New research shows how studying the humanities can benefit young people’s future careers and wider society

by Oxford University

Studying a humanities degree at university gives young people vital skills which benefit them throughout their careers and prepare them for changes and uncertainty in the labour market, according to new research by Oxford University.

Photograph: Tetiana Shyshkina via Unsplash

The report, called ‘The Value of the Humanities’, used an innovative methodology to understand how humanities graduates have fared over their whole careers – not just at a fixed point in time after graduation. 

In the largest study of its kind, the report followed the career destinations of over 9,000 Oxford humanities graduates aged between 21 and 54 who entered the job market between 2000 and 2019, cross-referenced with UK government data on graduate outcomes and salaries. This was combined with in-depth interviews with around 100 alumni and current students, and interviews with employers from many sectors.  

Further interviews with employers were carried out after the onset of COVID-19 and the impact it has had on the economy and the labour market to test how the report’s findings held up in a post-pandemic world. In fact, the report suggests that the pandemic has accelerated trends towards automation, digitalisation and flexible modes of working, and the resilience of humanities graduates makes them particularly well suited to navigate this changing environment. Recent developments in AI such as ChatGPT have only advanced predictions about imminent changes to the workplace brought by technology.

The report was commissioned by Oxford University’s Humanities Division and its lead author was Dr James Robson of the Oxford University’s Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE). It comes shortly after a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute which quantified the strength of the humanities in the UK.

Professor Dan Grimley, Head of Humanities at Oxford University, said: 'This report confirms what I and so many humanities graduates will already recognise: that the skills and experiences conferred by studying a humanities subject can transform their working life, their life as a whole, and the world around them.

'Students, graduates and employers noted that the resilience and adaptability developed during a humanities degree is particularly useful during big changes in the labour market – whether that’s triggered by a global financial crisis, changes caused by the rise of automation and AI technologies, or indeed a global pandemic. 

'I often hear young people saying that they would love to continue studying music or languages or history or classics at A-level and beyond, but they fear it would compromise their ability to get an impactful job. I hope this report will convince them – and their parents and teachers – that they can continue studying the humanities subject they love and at the same time develop skills which employers report they are valuing more and more.' 

Dame Emma Walmsley, CEO of GlaxoSmithKline who studied Classics and Modern Languages at Oxford, said: 'Being a humanities student at Oxford was foundational - to the curiosity, reserves of courage, and appetite for connectivity I have relied on deeply in life so far.'

The report’s key findings include: 

1) Humanities graduates develop resilience, flexibility and skills to adapt to challenging and changing labour markets. 

Employers interviewed for the report highlighted that disruption caused by COVID-19 and increased automation and digitisation will significantly change the nature of work in the next 5-10 years. The report said the “skills related to human interaction, communication and negotiation” learned while studying humanities will help them to meet future employer demands. This resilience helped graduates to cope and respond well to the impacts of the 2008 financial crisis. It seems set to have the same effect for graduates entering a post-COVID labour market characterised by increased digitalisation and remote working. 

2) Humanities careers open a path to success in a wide range of employment sectors. 

The business sector was the most common destination of humanities graduates (21%) over the period. 13% entered the legal profession and 13% went into the creative sector. There was a notable increase over time of graduates entering the ICT sector, particularly among women.  

3) The skills developed by studying a humanities degree, such as communication, creativity and working in a team, are “highly valued and sought out by employers”. 

Interviews with employers found they particularly valued the following traits in Humanities graduates: 

• Critical thinking 

• Strategic thinking  

• An ability to synthesise and present complex information 

• Empathy 

• Creative problem-solving 

This supports recent research by SKOPE and funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council which revealed how business leaders in the UK see “narrative” as an integral part of doing business in the 21st century. They found that being able to devise, craft and deliver a successful narrative is a “pre-requisite” for senior executives and becoming increasingly necessary for employees at all levels. 

4) Humanities graduates benefit from subject-specific learning. 

As well as the more transferrable skills like communication, graduates interviewed in the report showed that they draw throughout their careers on the sense of self-formation and the deep understanding they gain through studying histories, languages, cultures and literature on a humanities course. 

