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Thematic Article
Working together for English Studies
Jennifer Richards*†
jr970@cam.ac.uk
Abstract
This essay outlines the work that the English Association is doing in support of English Studies, working closely with our sister subject bodies: the Institute of English Studies and University English. It provides a brief introduction to the work that each of us does, and explains how we intersect, working together on advocacy at a time of crisis. It details the support we offer to colleagues in departments at risk, and our shared work analysing student enrolments for English Studies with SUMS Consultancy. It also includes the English Association’s work on GCSE reform, on ‘Skills for the Future’, and on ‘Thinking Forwards’, which celebrates collaboration between academics and teachers, between English and the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) sector, and with other disciplines, including with our nearest neighbours, modern languages, even as we build advocacy for the humanities from within the sciences. This article is published in the thematic collection ‘On recent closures and threats of closure in the Humanities and Social Sciences’, edited by Regenia Gagnier.
Keywords
English StudiesadvocacyGCSE reformskills for the futurecollaboration English Studies, which encompasses literature, language, and creative writing, is going through a tumultuous period, with some colleagues facing one or more rounds of voluntary severance, often followed by redundancy notices, contraction, and restructuring. The impact on the individuals affected has been profound. Colleagues have been placed under unendurable stress, uncertain whether they will still hold a post at the end of an academic year. Some of our most innovative departments no longer exist as we remember them. English Studies may remain one of the larger humanities subjects, but it does so at a time when the humanities overall continue to shrink. The implications of this loss for the economy, including for the fastest growing industry in the UK, the creative industries, worth £124.6 billion GVA (gross value added) to the economy in 2022, according to 2024 government figures, have not been publicly debated.1 Nor has the warning that global challenges cannot be solved with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) alone. ‘It is widely agreed’, argues the Institute of Advanced Study at University College London, ‘that achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals requires the insights, knowledge, and comparative perspectives of Humanities disciplines’.2
The causes of the current turmoil are various and well known: the removal of caps on student numbers, rising operational costs, and, until the Labour government’s Autumn 2024 budget, capped tuition fees in England, as well as a decline in international student numbers, and, perhaps most insidiously of all, a decade of negative and distracting culture wars. To these, we would add the reforms to GCSE English Literature and GCSE English Language, begun in 2013 and in place in 2015, which have damaged the perception of the subject with young people. Our aim in this essay is not to explain the causes of the current difficulties, or to reflect on the future of universities—this is not a philosophical question we can contemplate right now—but to emphasise the work that the English subject bodies are doing together, with brilliant colleagues across the UK, and alongside other subject bodies in the humanities, to advocate for our subjects, amplifying the key messages that Professor Gagnier articulates in her introduction, that SHAPE (social sciences, humanities, and the arts for people and the economy) subjects contribute to the public good, and ‘that students with humanities degrees do get jobs with salaries comparable to those in science, engineering, and health’.
There are others making the case for the humanities. The British Academy’s policy team, who do so much heavy-lifting, collecting data that enables us to tell our stories with confidence, should get a huge round of applause, and so too should Professor Jo Fox, Dean of the School of Advanced Study, leading their Campaign for the Humanities alongside Professor Clare Lees, as well as Vivienne Stern, MBE, an English Literature alumna, and Universities UK Chief Executive. It is the English subject bodies, however, who are doing the work with colleagues in departments. We encourage readers to join us (quite literally!).3
These bodies include the Institute of English Studies, one of the eight Institutes in the School of Advanced Study,4 University English, and the English Association, of which I am chair. These three bodies are united by a shared commitment to our subject in its multiple guises, and a common mission to articulate the value of the study of texts and language—cognitive, epistemological, cultural—as well as the advanced skills of analysis and communication the subject develops in graduates for their future lives (Guillory 2022; Kramnick 2023). We work especially closely in support of HE (higher education) colleagues facing redundancy. We have a practical offer for colleagues in departments at risk. We advise on counterproposals and business plans; we write letters of support; we offer to meet with management teams, and, in the case of the English Association, we have built relationships with Multi-Academy Trusts. This work has been ongoing for the last five years. We also work closely on interpreting data on university admissions, building on the early work of Professor Susan Bruce (Keele University) and Professor Alex Thomson, FEA (University of Edinburgh), both former chairs of University English. Drawing on published data, the English Association can now provide authoritative information on current trends in exam entries and results, and university applications and enrolments. As a result of the work of Professor Thomson, we understand that numerical information on our subject is more complicated than HE data-harvesting companies recognise because of the way that ‘English’ is classified in the data collected from universities by HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency), further complicated by changes to the HE classification of subjects in 2019/20. Official statistics present two challenges. Firstly, they group together what are often quite distinct courses of study, taken by divergent categories of students: for example, ‘English as a Second Language’, growing in appeal as a postgraduate taught course for international students, is aggregated with ‘English Language’, a traditional undergraduate course which has been significantly affected by the deep decline in English Language A-level entries (A-level English Literature is more buoyant). Secondly, about 40 per cent of students studying English are classified under ‘English Studies (non-specific)’, which can include degrees in English Literature, English Language, or a combination of the two.
