“Arts and humanities scholarship is not an ornament”: Midlands universities call for coordinated action to reframe value and secure the future

A group of senior academic leaders, including the University of Warwick’s Vice-Provost of the Faculty of Arts, Rachel Moseley, have called for renewed advocacy for the economic, cultural and civic value of arts and humanities.

The jointly-authored piece What it Means to be Human by the Midlands Arts and Humanities Futures Network (MAHFN) was published today in Arts Professional and calls for a coordinated national approach to safeguard the future of arts and humanities in higher education.

Written against a wider context of continuing financial pressures across the sector, the group warns that without strategic intervention, arts and humanities education risks being reduced to a set of “exclusive enclaves” accessible only to the most privileged students.

The MAHFN, which brings together Deans, Pro-Vice-Chancellors and Vice-Provosts from Midlands universities, highlight the precipitous fall in recruitment to arts and humanities subjects at GCSE, A level, undergraduate and postgraduate level, the subsequent threat to the long-term sustainability of departments, and the inherent damage to the breadth of cultural and intellectual life across UK universities.

“Arts and humanities scholarship is not an ornament,” the group write. “It is the record of what human minds have made, imagined and endured. To let those worlds fall quiet is to diminish what it means to be human.”

In an era when policy initiatives have increasingly prioritised science, technology and business-related fields, the group emphasise the need to engage both policymakers and parents in understanding the economic, cultural and civic value of arts and humanities study, and the purpose and perception of these disciplines, especially as AI and other technologies reshape society and work.

A call for joined-up thinking

The MAHFN argue that universities, schools, funders and government need to work together to sustain the “pipeline, policy and purpose” of arts and humanities, and call for renewed advocacy for the SHAPE agenda (Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for People and the Economy) as a vital counterpart to STEM.

The group urge the sector to move beyond generic references to “transferable skills” and instead communicate the specific attributes that arts and humanities graduates bring: creativity, critical and ethical reasoning, empathy, cultural understanding, and the ability to work collaboratively to address complex global challenges.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Midlands Arts and Humanities Futures Network (MAHFN) brings together Deans, Pro-Vice-Chancellors, and Vice-Provosts of Arts and Humanities from universities across the UK Midlands, including De Montfort University, University of Leicester, Northampton University, University of Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University, and University of Warwick, to champion the value and future of arts and humanities education and research.

For more information please contact:

Ann Baylis, Media and Communication Officer

ann.baylis@warwick.ac.uk / 07876 876937

About the University of Warwick

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27 November 2025