5) Studying humanities helps graduates to make “wider contributions to society”. 

Many interviewees in the report said their degree has enabled them to make an essential contribution to addressing the major issues facing humanity, and informed their sense of public mission and commitment. This includes navigating “fake news” and social media manipulation; climate change; energy needs; and the ethical implications of Artificial Intelligence. 

6) Humanities graduates have high levels of job satisfaction and many said their primary motivation for studying their subject was not financial. 

The report found that studying humanities subjects had a “transformative impact” on people’s identities and lives. Nonetheless, the average earnings of graduates assessed in the report were well above the national average, with History and Modern Languages graduates earning the most. 

Dr James Robson and his co-authors for the report concluded: 'These findings clearly show that Oxford Humanities graduates are successful at navigating the labour market and financially rewarded, but also see value as existing beyond measurable returns and linked with knowledge, personal development, individual agency, and public goods.  

'They highlight the need to take a more nuanced approach to analysing the value of degree subjects in order to take into account longer term career trajectories, individual agency within the labour market, the transformative power of knowledge, and broader public contributions of degrees within economic, social, and political discourses.'

The report makes recommendations to universities, employers and government to help young people make a transition into work: 

• Offer support for a smooth transition into the workplace 

• Provide internships, focused in particular on less advantaged students 

• Support skills development in digital and working in a team, and provide students with insights into the changing labour market. 

See the full report at www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/media_wysiwyg/Oxford U Value of Humanities report.pdf

The Wisdom of Youth in Education

by Peter Acton

At a time when good news is hard to come by, to hear of the substantial increase in the numbers of young people choosing to study the humanities in New South Wales in defiance of the Morrison government’s “Job Ready Graduates” price changes is cheering on several fronts.

It is good news for the students themselves whose life and career prospects will be enhanced by their choice, good news for the Australian economy as it enlarges the pool from which future business leaders and entrepreneurs are likely to be drawn, and good news for anyone who needed to be persuaded that policy formed to support a culture war is never likely to succeed.

The students who resisted the financial incentive to choose a “job ready” course will actually be ready for a far wider range of jobs than those who didn’t. They will have developed the skills most sought after by employers, including creativity, communication, collaboration, flexibility and critical thinking, and, importantly, they will have developed the capability to learn new disciplines and techniques quickly. They will also have avoided all the risks associated with confining one’s education to a narrow technical specialisation including the risk of finding they don’t enjoy it very much, that they might not turn out to be very good at it, that they come across something else they’d much rather be doing or that they will be replaced by a computer. They need have no concern that their career choices will be restricted as a result of their choice. They can look at the success of other humanities students in a huge number of fields, including the founders of Paperless Post, Slack and LinkedIn and CEO roles at Disney, YouTube, Hewlett Packard and Westpac.

This is not to suggest that no one should choose the STEM disciplines. Young people with a passion for, say, medical research or astrophysics should certainly be encouraged to pursue their dreams and we may all benefit from their discoveries. The natural sciences also provide many of the thinking skills that the humanities offer, including rigorous logic and a determination to get to the bottom of complex questions. There is evidence, though, that the best practitioners of science are those whose education includes some study of humanities disciplines. Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Sir David Attenborough are by no means the only examples.

None of the above is particularly controversial among education experts or, perhaps more importantly, among employers and venture capitalists. As was widely noted at the time ex-Minister Tehan introduced the pricing changes, he had clearly ignored the evidence and failed to consult with people whose expertise meant they understood the issues much better than he did. There is always a temptation for funding bodies to favour courses with job titles in them as that sounds obvious and avoids the need for more complex discussion. In this case though, the policy was clearly in harmony with the Morrison government’s contempt for any segment of society that encouraged critical thinking, as reflected in their treatment of the university sector in general, the ABC and the arts industries. Congratulations to the students who saw through the nonsense and shame on those elements in the media who encouraged it.

