do and love matters.