The consequence is that analysis of sector-level data fails to differentiate the trends in very different areas of English Studies. ‘Headline’ figures such as those used in this chart (Figure 1) from the British Academy’s 2023 report on English Studies (Hopkins et al. 2023: Figure 4) suggest a long-term downward trajectory.
Figure 1.
First degree and ‘other undergraduate’ students in English Studies (aggregate) at higher education institutions 2012–2021 (FPE) (reproduced from Hopkins et al. 2023). Source: HESA Student Data 2012/13–20/21 © Jisc [January 2023].
Data presented in this way can fuel the predictions of terminal decline that management teams in some universities receive from external data companies and consultancies. But aggregated figures mask areas of growth and opportunity, and rarely accurately reflect the subject mix at any one institution, where English Studies may be split across several departments or even faculties. And it also does not tell us what is happening ‘inside’ English Studies. This second chart (Figure 2), produced by Professor Thomson, offers a more nuanced picture.
Figure 2.
Entrants to English Studies undergraduate degrees.
It shows entrants to the English Studies undergraduate degrees broken down by the HESA Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH)-level-three subject groupings, highlighting specific areas of growth in 2022/23, particularly in English Literature and Creative Writing (classified within English Studies by HESA since 2019/20).
In partnership with University English, the Institute of English Studies, and the Universities of Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Reading, all of whom donated to the English Association’s crowdfunding call, we are now working with SUMS Consulting, a not-for-profit membership organisation providing expert consultancy to the HE sector to change data culture, so data analysis is something that happens with us, not to us.5 We are building an interface for analysing the sector data, including English + degrees, on enrolments by region, and institution type; crucially, this includes analysis of degree programme titles to get ‘inside’ the data. Facilitated by University English with its membership of heads of department, we will use SUMS data analysis to enable institutional subject leads to educate their senior management better about the true picture for English in HE, and to construct the most realistic and resilient future strategy for the subject in their institution.
The three English bodies also lead on different, interconnected campaigns, working with their constituencies. The Institute of English Studies advances new initiatives in research and teaching in collaboration with other subject institutes in the School of Advanced Study, and with learned societies (such as the Bibliographical Society) and partners outside higher education institutions (HEIs). It also provides training in advocacy as part of the School of Advanced Study’s Campaign for the Humanities. University English supports departments across the UK by promoting student recruitment, by providing fora for sharing expertise, by creating a national network of HE subject leads, and by drawing on grassroots inspiration for events.6 In 2023–4, University English launched its #EnglishCreates campaign as part of broader advocacy for the value of English. This campaign, convened by Professor Andrew McRae (Exeter), is aimed primarily at 16–18-year-olds, their teachers, and supporters.7 The campaign material focuses on employability, making use of the British Academy’s excellent Skills and English Studies reports, and alumni stories. In 2024, this was shared with thousands of schools and individual teachers, backed up with a well-attended week of events in June, and a social media campaign. In 2025, #EnglishCreates will be focusing on the impact of English beyond the academy, which will draw on the applied research of colleagues throughout the sector, building on the ‘Speaking for English’ series, launched by the English Association, which drew on the REF2021 database of impact case studies.8 The aim is to show applicants, their teachers, and families that English is a vital part of an effective contemporary response to the global challenges we currently face, as well as—just as importantly—a profoundly enjoyable subject.
The English Association, which was founded in 1906, and incorporated by Royal Charter in 2006, has a unique role because we represent English Studies across all four educational sectors: primary, secondary, and further, as well as higher education. This matters because, as noted above, some of the recent HE challenges begin in earlier years education, so it is imperative we also work with teachers, subject leads, and exam boards. The English Association is one of many bodies campaigning to reform GCSE English Literature and GCSE English Language, the root cause of the decline in students opting to take the A-level. Even though in 2024 we saw an incremental increase (5 per cent) of those sitting English A-level, the total remains around 15 per cent lower than in 2018. Overall entries have fallen by more than 30 per cent since 2013. The English Association’s analysis shows that the proportion of students taking A-level who choose to go on to an English degree has remained stable: that is, the degree remains just as attractive to those students with experience of the subject beyond GCSE.