Dr Peter Acton is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and The Australian Institute of Management, and was Managing Partner of the Boston Consulting Group's Melbourne office. He is the Founding President of Humanities21.

• This OpEd was also published in Pearls and Irriations on June 12 2022

Working real-world magic: How literary studies offer an edge in careers

Image: Gunnar Ridderström

by Suzanne Cremen

Last year, The Age reported that Year 12 students were ‘leaving literary studies on the shelf.’  Due to low enrolment, some Australian schools have dropped literary studies altogether. Literature has toppled off the top twenty list, in favour of subjects like accounting and business management, specialist maths, psychology, legal studies, and health and human development. In the face of escalating inter-generational economic inequality, these subjects are viewed by many students and parents to be a safer bet in a competitive job market. Literary studies fall by the wayside with the perception, aided by Federal government policy and funding, that they are for the elite, the bookworm or the dreamer, offering little in the way of practical relevance or job prospects besides perhaps a high-school teaching career (which is of course an essential and noble, if underpaid, profession).

How then do we imagine into an uncharted future? Literature exercises our imagination, and imagination is arguably the most useful tool we possess. “Imagination beats the opposable thumb,” said Ursula Le Guin, “I could imagine living without my thumbs, but not without my imagination.”

As an undergraduate I majored in psychology and English literature (alongside law, my ‘safe bet’). I dropped psychology as I discovered that I was learning more about the human psyche and deeper themes of life – themes such as love, death, power, betrayal, integrity and resilience – from the study of Shakespeare than I was from Skinner. I was the first generation in my family afforded the opportunity to attend university. Diving into some of the world’s great literature offered me insights of intrinsic value, meaning, even empowerment, as I sought to understand my life and envision my role in the world.

The Australian curriculum acknowledges that studying English, including literature, helps to create ‘confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens’. Yet it sows confusion by dislocating literature from its rightful place as a discipline of the humanities. Since the 19th century the humanities have been considered as those disciplines which investigate expressions of the human mind, such as languages, literature, history, philosophy, comparative religion, and the arts.

Historically and internationally, literature is the quintessential humanities discipline. Yet today, the Victorian education system categorises economics and business as humanities subjects, while excluding literature. This separation of literature from the humanities is an insidious step in undermining the value of the classical humanities and literary studies for understanding psyche, culture, even organisational life, in favour of reductive, mechanistic approaches which have come to dominate psychology, economics, and management. As useful as data-collection can be, it’s well-recognised by researchers and practitioners across many fields that stories can be more potent to shift paradigms and inspire us to live better lives. Well-told stories which stimulate the mind and touch the heart hold the key to transformation.

The analysis of texts hones skills which underpin many analytical professions. Skills such as research, listening, connecting complex ideas, critical thinking and artful communication, though of course the development of such skills is not exclusive to a literature degree. But an education in literature bestows a further bounty. Studying literature also cultivates empathy, intellectual dexterity, imagination, and the ability to entertain – even to dance with – ambiguity and paradox: all so essential in a COVID and post-COVID world. Entering the stories and experiences of people from other times and places, we learn to identify with common human predicaments. We learn to see the world through the lens of many types of vulnerability.

These skills are far from ivory-tower activities. They have multiple ‘real-world’ applications, besides enriching and fortifying our inner lives. Even if we are focused primarily on economics, as Martha Nussbaum notes in Not for Profit: ‘critical thinking builds corporate cultures of accountability in which critical voices are not silenced. And a trained imagination is essential for innovation, a key to any healthy economy’ (p.x). The skills finessed through literary studies are transferrable to many occupations, including marketing, teaching, counselling, management, advocacy, community development, and publishing (all examples from my own career). As Robert Eaglestone observed, ‘Coding might get you a first job, but an English degree makes your career’.

