No history needed, nor languages: the University of Sunderland becomes “career-focused.” From the announcement:

The University’s career-focused and professions-facing approach to its curriculum was endorsed by its Board of Governors at a meeting on Thursday 9 January 2020.

The governors agreed that all subjects and programmes in the University should be educationally and financially sustainable, align with a particular employment sector, fit within the University’s overall strategy and be of a consistently high-quality.

In coming to these decisions, the governors accepted that there would be more focus on subject areas of current or potential strength. These include health-related disciplines where the University has grown both the subject mix on offer – most recently through opening programmes in medicine, physiotherapy and occupational therapy – and the number of students recruited. To support this growth, the University has invested in its staffing base – recruiting over 60 new academics over the last two years, in subjects including health sciences and business and management.

The University has also increased student numbers in education programmes and those in the arts and creative industries, with opportunities for additional growth still to come. Meanwhile work is underway to further develop areas of importance to the regional and national economy and those that provide clear routes into employment. These include engineering, computer science and business.

Consistent with the career-focused approach, governors agreed that the University should withdraw from offering courses in modern foreign languages, history and politics. Research and other activities in these areas will cease too….

Chair of the Board of Governors, John Mowbray, said: “While recognising the value of the subjects the University is withdrawing from, the Board of Governors agreed that they do not fit with the curriculum principles of being career-focused and professions-facing. Nor are they of a size and scale to be educationally viable in the medium to long term, given the competition from other institutions, both regionally and nationally.”

For posts on similar subjects, see here.