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.

Thanks for posting, I hadn’t seen that. Certainly what they said about my institution is spot on.

@mysterytwister this reports is really helpful, thank you for sharing. I've not had time to read the whole thing but it makes very interesting reading. Out of the universities DC is considering, Durham (firm) is amber which isn't great. Bristol and Warwick are both green and in a great position. York is amber. Exeter is green (must have been before recent news but shows how quickly things can change with certain management decisions being made despite department not being in dept and the university apparently being 'asset rich').

At results day, DC will no doubt accept his Durham offer despite the amber rating but wasn't quite sure about his second offer and picked Exeter as it was a much lower grade requirement and seemed like a really nice campus based university. He will in all likelihood choose to go into clearing if he misses Durham, and hope that Bristol, Warwick or York (all on his original list anyway) will be in clearing.

@geoger @Lifeisnotafairytale do you happen to know if your DC mostly focussed on modern history at Warwick? It was one of the main things which put DC off but not sure if it was a valid concern or not. The Venice placement sounds amazing!

Warwick does have quite a modern focus. Historians' definition of modern is interesting, mind!

Thats list is pretty accurate and interesting Im sure to a lot of people. There are some big name universities showing red which don't get a lot of publicity but others on amber or green even which get mentioned whenever there is a thread on universities in difficulty.

Looking through the list, I couldn't quite believe how many universities there are in the UK and how I hadn't heard of quite a few of them!

@Fabfabfab And that’s one of the issues! Too many and too many offering history. Fewer and high quality is better. Also history is not going from Exeter is it? It’s just recalibrating what’s available to meet current demand. Some courses might be consolidated for example or modules lost but the department is not going.

Staff striking would worry me more but where’s immune from that? Nowhere.

DD did a mixture of early modern and modern - lots of very exciting modules to choose from.

@FabfabfabDs has done two medieval modules so far. His favourite period is early modern.

He chose an Urban Catastrophes module this year which was studying different disasters (from 1906 -present day)and was probably his favourite. The year before his favourite was war in modern Europe.

First year he had a Europe in the Making compulsory module which started at 1400. This year there was a compulsory module for students choosing the Venice stream which was 800-1500.

He also chose a module this year on empires and environments, which wasn’t particularly modern. Next year he has chosen the French Wars of Religion and something on Ottoman scientific and technological knowledge (just because he really likes Ottoman History).

Warwick is known for social history but there’s always a lot of options and he has managed to get his module choices every year.

I would definitely say the options lean more modern. If your dc loves medieval history then there are history departments that are more leaning to this period.

@Fabfabfab I would not choose clearing over Exeter. He will get plenty of modules to choose from! You have no idea who might be leaving yet so the doom seems very early. The clearing issue is accommodation so check what is likely to be the position in terms of availability, location and cost (if that matters).

That’s not correct , there are universities like MMU and LJMU that are doing financially better than some RG unis

Manchester seems financially buoyant. No idea about its history dept/ course.

Nottingham is a RG University and need to make 600 redundancies. DH mate is a Professor there, it isn’t just a rumour. He is contemplating trying to get redundancy. DH went down to see him as he accepted redundancy from a different University just over a year ago. Two of our friends took voluntary redundancy a couple of years ago from the University of Birmingham.

Agree with you @larkandowl RG universities sat on their laurels a bit too much.

Leicester has announced its closures- film & MFL are being taught out, so no new applications. History is not closing.

You have no idea about university finances unless you are the university registrar. Even that document with its granularity has some inaccuracies and is already out of date.

You do have to be extremely careful with the news. Lecturing staff/unions like to gain publicity for their situations in the hope that it will add pressure to the university however after many years of working in this field I'm still never really sure why they do this because there is a significant risk that it will just make their situation worse. This can be seen with Nottingham with numerous threads on MN and WIWIKAU about changing choices etc. This just panics more and more people. To reject Exeter as an insurance choice just because you're concerned about its finances is a strange move. Exeter will still be around in five years time. Even Nottingham (which is getting most of the adverse publicity at the moment even though other universities are in a worse position), is ok in the longer term. It's massively overspent on the old HMRC site for a new campus and it's trying to close its less popular courses which are not financially viable. Thats what a sensible university should be doing.