One particular skill developed in all literature students is the understanding of metaphor. There is magic and power in metaphor.  In the words of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, ‘If you want to change the world, change the metaphor’.  My introduction to metaphor as a literary device occurred when I was confronted in high-school with John Donne’s metaphysical poetry.  Yes, I did wonder how studying paradoxical poems written by a 17th century Englishman about a flea or rising sun and his lover were preparing me for life and a career.  I came to see how the poet’s use of metaphor (from the Greek μεταφέρω, metapherō, meaning ‘to carry over’) performed a kind of ‘bridging role’.  A metaphor is a way we are carried from one place to another.  Metaphors allow us to cross boundaries impossible to traverse by reason alone.

We live in a society that doesn’t understand metaphor, nor appreciate its healing power.  So let me offer two brief practical examples, from the fields of management and career counselling, to illustrate how metaphor matters, and how working with metaphor can shift ‘stuck-ness’ and awaken new possibilities. 

In his bestselling classic Images of Organizations, Gareth Morgan showed how oft-unconscious images and metaphors lead people to perceive and manage organisations in particular ways. Common metaphors include the organisation as a machine (that needs to be engineered), a culture (that needs to be created), a political system (that needs to be controlled), an organism (that needs to evolve) and even a psychic prison (an image that visited me during my short career in a law firm, but that’s another story). Good managers and leaders need to develop skills and fluency in reading and working with metaphors. They can then use the insights afforded by metaphor to understand and shape the situations they want to organize and manage.  Organisational managers and consultants dealing with change (and who isn’t?) would do well to understand the art of metaphor.  Literary studies help us to develop that art.

At some stage, we may indeed find ourselves locked in the cognitive trap of a ‘psychic prison’, (whether that be an occupation or organisation), or ‘at a crossroad’, or ‘at sea’.   Somewhere around midlife, perhaps in early adulthood, or even at retirement, we may question that decision to pursue a career in law, or engineering, or finance, and wonder if it’s time for a change.  But what could that be? Career counselling approaches are increasingly realising the potential of engaging metaphor for working with clients.  Indeed, metaphor is now advocated internationally as one of the most powerful tools in vocational guidance, far more effective at certain stages than psychometric instruments or trait and factor matching. Career counsellors are encouraged to listen for metaphoric images in clients’ descriptions of their stories to gain deeper insight into their career situation.  They can then help the client manipulate the metaphor to enhance their personal agency and action, and to negotiate the demands of a paradoxical world.  What lies at the root of most career impasses, observed careers professor Norman Amundson, is a ‘crisis of imagination’.  Metaphor is the all-terrain vehicle which gets us out of a stuck place, off the paved road and travelling with purpose in interesting new territory.  Yet despite the positive results and pleasure of using metaphor and story in career counselling, many career counsellors lack skills or confidence to drive such a vehicle.  A literature graduate is at home at the wheel.

 So if you’d like to spin some real-world magic into life and work, consider the value of literary studies.  Studying literature teaches us to see an imaginative dimension in all our interactions.  It helps us to build bridges between worlds. 

*Dr Suzanne Cremen is the author of From Career to Calling, A depth psychology guide to soul-making work in darkening times (Routledge 2020), which was a finalist in the Australian Career Book Awards. She holds a PhD, two Masters degrees (in Depth Psychology, and Engaged Humanities & Mythological Studies), and degrees in Law and Arts. Her professional roles include general manager of non-profit organisation Humanities 21 and founder of Life Artistry Centre. Suzanne has a passion for advancing and promoting applications of the humanities to re-imagine notions of work, careers and leadership, to foster creativity and respect for diversity, and to heal our relationships with the natural world.

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Reflections on the Humanities in a time of COVID

by Jan McGuinness

The benefit of a good education is to never be bored in your own company, according to my late grandmother.

While mathematicians, engineers and scientists are challenged and simulated by problem solving and calculating figures in their heads, what granny had in mind was a life-enriching education in the humanities. That was what I was embarked on at the time she imparted her wisdom and over the many decades since her words have proven to be true.

The study of other languages led to an understanding of other cultures, ways of thinking and experiencing life. A grasp of history was enriched by analysing its context, influences and outcomes. Reading literary fiction was an insight into human nature, the moral complexity that surrounds our choices, responses, strengths, weaknesses, and desires and the dawning of empathy and compassion for the human condition. Studying the great philosophers lead to questions about the foundations of that moral complexity.  An introduction to political science made for a better understanding of what I read and watched in the media and experienced in the wider world of work and relationships. And so on. Having the tools for grasping multiple perspectives on the times I’ve lived through has enriched the experience.

