Which universities seem most stable for History degrees this September?

[Fabfabfab]

With DC starting a History degree in September and all the recent news about redundancies and cuts to Humanities, I am starting to feel a bit concerned about his options. Which universities are currently considered relatively safe with lower likelihood of this happening? Exeter (DC's insurance) now seems like a bad idea, due to likely strikes (UCU currently voting on this) and large scale compulsory redundancies. Heard similar issues are happening at Leicester, Sussex and Lancaster. Bristol also talked about strike action recently. Durham is his firm and I know they have been talking about working to rule. Is this carrying on/likely to escalate in September? Warwick told us at the OHD that they are expending the History department but it wasn't one of DC's top two choices and he de-selected it. Now thinking that this was a shame and should have been his insurance. The plan will probably be to go through clearing if he doesn't meet his Durham offer. Any inside information on which Russel group universities are likely to be a bit more stable? In addition to Warwick, York is another option. Oxbridge and UCL are very unlikely to be in clearing so no point considering.

My husband works in HE.

It’s not great out there at the moment but as a rule if you go for a Russell group things are a lot better.

It’s the mid-low ranking universities that are suffering the most.

Warwick seems to have money coming out of the wazoo if that helps.

@BakedPotatoBeansCheeseColeslaw that's helpful. Warwick does seem like a good option and I know it was in clearing last year (no way of knowing if it will be again this year though). The main issue there seems to be accommodation for clearing students as they are likely to be off campus which isn't ideal at a campus based university. Better than lots of strikes and staffing cuts though...

Apologies for the poor spelling above, I can't seem to go back in to edit my post!

@BakedPotatoBeansCheeseColeslaw Not sure that's at all true, at least if you look at the top 20 unis.

Both Bath and Loughborough seem to be doing OK whereas lots of the top 20 Russell Groups seem to be cutting courses/staff.

I think a lot of the Russell Group unis have been recruiting heavily from outside of the UK and are now struggling as numbers are down. Whereas top rated unis such as Bath and Lboro have generally been more attractive, perhaps, to UK students.

Birmingham is quite solvent. Very good for history. I'm not convinced they don't bully staff but that may not be your concern. Warwick is definitely excellent also for history as is York.

Manchester are hiring a permanent history lecturer just now (rare as hen’s teeth) so assume that’s a good sign.

@Piggywaspushed would definitely prefer him to be at a university where the staff are happy and not bullied!

That’s really not true - Nottingham, Exeter, Cardiff all have very very significant redundancy programmes. Heck even Cambridge has an operating deficit.

https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/

Also here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/finances/table-14
Net liquidity days and surplus/deficit as % income are useful indicators.

It's just something I heard once that implied they worked staff very hard. But DS didn't necessarily see any signs of misery!

This is super helpful. Very concerning though seeing so many good universities on the list. Really feel for the staff as well as the students.

On the list @titchy posted above, it says the following about Birmingham:

Birmingham launched a voluntary severance scheme in October 2024. They’re aiming to lose 300-400 ‘roles’. This comes on top of the university being investigated by the Health & Safety Executive over excessive workloads and the accompanying stress and mental health issues. In October 2025, the university started a process of redundancies in Biosciences.

That must be where I read it!

Their history department is great, though.

Durham is DC's firm. It doesn't seem to have any recent information which I assume is a good sign although I heard they were working to rule. Not sure if that has finished or whether it will escalate:

1. Durham had a Voluntary Severance Scheme open between November 2023 and February 2024. After the voluntary severance scheme wrapped up, insufficiently many people have applied, so the employer has decided to run it again. The scheme opened again 30 September 2024 which closed on 30 October 2024. In January 2025, they announced they wanted to get rid of 200 (!!) non-academic colleagues, in pursuit of which they opened a voluntary severance scheme. Read the Durham UCU branch statement, as well as message to members. Compulsory redundancies haven’t been ruled out, so the branch is getting ready to challenge this with industrial action.

Looks like Warwick is already in clearing although the grades look the same as their standard required grades e.g. AAA for History. Same with Durham e.g. AstarAA. Is this more in relation to those getting their IB results or why else would they enter clearing this early and not reduce their grades?

It’s because while this is now the official clearing period, they won’t have any applicant results to speak of yet so aren’t in a position to decide whether to reduce entry requirements.

Thanks @titchy why enter clearing in the first place though? Interestingly, some of the other Russell group universities have already reduced their offers quite significantly. Quite surprising so early on.

Because they know they have vacancies. Pretty much everyone is recruiting though the entire period these days.

Birmingham definitely bully staff. There are big cuts in the arts and humanities there (their very well regarded theatre department has been closed, surreptitiously, for example). And academic staff are threatened with disciplinary action if they say anything publicly eg. On their FaceBook and Twitter pages.

Exeter is Russell Group and their arts and humanities departments are facing between 20 and 30% academic staff sackings. And Exeter isn’t in a deficit.

This is most certainly NOT true. The crisis in the sector is spread across all levels.

The reduction in international applicants has slammed to Russell Group much more severely than the universities at the bottom end, because that is where the vast majority of international students were focused. One international student was double or more the income of a home student. So simply increasing numbers doesn’t make up that deficit.

That reduction in numbers for international students has meant that RG unis have had to recruit more home students. This causes the knock-on effect down the HE hierarchy. However, certainly for some of the lower-tier universities, the crisis has been slower to hit.

@Fabfabfab the reality is that ALL universities in the sector are impacted. I know that is challenging from a student perspective, but I think your DS should stick with the Uni he most liked. Gaming it is very risky because he could end up somewhere he liked less, still with strikes.

@phyllidafosset Yes I agree that most universities seem to affected by this to varying extents but I would prefer DC to go somewhere where there are no planned strikes and I think it's worth doing some research and being a bit strategic about it.

That does of course make sense, but the challenge is no planned strikes now doesn’t mean there won’t be any by the time January 2027, or September 2027 or 2028 or 2029 come round.

Sadly, this crisis is going to deepen before it improves because there are no solutions or fixes on the horizon at the moment.

Having said that, although it does impact students, over three years I hope/think the impact on them is not as serious as it is on staff. I don’t at all mean that it is okay that the impact on staff is so huge, I mean that staff want students to do the best they can, and so the work they do remains focused on that.

@phyllidafosset I really feel for the university staff and it must be difficult to find a new job given the widespread cuts. Must admit I don't fully understand why there are fewer international students. Think I remember reading something about the government introducing a cap on the numbers? I'm sure there are other reasons too (Brexit, the economy etc etc).

Lancaster is stable enough. They have had some restructuring but practical every university has.

A few governments ago (Conservative - I forget who), they made it much harder for international students to get visas. You are right that Brexit also created a more negative/less welcoming climate.