@Era DC was a bit uncertain on his insurance choice even before the news about Exeter so not basing it entirely on this. He put it as insurance as the grade requirement was lower than Bristol and Warwick so if they come up in clearing he may well try to switch (if he misses his firm). I personally don't think it's a good idea to go to a university where they have advertised strike action in year one and although I understand this could happen at other universities too, I think it's better to at least try to avoid it if we can. If it was Durham (his firm) he would most likely go anyway.

@MeetMeOnTheCorner Exeter is probably one of the worst places for clearing accommodation from what I have read e.g. no chance of university halls and it's all private. Another reason why we don't think it's such a bad idea to consider clearing.

@Lifeisnotafairytale thank you, I will share that with DC. Out of interest, how does the Venice stream work e.g. is it an extra year or part of the 3 year degree?

I mean obviously there is a dramatic difference between Durham and Exeter in terms of location anyway so that might also be a factor (depending on where you are) but a big difference again if you factor in Bristol and Warwick.

The main thing is that he is happy with his choice at the end of the day. Durham, Bristol and Exeter have a similar vibe in terms of student population - having a higher proportion of independent school kids (although obviously Exeter as a parkland campus university is very, very different from Bristol). Warwick has a very low key studious vibe. It's visually more similar to York campus in terms of architecture. Warwick has a high proportion of overseas students. York feels like its mix of students is more reflective of the general UK population. York is very similar to Lancaster which you might also want to consider given that it's financially very stable and also ranks top ten.

Im not being critical of independent school kids in any way. My own DC went to independent school. I have worked at three of these universities and studied at one of them. I also have a DC at one of them. I'm just commenting on the vibe/feel of each of them. Personally my own DC both felt very at ease at Exeter in particular - followed probably by Durham. My DN who is mixed race and lives in a multicultural city felt something was off at Exeter. Exeter has certainly had some accommodation issues (as have Bristol and Durham in recent years)

@Fabfabfab So why is clearing better than insurance? Both are not firm. Maybe Exeter should not have been his insurance at all but I’d look closely at clearing and accommodation because certainly insurance can give accommodation issues so clearing won’t be any different.

Manchester seems secure. And it's history degree seems well regarded. It's not a campus university , but accommodation isn't as expensive as some places. The grades are high though.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, really helpful and thought provoking . Just to be clear, I think Exeter is a great university and I really feel for all the university staff who will be striking and hope there will be a positive resolution for them. When we visited at the open day last year, I thought it was an absolutely beautiful place, very green and modern and with a high standard History degree. DC liked it too, and lots of his friends are likely to go, but he preferred Durham and Bristol (and possibly Warwick). He took the safe option of putting it as his insurance due to the lower grade requirement which he should easily make, but I think given the recent news, it's worth looking at the available options.

I don’t think that’s strictly true. They have to publish their yearly accounts annually. I looked at Manchesters published accounts last year as dd was going and I was interested. I doubt they are lying in their accounts. They have a massive endowment. I can’t remember off the top of my head but tens and tens of millions?? 🤷🏻‍♀️

here it’s very detailed https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=78079

quick glance just now seems to show they’re in an operating surplus. Total comprehensive income for the
year is a surplus of £113.7m That’s 2025.

@FabfabfabStudents just opt into the Venice stream at the end of year one. You can choose to opt out in second year.
I’d agree with Era’s assessment of the different universities. Warwick History course doesn’t have many international students, but certainly Warwick is known for finance/maths/business so has a wider draw of international students in these subjects.
Each of these universities is very different.

My ds was pooled for Cambridge but not picked up. Then decided between Warwick and Durham -which felt completely different. These are certainly not similar history courses or campuses -so there was no real sense he had a plan of what he chose!

This . Even HESA figures will be different now to those submitted last year. Also some unis will make cuts , reshuffle departments, cut courses, before they are in dire circumstance , it’s not always a sign of how bad finances are. Ultimately you have to look at a place you love and a course you love too and ask the right questions before choosing but things can change from year to year. I really feel for lecturers at unis where finances are being poorly managed and the staff suffering at teaching and support level but the moves at the top are earning g loads and being irresponsible or where the staff is being bullied and unhappy .

University endowments don't matter. Edinburgh has lots but is still pushing through 140 million in spending cuts, including a 90 mill reduction in its wage bill. Exeter is in surplus but shedding 25% of Humanities staff.