For studying the humanities turned out not to be about learning for learning’s sake but to better understand the world around me and ultimately with time and experience to develop some useful skills for dealing with it. In other words, a humanities education taught me how to think and thinking, questioning and contemplating are ways of never being bored in your own company because life provides so much to think about. 

Never was this more true than in the time of Covid.  And never was the grounding and expanded view of the world provided by a lifelong immersion in the humanities more relevant. Rather than being bored, isolated, feeling the weight of time on your hands and falling into depression and anxiety one has the capacity to at least expand upon existing interests in art, music, literature, languages, the world of ideas, writing or whatever.  At best some insight into the times and human condition can provide a degree of hope for the future.  Maybe those whose interests are confined to social connections and social media, of reaping and spending for example, are more likely to struggle during long periods of isolation and uncertainty.

Of course, one doesn’t need an education in the humanities to reap the benefits. Many aficionados come to them driven by inclination, curiosity or circumstance and in the wider world story telling is often the gateway.  Stories capture our imagination, provide context and background, example and anecdote so we can make sense of our own stories and of life in general.  We’ve expressed ourselves in stories through the ages told in word, art, film, song, and dance - even gossip. Many of the better, ground breaking examples of the performative kind have become canons of the humanities.   

Being storytellers we thrive on the stories of others. Stories help us interpret the world.  At their best they are also entertaining, stimulating and a diversion from the everyday sameness of lockdown.  And so to Netflix and its equivalents. Whatever gets you through.

Jan McGuiness is a University of Melbourne Arts graduate (English and Politics), and the Vice-President of Humanities 21. She is a published author and journalist with more than 30 years’ experience, including producing and initiating ABC TV arts programming as the Commissioner for Arts and Entertainment. Jan is a former board member of Artists and Industry, the Australian Art Orchestra and the Melbourne Writers Festival, where she served as Chair from 2004-2010.

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Image: Mollie Sivaram

How the arts are allies in helping us weather these hard times

by Hamish Adams

Wherever you are in the world, no doubt your normal patterns of life have been disturbed by the coronavirus. Here in Melbourne we find ourselves in a position of déjà-vu, under a lockdown regime uncannily similar to the one we were enduring this time last year. As spring comes on it’s a deeply disappointing situation to be in.

Geared as we are towards connection and movement, it strikes me how deeply challenging the pandemic has been for us humans. We've been forced to be less socially engaged, more sedentary, and surely less positive than we were in pre-COVID times. Old joys like chatting with friends in a local pub, letting our hair down at a concert, or seeking out new horizons on a ramble through the countryside have been made impossible. The sense of loss for these simple pleasures can leave us sore or numb, even more so when there’s no well-defined end to this situation.

Yet if I'm to pinpoint one advantage of the coronavirus era – and trust me, it takes a bit of searching - it's that many of us have likely become more connected to the arts as a result of this crisis. It's been reported that reading books has become more popular, no doubt more TV series and movies have been burned through than ever before, and some people have taken this opportunity to tune in to their own creative impulses.

I've found that during these lockdowns, my interest in the arts has surged - you might even call it my dependence on the arts. I've made use of many novels, movies and documentaries to help me stay afloat. Music has helped buoy my mood, and even the more beautiful aspects of urban design and architecture have become notable sources of wellbeing for city-dwellers like me. I believe we’ve seen the ‘utility’ of the arts in an unprecedented way during this period; the coronavirus crisis has proven that arts, culture and creativity are all-important in helping us find meaning and to feel human in radically unusual times.

In a way, the coronavirus lockdowns have come at a favourable time in human history. The internet grants us a connection to a huge span of creativity, where we can easily access the classics in print or film, stream lifetimes’ worth of music and gawk at great artworks in the highest resolution. More than this, many people have taken up the mantle of being creators themselves, utilising technology to share their arts far and wide.

