A new report published by the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Russell Group’s Pro-Vice-Chancellors / Deans of Arts and Humanities Network shows that Humanities subjects are playing a major role in education and the workplace.

The report highlights the more recent ways that Arts and Humanities are taught and represented – working in a much more interdisciplinary way with the Natural Sciences and other STEM disciplines, allowing students to prepare for an increasingly complex and uncertain world.  

The LCFI was highlighted for its ‘AI Narratives’ project, which explored fictional narratives of Artificial Intelligence (the values they encode and the interests they promote) and analysed their impact on the public imagination and public acceptance. The project was flagged for its influence on policymakers and government, for example, through engagement with the AI Council.

The other main findings from the report, The Humanities in the UK Today: What’s Going On? (HEPI Report 159), include:

• This is a globally leading sector. In 2020, UK Humanities research activity was 49% higher than the global average, outperforming all other disciplinary research areas in the UK.
• The UK also has 19 universities in the global top 100 in the Times Higher Education 2023 rankings for Arts and Humanities, including four in the top 10, and 19 in the top 100 in the 2022 QS World Rankings.
• The number of UK students choosing Humanities subjects suggests they continue to recognise the value of degrees that fit them not narrowly for any one particular career, but which develop the talents and skills needed for a wide range of opportunities.
• There is a strong correlation between the skills of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) graduates and key skills valued by employers.
• Eight of the 10 fastest growing sectors employ more AHSS graduates than graduates of other disciplines. A Humanities training may not pay back most quickly in the workforce, but it is likely to give good resilience and longevity for longer term prospects.
• Only 14% of employers say specific degree subjects are a selection criterion; for most employers, it is the level of education that is important, not the particular discipline.

At LCFI, we see our interdisciplinary work interacting with many of these findings as we explore the cutting-edge research on the impact of AI, and our education programmes contributing to the development of skills in the emerging AI ethics sector.