RHUL close Classics department after just one year

Less than one year after its formation, the Department of Classics and Philosophy faces dissolution.

College Council has proposed changes to discontinue the Classics BA degree and to cut over half of Classics staff. Under the plans, all Classics degrees will be phased out over three years, starting with a reduction in student numbers as of September 2012.

Remaining Classics staff will move to the History Department and Philosophy posts will be relocated in the Department of Politics and International Relations.

Following the changes, Classics is expected to have a presence on Modern History courses. Those students presently enrolled will not be affected.

Head of Department, Anne Sheppard, earlier this year denied rumours that the Department may close. “I do not think there is any risk,” she said.

Royal Holloway was the first University to offer Classics to women and has been teaching the subject since the college first opened 125 years ago. The Department gained the highest possible rating in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise and 94% of last year’s graduates were satisfied with the teaching they received.

Mary Beard, professor in classics at Cambridge, believes the plans signal a ‘slow death’ for the department. “There will be no language teaching, which – in my view – always take the stuffing out of any classical enterprise,” she said.

“Royal Holloway is a good Classics department; and if you excise it from Royal Holloway, you impoverish and devalue all the humanities there.”

Academic Affairs Officer and Classics student, Carl Welch, believes the Students’ Union needs to campaign around the proposals. “The Classics department at RHUL is well respected, with pre-eminent scholars,” he said.“I find this decision to be vastly at odds with [Principal] Layzell’s plans as a whole.”

The Department of Classics and Philosophy welcomes support. All letters should be addressed to the Principal, Prof. Paul Layzell, and sent to the Department to be used as they see fit.