English Literature Degree Cancelled

[MichaelW2]

So Sheffield Hallam University ( formerly Sheffield City Polytechnic) has cancelled their Eng Lit degree course. What say you?

 

[fossyant]

Erm, unless they can get 15-20 or more in a classroom, it's not sustainable. We're doing the same unfortunately, as are others.

 

[alicat]

"What say you" could be argued not to be grammatical and is at best pompous.

In other news, I don't care about a former poly not teaching literature.

 

[DCLane]

I'm not surprised; it's likely to be the Russell Group and the Open University doing English Literature, History, Geography and many other similar courses in the near future.

Like @fossyant 's university it's about numbers (sustainability) plus the need to show career routes and progression to meet government targets, which is then linked to funding. The newer universities just can't sustain small numbers on courses so are heading down the employment-related degree route; basically back to what they were doing as polytechnics pre-1992.

My university is starting to look at a similar approach, Huddersfield University and others have already begun cancelling courses similar to Sheffield Hallam. There will be lots more doing the same.

Son no. 2's off to do History and Politics at Nottingham (hopefully), which I can see becoming a Russell Group-only course in the near future.

 

[fossyant]

We've actually just 'paused' a NHS funded course - they couldn't supply the numbers of students to make it worth while. We've got courses that are immensely popular, that we are struggling to staff, so we can't afford to have programs that don't recruit. Courses have to show a number of years of poor recruitment before they get stopped though.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

We've got courses that are immensely popular,

What are those?

 

[a.twiddler]

What are their reasons? Not enough applicants? Rationalisation of resources? Sound business practice? A result of having to comply with the Byzantine labyrinth of government targets/quotas? Or is this thread just an excuse to have a go at this particular institution for some reason unknown to the rest of us? Where is the tick box for "I Have No Idea"? My impression (and I am no educationalist) is that in the current climate there are probably more courses available from many educational bodies than potential students following the aversive events of the Covid lockdown(s). So many questions (and question marks). I see some posters have come up with suggestions while I've been blunderingly assembling this reply.

 

[fossyant]

What are those?

Psychology, Nursing, Law, Accounting etc etc.

 

[lazybloke]

So Sheffield Hallam University ( formerly Sheffield City Polytechnic) has cancelled their Eng Lit degree course. What say you?

Pretty sure that a good 3 decades have passed since polytechnics became unis!

 

[newfhouse]

And if it ends courses in Meejah Studi's that can't be a bad thing.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/...lmost-13-million-to-the-uk-economy-every-hour

 

[fossyant]

There lots of factors at play - government/DfE pressures etc, financial viability, recruitment, student feedback and importantly, student graduate outcomes - this is where a student graduates and enters a 'graduate level job' - so a store assistant, for example, isn't a graduate level job, so Universities get penalised, and if we've too many courses with poor outcomes, it's not good.

 

[DCLane]

@twentysix by twentyfive - we've recently launched a digital marketing degree. That's proving very popular, with us having to recruit additional teaching staff. The problem is finding people with the depth of specialism, which is the same for many of the expanding areas.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Yeah, us plebs that go to the likes of Sheffield Hallam should be taught mining and sent down't pit.

Culture isn't for our kind.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19002944/angela-rayner-opera-rail-strike/

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Yeah, us plebs that go to the likes of Sheffield Hallam should be taught mining and sent down't pit.

Culture isn't for our kind.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/19002944/angela-rayner-opera-rail-strike/

A number of graduates with geology degrees go into mining.