Concern about the GCSEs was first raised in 2017 with the Department for Education by the Common English Forum (CEF), a cross-sector body representing English, supported by the English Association. In 2023–4, Professor Robert Eaglestone, FEA, the English Association’s lead for Cross-sector Educational Policy, and current chair of CEF, convened a working group with English Association and University English colleagues and other stakeholders to understand why GCSE provision for English is not fit for purpose. It was agreed that the curricula in both English Literature and English Language have become increasingly narrow and driven by assessment. Both have turned to forms of teaching promoted by Ofsted and the Department for Education, which rely on direct instruction and scripted lessons, which are not suited to English and do not lead to success in assessment.9 GCSE English Language especially has become incoherent and bears little resemblance to the subject at A-level or in higher education (HE). The lack of study of media, digital, and other non-literary texts in English Language, and the removal of Spoken Language Study, as well as the less diverse selection of literary texts studied for English Literature, mean that these ‘GCSEs do not engage with the students’ identities or our increasingly diverse global world’.10 On 25 September 2024, in collaboration with the Education team at Shakespeare’s Globe, Dr Rebecca Fisher (CEO of the English Association), and Professor Eaglestone, the English Association hosted the first national GCSE English Summit, which was attended by over a hundred English teachers, subject leads, academics, policymakers, members of national organisations and exam boards, and other stakeholders. A report on the event, outlining the discussion, the points of agreement (and also disagreement), plus recommendations, is available on our website.11 Following this, the English Association then worked with stakeholders and practitioners to respond to the Government’s Curriculum and Assessment Reform inquiry. With the UK Literacy Association (UKLA) we agreed to submit a similar response focused on primary education reform. The first collaborative Primary Education Summit was hosted by the English Association and UKLA on 28 November 2024.
Working with its fellows and members, the English Association is joining up the different educational sectors of English to support joint advocacy, and also to grow our subject. The key areas we are focussing on, each one led by an expert fellow/member, are: oracy, data and AI, skills and careers, and collaboration. ‘Skills for the Future’, led by Professor Cathy Shrank, FEA (University of Sheffield), is the most developed of these, and will create new recruitment materials with students, teachers, and academics, to share in 2025. On our website, you can find the stories Cathy has already collected from those who are studying or who have studied English, from GCSE to PhD, about the skills they have acquired, and how they use them every day, adding subject-specific nuance and personal testimony to the graduate-level statistics collected by the British Academy.12 Here are some excerpts:
[Studying English] has helped me to extend my thinking and comprehension generally, and be able to see the world on a bigger scope, then translate that into words and show it to other people. (GCSE student)
I tutor English to GCSE students and this summer a parent said to me ‘you tutoring her in English helped her in every single exam. She could better understand the questions asked of her and better formulate answers for them in every single subject because of the help you gave her in English’. (MA student, Language & Literature)
Studying English has really helped me in my experience of work for a small business. (PGR student, Literature)
My English degree [BA English Literature] helped me succeed in my accountancy exams. The ability to absorb information quickly, analyse what matters and conclude succinctly was developed on my degree. I learned to see both sides of an argument, understand multiple perspectives, and cope with ambiguity. (Steven, Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Equistone, the European Private Equity firm)
All my roles at Parliament or in the Civil Service have been at arm’s length from Government, which means I have spent my time examining and evaluating government policy. Studying English allowed me to develop the habit of independent and rigorous thought necessary to undertake this kind of work. It also gave me a toolbox of skills to use, including the ability to analyse documents closely, follow and assess arguments, identify patterns, compare and contrast different texts, and draw my own evidence-based conclusions. Graduate research helped me develop these skills further and add new ones, including project management, strategic long-term thinking, long-form drafting and the ability to present arguments clearly to non-expert audiences. By teaching during my PhD [2021], I developed skills in delivering feedback and providing pastoral care that I have used as a line manager. (Jillian, Civil Service, Senior Advisor to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry.)
In 2024, the English Association launched a new series on collaboration, titled ‘Thinking Forwards’. We want to understand and celebrate all kinds of collaboration: between academics and teachers, between academics and the cultural sector, and with other disciplines, including with our nearest neighbours, modern languages. Cross-disciplinary collaboration is especially important right now for a host of reasons, but a key one is the recognition that global (and local) challenges cannot be addressed by STEM alone. There is also a pragmatic purpose, when so many departments are being restructured, and when joint degrees, English + (French/German/Italian/ Classics, etc.), which are growing in popularity, may not just save subjects, but also broaden the challenges we can address at a time of global crisis. In October, we hosted a conversation with colleagues from modern languages at Newcastle University who have pioneered an inclusive pedagogy with students for addressing problems, small and large, by bringing multidisciplinary perspectives to the table: ‘Challenge Labs’. Equally important are the STEM–SHAPE collaborations that we are profiling, building advocacy for the humanities from within STEM. We are interviewing neuroscientists, biologists, psychologists, neurologists, and software engineers, asking them why they want to work with us. In our very first STEM–SHAPE interview in June 2024, we heard from Professor Jon Simons, a neuroscientist at Cambridge, who is working with Professor Raphael Lyne (English Literature, Cambridge), Professor Alex Walsham, FBA (History, Cambridge), and Professor Charles Fernyhough (Psychology, Durham) on a project funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on memory. Professor Simons told us that, despite the advances in cognitive neuroscience, scientists who want to understand the subjective experience of memory need to work with humanities scholars.13 With the Institute of English Studies and the School of Advanced Study, we will broaden this series as part of our collective work advocating for the humanities. We look forward to contributing to the British Academy’s Connected Knowledge theme.