I wonder if we will emerge from the pandemic with an added appreciation for the value that the arts impart to our lives. Perhaps our connection with creativity has become more significant and we'll be more willing to support artists, to honour artists, even to become artists in the future.

The old saying from Cicero, 'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need', will always sound unrealistic. But I'd suggest that if our library is stocked with enough art – better yet, if we have access to all the creativity that’s shareable via the internet – then we are much better equipped to weather hard times like these. Now, more than ever, let’s be grateful for the arts.

Hamish Adams is a final year Bachelor of Science and Diploma in Languages student at the University of Melbourne and an intern with Humanities 21.

“During coronavirus, we need social sciences and humanities more than ever. This is why:”

The areas of social sciences, humanities and arts have a lot to offer in the time of the coronavirus pandemic. They can help us foster a better, stronger society by understanding our place in it, offer hope, spark curiosity, inspire change and shape how these moments are written in history.

This article features several lecturers in fields varying from sociology to religious studies and how these areas can help shape a post-COVID future.

Generating economic and societal wealth: What price the humanities?

What are the costs and benefits of the humanities? What kind of price, what kind of value, should we set on the intellectual and cultural constellation of humanistic research and scholarship? Professor Mark Ledbury argues that humanities research generates both economic and social wealth, and that ‘running the numbers’ is an effective and necessary method to demonstrate why our society should prize and preserve education in the humanities.

Watch his lecture at the State Library of NSW here

Image: Arie Oldman

The Classics in schools: a reinvigoration?

Image: Wikicommons

Can a discipline perceived as elitist and arcane be revived in our schools?

 * by Olivia Whyte

In England, a recently-announced and widely applauded government scheme plans to introduce ‘excellence programs’ in Latin at 40 state schools. The project aims to counter the subject’s reputation as elitist, and increase the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who are able to engage in the personal, intellectual and academic benefits the language can provide. This decision is part of a broader movement to try to reverse some of the changes to the teaching of classics that took place in the 20th century. In many countries, the classics were replaced in the curriculum with subjects perceived as more useful or practical, often becoming inaccessible to almost all students, apart from those attending independent schools.

This change is a saddening one. The languages, politics, literature and philosophy of Ancient Greece and Rome make up a part of the shared cultural history of Western societies, and undeniably influence the lives of those who live in one today. Despite this, the vast majority of people have little exposure to the subject, and the real and perceived elitism within the classics can push students away. However, this doesn’t need to be the case. In Germany, Latin is the third most popular second language (after English and French). In Italy, both Latin and Ancient Greek are compulsory subjects for students in particular streams in school. Students in both countries report that these subjects are highly engaging, mentally stimulating and interesting to study. Yet many educational policy-makers still discourage their study, or in the case of many states in Australia, completely remove them from the high school curriculum. 

However, there are some positive trends in the promotion of the classics. In Australia and the United Kingdom, many organisations exist that support the teaching of the classics in school and university, and emphasise their value to society - not least Humanities 21! As well as this, there is a growing body of academic literature investigating the success of approaches to classics in various educational contexts. In the United States, conferences, such as “Whose Classics?” held at UNC Chapel Hill, continue the important conversation about reducing the perceptions and real effects of inaccessibility in the classics. Hopefully this will lead to a reinvigoration that enables many more people to participate in and learn about a hugely influential and personally enriching intellectual tradition.

You may also be interested to read:

Teaching Classical Languages Journal (https://tcl.camws.org/)

Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Steven Hunt, Mai Musié​, Forward with Classics: Classical Languages in Schools and Communities. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.

* Olivia Whyte is undertaking a Bachelor of Art majoring in politics and linguistics at the University of Melbourne, and one of the new generation of interns with Humanities 21.

