UK Archaeology Teaching and Research at University of Chester Under Threat

    Archaeology neglect in Chester  

Chester University's Department of Archaeology, alongside other subject areas there, is currently facing closure. This coincides with a host of cuts in archaeology at other UK Higher education institutes, including Aston, London South Bank, Leicester and the world-renowned Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. On the blog of Prof. Howard Williams is an interesting text relating to this: 'Archaeorant: Is there a future for the past?' (May 22, 2021). It makes sobering reading:

What was also chilling was an explicit claim by senior management that they regarded archaeology and heritage as oppositional to future-looking universities. This is truly shockingly ignorant and displays a fundamental lack of understanding of our academic disciplines.[...] National economic circumstances, political machinations and the COVID pandemic have clearly combined to create this enthusiasm among select senior managements of UK HEIs to slash quality teaching and research into the human past and its significances and values in today’s world. Let’s be clear: it’s a ‘hostile environment’ towards the critical investigation of the human past.