University of Sheffield students and alumni are protesting the proposed closure of Archaeology at the university.
The Department of Archaeology recently underwent an institutional review due to declining levels of students and external funding, where the review group presented three options to the University Executive Board (UEB) regarding the department’s future.
The board is made up of the Vice-Chancellor and other members of senior management, who have decided to support the option to retain Archaeology as a discipline but not as a department.
Many students and staff are protesting the proposed closure and are hoping to change the decision of the UEB before it is finalised, as the end of the archaeology department would also result in many staff members becoming redundant.
Protests have included rallies, the sharing of stories on social media and a petition to save the department.
Archaeology student Liam Hand set up the petition in the hopes of persuading the UEB to choose to invest in the department, rather than to close it or merge it into other departments.
Liam said: “I decided to start the petition as a member of the archaeology department who had taken part in the review process I had seen how unfair and weak their reasoning for closing the department was, and had to do something about it.
“I have helped organise and attend every rally and will continue to do so until archaeology at Sheffield is preserved.”
As of 3pm on July 1st 2021, the petition had received 45,354 signatures.
Yvette Marks is a laboratory manager and teaching technician as well as a PhD student in Archaeological Materials.
Yvette said: “The petition is so important at the moment as we have just over two weeks left before the council meet and make the final decision on the department’s future.
“Archaeology is such an important discipline, enabling us to understand and make advances in human health, animal care, agriculture, sustainability and much more.”
There have been two student review meetings about the future of the archaeology department, with the first having taken place in February and the second in May.
A University of Sheffield spokesperson said: “While student recruitment across the University of Sheffield remains very strong, like many other leading universities it has experienced declining numbers of students choosing to read archaeology. The University’s Executive Board commissioned a review of archaeology to consider how it could address a challenging external environment, and support and strengthen archaeology teaching and research.
“The Board has supported a recommendation that it believes will not only maintain and support the archaeology discipline at the University, but also ensure it thrives, sustaining it by focusing on postgraduate studies and investing in key areas of excellence which have contributed to Sheffield’s reputation as a top 100 global university with world-leading research and innovation.
“Although no decision has yet been taken, the recommendation would also ensure that many fantastic and important projects and partnerships within the city and its communities, and much further afield, would continue to flourish.”
As of June 28th, the university’s Archaeology Department has less than 10 firm offer holders for the 2021-22 academic year. The declining number of students studying Archeology has been a trend at many UK universities over the last 5 years.
An anonymous student told The Sheffield Star that “one of the students present asked Gill Valentine directly why we couldn’t lower the admissions requirements for the department in order to bring in more undergraduates, and therefore more money for the university.”
“Her response was, ‘We need to protect our brand. If you shop at Marks & Spencers, and then Marks & Spencers brings in Aldi-level products, then people won’t want to shop with you anymore.'”
Since the UEB have made their decision, more than 40 members of the Department of History staff have signed an open letter to the Senate of the university.
In this letter, they offer “full solidarity to our academic and professional services colleagues in the Department of Archaeology, who are currently at risk of redundancy or relocation.”
The letter also states that they “deeply admire the ways in which our colleagues in Archaeology enrich public life in the city of Sheffield and beyond” and that “To close the Department would do irreparable damage to the University’s civic reputation and responsibilities.”