What the Humanities will tell us about COVID in years to come

The medical history of plagues is fascinating, writes Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), but it is seldom the critical issue:

“What is more interesting is how people react to plagues and how writers describe their reactions. The account by the Greek historian and general, Thucydides (460-400BC), of how the Athenians responded to their virulent plague in the fifth century, directly or indirectly influenced how many later historians in antiquity described plagues. It set the pattern for a narrative of symptoms alongside social impact…

The history of COVID won’t just be the description of the virus and vaccine, or the mystery of whether it came from a bat or a lab. It will be the immensely complex story of how this disease intersected with our social behaviour, how we chose to respond as individuals and families, communities and politicians, nations and global agencies. What the best historians from Thucydides on have told us is that the biology of disease is inextricable from the social construction of illness and health.”

Read the full article in The Conversation

Australian students view ‘soft skills’ as critical for career advantage

A survey of 1,000 Australian students in 2020 found that 88% believed soft skills to be necessary for their future career, with 78% agreeing such skills would give them an advantage in the changing workforce due to technological automation. The top three soft skills Australian students believe are most needed for career success are: • Complex problem solving, • Critical thinking and • Creativity.

Although the technical skills of a profession remain important, more and more employers are seeking to employ graduates with a wide soft skills portfolio. As the importance of soft skills for the future workforce increases, the need to integrate these skills into education is essential.

Read the full report here.

Illustration adapted from Gray, A, 'The 10 skills you need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution', World Economic Forum , 19 January 2016

Medicine and the humanities: A symbiosis?

What beneficial possibilities may arise from hybrid career paths which include the humanities?

by Hamish Adams*

 As a young high school student, I went through a stage of wondering intensely about my future career plans. I was looking into the pros and cons of a career in medicine when I found a book in the library called Making the Cut by Professor Mohamed Khadra, a urological surgeon based in Sydney. In this memoir Professor Khadra vividly recounts the challenges of his journey to become a surgeon, being forced to endure the big egos of his superiors, the exhausting nights on-call and the constant awareness of mortality that comes from working with a scalpel.

I was a little shaken by this book, so I was confident I could rule out surgery from my list of career possibilities. Yet in the years since I read it, one aspect of Professor Khadra’s story has stuck with me: the inspiration and wisdom which the humanities, and particularly poetry, lent him during his pursuit of such a demanding career. As Khadra remarks at the start of his memoir, “[P]oetry is the study of humanity and we, as surgeons, are intimately and inextricably involved in the study of humanity.” (2009, p vii). The grandest themes of poetry are reflected in the drama unfolding on the operating table. For this reason, Khadra considers an engagement with the humanities to be essential to the training of the surgeon; “How could we hope to perform our task of healing without knowing about humankind, whose characteristics, in distillation, are the very essence of poetry?” (p. vii).

Of course, not all surgeons look so readily to poetry as a way to inform their practice, but the humanities must play a role in the medical sciences. Some medical practitioners have openly embraced this; for example, renowned Australian poet Peter Goldsworthy divides his time equally between writing and medicine. A family-friend who works as a cardiologist (and also happens to be a voracious reader of classics) once told me that in her view, medicine is a fusion between the arts and sciences. Without doubt, both disciplines can inform and nourish one another.

And this begs the question: if there’s such a symbiosis between the humanities and medicine, why couldn’t the same be said for the humanities and other professions?

Khadra, M 2009, Making the Cut: A Surgeon’s Stories of Life on the Edge, Heinemann Australia.

You may also be interested to read:

Hooker, C 2008, ‘The medical humanities: a brief introduction’, Australian Family Physician, vol. 37, no. 4.

* Hamish Adams is a final year Bachelor of Science and Diploma in Languages student at the University of Melbourne and an intern with Humanities 21.

What role do the humanities play in 2021?

5 Questions with the director of FIU’s Center for the Humanities in an Urban Environment

“…The humanities are about understanding, celebrating and studying what it means to be human. That includes the forms of ‘production’ that we make through our cultures, the way we set up our societies, the way we talk to each other, the way we think. And the way we tell stories about ourselves and our world. It’s us. It’s people. “

Read the interview here

Honing the craft: How medical schools weave arts and humanities into education

A new AAMC report says most medical schools offer arts and humanities, but it urges more integration into curricula and better evaluation of how those experiences make better doctors.