The English subject bodies are working hard to protect and future-proof our subject and save jobs. Is it enough? The truth is we don’t know. Though there have been some small wins over the last few years, there have many more losses, and these remain very difficult times. To underscore the challenge ahead, at the time of writing the National Literacy Trust published its 2024 report on children’s and young people’s reading, based on their Annual Literacy Survey. The headline is that ‘just 1 in 3 (34.6 per cent) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoyed reading in their free time’, which ‘is by far the lowest level of reading enjoyment [the Trust] have recorded since [they] began measuring this metric in 2005’. We should all be worried by this. It is not just that ‘national cohort studies have found that the positive influence of reading enjoyment on young people’s cognitive development was greater than that of having a degree-educated parent’,14 but that, as the respondents to our ‘Future of Skills’ theme show us, English is a facilitating subject in the profoundest sense: it supports not only the study of other subjects—after all, maths students need advanced reading skills too—but many different career paths. We have never needed a national strategy for English language and literature more urgently than now, or indeed, for all of the humanities.
Acknowledgements
This essay was written in collaboration with the colleagues whose work it represents: Dr Rebecca Fisher (CEO of the English Association); Katherine Baxter, FEA (Chair of the English Association’s HE Committee, Deputy Faculty PVC, Northumbria University); Robert Eaglestone, FEA (English Association lead on cross-sector educational policy, Professor of English, University of Royal Holloway); Cathy Shrank, FEA (Professor of English, University of Sheffield); Alex Thomson, FEA (Deputy Chair of the English Association, Professor of Modern Literature and Critical Theory, and Head of the School of Literatures, Languages, Cultures, University of Edinburgh); Gail Marshall, FEA (Chair of University English, Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture and Head of the School of Humanities, University of Reading); Ben Davies (Secretary of University English, Associate Professor in Literature and Culture, University of Portsmouth, and Research Fellow Institute of English Studies); Clare Lees, FEA (Director of Institute of English Studies, and Vice Dean, School of Advanced Study).
References
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HopkinsE., AsinS., CowanS., McKenzieC. & ThornboroughJ. (2023), ‘English studies provision in UK higher education’, British Academy. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/ publications/english-studies-provision-uk-higher-education/
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1
‘DCMS Sectors Economic Estimates Gross Value Added 2022 (provisional)’, GOV.UK, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dcms-and-digital-sector-gva-2022-provisional/dcms-sectors-economic-estimates-gross-value-added-2022-provisional
2
‘The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Contributions from the Humanities’, UCL, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/research/un-sustainable-development-goals-sdgs-contributions-humanities
3
‘Join the EA’, The English Association, https://englishassociation.ac.uk/join-the-ea/
4
See School of Advanced Study, University of London, https://www.sas.ac.uk/
5
Higher Education Consultancy, Sums Consulting, https://sums.ac.uk/
6
See University English, https://universityenglish.ac.uk
7
‘#EnglishCreates’, University English, https://universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreates/
8
Speaking for English in UK Higher Education, The English Association, https://englishassociation.ac.uk/speaking-for-english-in-uk-higher-education/
9
10
11
12
‘Skills for the Future of English’, The English Association, https://englishassociation.ac.uk/skills-for-the-future-of-english/
13
‘Thinking Forwards: Collaboration | English and Neuroscience’, The English Association, https://englishassociation.ac.uk/thinking-forwards-collaboration-english-and-neuroscience/
14
Cite
DOI: 10.5871/jba/013.a08
Published on: 20 March 2025
Volume: 13
Issue: Issue 1
Article view count: 258
Article download count: 12
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© The author(s) 2025. This is an open access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International LicenseCite this article
Richards, J. (2025), ‘Working together for English Studies’, Journal of the British Academy, 13(1): a08 https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/013.a08Crossref
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Received
October 2022
Accepted
May 2023
Published
July 2023
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