Academics in Australia have announced Humanities for Life, a new not for profit organisation aiming to champion the value of humanities education. The founders, including Professor Simon Haines, warn that the humanities face a real crisis, marked by falling enrolments and diminishing institutional support. In the United States, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in humanities disciplines fell by 24 per cent between 2012 and 2022 [1]. In Australia and New Zealand, the decline has been similarly stark, with an Australian Historical Association study reporting a 22.9 per cent drop in history student load since 2016, alongside a 10.1 per cent decline in New Zealand [2]. These trends reflect long term shifts across the Anglosphere away from liberal arts subjects and towards narrowly vocational models of higher education.
Universities have often responded by cutting or reshaping humanities programs. Analysis of enrolment driven restructures shows that many programs slated for closure are located in disciplines such as philosophy, languages, literature and history [1]. Policymakers and university leaders have increasingly prioritised STEM and job aligned degrees, sometimes framing the humanities as impractical or economically unproductive. While some institutions have attempted to rebrand humanities courses as training grounds for transferable skills such as critical thinking and communication, these efforts have done little to arrest the broader structural decline.
The crisis extends beyond universities. In the United Kingdom, reports from the Royal Historical Society indicate that dozens of history departments have reduced staff numbers or cut courses since 2020, even as history remains popular in schools and among the general public [3]. Educators have warned that shrinking university provision will narrow pathways for students and weaken the intellectual ecosystem that sustains civic and cultural life.
Humanities for Life has been established in response to these developments. Its provisional mission statement holds that the humanities disciplines, singly and collectively, are facing a real crisis across Australia and the wider Anglosphere, driven by plummeting enrolments and a loss of support from vocationally oriented and rankings and research obsessed university managements. The organisation also emphasises that this crisis has serious implications for schools as well as universities.
In the coming months, Humanities for Life will host public symposiums, workshops and other events designed to renew confidence in the humanities and articulate their enduring public value.
Sources
[1] American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Humanities Indicators: Bachelor’s Degrees in the Humanities, updated 2023. (US enrolment trends and degree decline)
[2] Australian Historical Association, The State of History in Australian Universities, 2022. (Student load decline in Australia and New Zealand)
[3] Royal Historical Society, Race, Ethnicity and Equality in UK History, 2018; and History UK Report, 2023. (UK course closures and departmental contraction)