Read more here.

New Academy President to champion Humanities’ role in tackling climate change

The newly-elected President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Professor Lesley Head FASSA FAHA, believes the humanities will play as significant a role as the sciences in addressing the biggest global challenge of our time, the earth’s warming.

Read more here

Do humanities graduates have the same job prospects as science graduates?

The Federal Government's "job-ready graduates" package has come under fire for building unfairness into university student fees.

From 2021, new science students will benefit from cuts while fees for many humanities and social science courses will double.

Education Minister Dan Tehan said the legislated changes would "incentivise students to make more job-relevant choices".

However, Margaret Gardner, chair of the Group of Eight research universities, told ABC listeners the policy ignored the evidence on which degrees actually lead to employment.

Read more here

Arts think tank A New Approach to go it alone

Previously part of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, A New Approach is set to become an independent body after December.

Previously operating under the aegis of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, arts and culture think tank A New Approach (ANA) has announced it will become an entity in its own right at the end of 2020.

Together with Newgate Communications (a communications firm with close ties to government agencies and the corporate sector) the Australian Academy of the Humanities was selected as the lead delivery partner for A New Approach when the $1.65 million project was announced in August 2017.

Read more here

Reimagining the Humanities for the 21st Century

…Afraid that the traditional humanities disciplines are increasingly regarded as relics that have lost their salience, as Eurocentric vestiges of an obsolete and disreputable past with no little obvious traction in the job market, it is not surprising that many humanists seek a new currency.

Fears for the future of the humanities are well warranted, evident in a marked decline in the number of majors in traditional humanities disciplines even at the most selective colleges. The sharpest drops in majors occurred in the core humanities departments: art history, English, history and philosophy…”

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If we want brilliant English, history or geography teachers, why are we making humanities courses so costly?

“…Perhaps your favourite teacher at school did an arts or humanities degree, especially if they taught in one of those subjects….An under-discussed aspect of the government’s proposal is it risks pushing many would-be teachers in these fields away from undergraduate humanities training, potentially at the expense of their future students.”

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Stop telling students to study STEM instead of humanities for the post-coronavirus world

…“According to the OECD, "globally competent individuals can examine local, global and intercultural issues, understand and appreciate different perspectives and world views, interact successfully and respectfully with others, and take responsible action toward sustainability and collective well-being."

The OECD believes "educating for global competence can boost employability," and also believes that all subjects can introduce global competence.

It seems to us learning history and other humanities disciplines are effective ways to foster the elements of global competence outlined in their description.”

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Other Awful Years in History

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, “The Triumph of Death”1562, oil on panel, 117 x 162cm, Collection: Museo del Prado, Madrid by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Around the world, people can’t wait for 2020 to end. COVID-19 has killed close to a million people globally over the course of the pandemic. On top of the coronavirus, there’s been significant floods in Uganda, Kenya, Pakistan and the UK, Australia has experienced devastating bush fires, storms have battered the Americas, and locusts have devastated parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Now, parts of the US west coast are disaster zones amid ongoing wildfires.

But if you think this year is bad, think again.

Here, in this article republished from Pursuit, University of Melbourne experts [including Catherine Kovesi (History) and Frederick Vervaet (Classics & Archaeology)] take a look at some of the other thoroughly difficult years in human history – and how we made it to the other side.

Read full article here: https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/shaps-research/2020/09/21/other-awful-years-in-history/

Volcanic Winter and Pandemic Pandemonium

The Empress Theodora with her entourage pictured in a mosaic at the Basilique San Vitale, Ravenna. Picture: Roger Culos/Wikimedia Commons

A terrible onslaught of bubonic plague in the sixth century abruptly ended Emperor Justinian’s dream of reunifying the Roman empire and caused massive geopolitical upheaval

Associate Professor Frederik Vervaet, University of Melbourne chronicles the ‘management’ of this historically significant plague by the Emperor Justinian.  Like many leaders today during our current coid-19 pandemic, he also received ‘mixed reviews’.

Read more here.