Oxford University’s Humanities Division is facing wide funding cuts despite an improvement in the quality of its research. This is believed to be a result of the government’s stressed commitment to funding scientific development.
One of the hardest hit faculties is Modern Languages, which will see a £1 million drop in its funding, despite being awarded top ratings in the recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). Both the French and German departments were ranked number one in the country according to the Research Fortnight’s Power Index.
Professor Michael Sheringham, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature described the situation as “lamentable”.
“It suits no one that Oxford University should have this imbalance; a beleaguered humanities alongside boosted sciences.” He added, “It’s not good for the [Oxford] brand.”
The cuts will take the form of a drop in ‘quality research’ funding, supplied by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Oxford receives one of the highest HEFCE monetary allocations out of all the UK universities, with this year’s grant exceeding £180m. How much money a university receives is dependent upon its performance within the RAE, which scores departments on the quality of their research output.
“Funding is calculated according to RAE ratings on a subject by subject basis”, explained Philip Walker, a spokesperson for HEFCE. “To do well, a department needs to improve the quality and increase the volume of its research.”
Yet Head of the History of Arts Department Professor Craig Clunas, whose faculty saw a substantial rise in its UK ranking this year, questions the very relevance of the RAE system in light of the cuts, “It is very disappointing that an improved RAE performance leads to poorer funding.”
The downsizing of the Humanities budget comes in the wake of government initiatives to boost scientific funding in higher education. Speaking at the recent Romanes lecture at Oxford in February, Prime Minister Gordon Brown committed to making science a priority. In line with this, while arts and languages at the university are suffering , funding for scientific research has seen a sizeable increase.
Professor William James, Associate Head of the Medical Sciences Division, denies however that the boost his faculty has received in its annual grant comes at the expense of the arts.
“The additional funds have arisen because of the continued increase in quality and quantity of medical research done in Oxford. In most areas of medical research, Oxford departments were rated as the top one or two in the UK.
“The government have decided to award a premium to subjects it is particularly keen to promote, including maths, science and medicine. As a result of both of these factors, the University has received a great uplift in the block grant it gets from HEFCE.”
When asked, a spokesperson for the University said that it is up to HEFCE to decide how it allocates its money.
