The humanities can be seen as the beginning and the backbone of the academic world. From the early origins the university was based on the study and humanism. The oldest still operating university (University of Bologna) began in 1088 when masters of grammar, rhetoric and logic began to devote themselves to law.
Despite the age and pedigree of the humanities they do not live a protected life. The position of the humanities is not as guaranteed in the world of the university – economic reality and a focus on invention and innovation have created an environment where research for its own sake is too often neglected. The mantra of the day is research that can be rapidly exploited by companies in making or improving necessary or unnecessary widgets.
This means that the university is not about study but that the focus should be more geared to being a prolonged arm of the corporate research and development.
Naturally in times when such production counts for everything those parts of the university that do not produce are seen as liabilities and face grim economic realities.
One such example is the humanities faculty at the University of Göteborg. Our university has decided to reduce the number of departments here. At present the faculty has 17 departments and the university plans to reduce this number to between four and eight.
Naturally a faculty cannot consist of an innumerable number of departments and the reduction is most probably a prudent and necessary move. But axing departments in the humanities is not a good method of promoting fundamental research in any society.
While the decision may be sound economics – is it really the right way to go?