Save Classics at Royal Holloway
I was shocked to discover yesterday, initially via Twitter, that Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) intends to close its Classics Department, ostensibly to save money. I did my degree in Ancient & Medieval History at RHUL between 1990 – 93, albeit in the History faculty. But we did several modules in the Classics department under Professor Boris Rankov and others. It is a superb department, and I cannot see how RHUL can credibly takes its place next to the great London University colleges without it.
RHUL is an excellent college, one which I am proud to have gone to. Its standards are of the very best in both Arts and Sciences. Founded by entrepreneur Thomas Holloway in 1879 and initially dedicated to educating women, it has a noble tradition and legacy. Queen Victoria herself opened the wonderful Founders Building in 1886. Its students work hard, play hard, drink hard (true!) and many have gone on to reach the heights in their chosen professions; its academic staff in my direct experience are of the highest calibre.
Where RHUL falls short, it seems to me, is in its management. Some of the communications I have had over the years and indeed content on their own website, is laced with modern management-speak. So in that spirit, I shall suggest that in recent times, the powers-that-be at RHUL have failed to “think outside the box”, “not see the bigger picture”, don’t have “the vision thing” and in general display appalling short-termism. They also appear to be unaware of, or don’t care about, the resurgence of Latin in our secondary schools in recent years: the future of Classics is promising indeed.
Faced with a financial dilemma (partially of its own making) in 1993, the college sold three prized paintings from its collection: a Turner, a Constable and a Gainsborough. I forget the sum they pulled in at the time, between £20 and £30 million, I think. One shudders to imagine what they would be worth today! In any case, this is besides the point, the college had no business in selling bequests from its founder. For many, including me, it’s a terrible stain on its reputation.
And now, despite the ability to charge students £9,000 per annum, the college appears to have money troubles once again and the solution this time is to close a faculty of vital importance to its reputation. Short-termism. If you look at the courses that the college offers, you can see that there is little fat there. All proper stuff – no Sociology, for example – hence strengthening my case above as to the excellent credentials of this college academically. So I do understand the dilemma. Nor do I have the balance sheet in front of me. But I do urge Royal Holloway to go back, put their thinking caps on, have a “brain-storm” and come up with a better answer than closing the Classics Department.
Their reputation depends on it.
Read Professor Mary Beard’s take on this here. Please support the campaign by joining SAVE CLASSICS AT ROYAL HOLLOWAY on Facebook, on Twitter as @RHULClassics. There is also a discussion going on at RHUL’s alumni group on LinkedIn.
I shall add to this post as updates become available. Thanks for your support of Classics at Royal Holloway.
There was a time when the management of universities and, later, polytechnics, was in the hands of people who had started as academics, worked their way through the system and eventually taken on the high responsibility of management.They understood what an academic institution was, how it worked and what conditions were necessary for all participants to do their respective jobs properly.
At some point this changed, and new managers came in who were not academics, had never set foot in a lecture hall nor even a classroom since leaving school. They brought with them the penny-pinching Scrooge mentality of industrial accountants. Their style of management might work in a factory but in an academic institution it is the kiss of death. I saw it happening at first hand as a lecturer in one of London’s polytechnics.
The awful thing is that, having stripped its assets and brought the institution to its knees, not only do these people leave like rats from a sinking ship (one they have holed themselves) and go on to more lucrative berths elsewhere but often as well collect an honour along the the way. I am not a conspiracy theorist (perhaps I am too naive for that) but I do feel there is something very wrong with a system that allows this to happen.
Same in many institutions nowadays, the police force being another good example.
Various sources seem to confirm that this news was brought to the affected staff on Tuesday under the pretension of an ‘informal meeting’, where a member of the RHUL HR management and an OUTSOURCED management consultant were present. Sources also suggest that the staff were told there and then that they can now start competing for jobs.
The presence of a management consultant is the sure sign of an institution (business/government body/whatever) that has lost the plot and is there to accelerate the process and steal the silver.
You can tell about a community’s academic priorities when the money given by the government is short. Which faculties should be closed down? And which departments should be merged into other, more important departments?
In Victoria we had our financial cuts in the 1990s. In 1998, the beautiful old University of Melbourne collapsed its departments together to form the School of Fine Arts, Classics and Archaeology. Later there was another transformation into the School of Art History, Cinema, Classics and Archaeology.
Why is the Classics Department so vulnerable? At least in Melbourne we kept a Classics presence… just downgraded it. At Royal Holloway, you will lose it altogether.
I’m reminded of the lines from Terry Pratchett’s Maskerade: when asked how much money the Opera House made, the manager replied, “make money? Opera is what you spend money *on*!”
How much money can cutting Classics possibly save? If they really want to save some cash, they should fire the management consultants.
hi,
nice post, thanks for sharing……