A new report for the Political Studies Association, shared exclusively with Research Professional News ahead of its publication on 31 March at PSA26 Annual Conference, analyses trends in politics departments between 2012 and 2025. Written by politics academics Ralph Scott, Lawrence McKay and William Allen, it says the field has developed acute problems with jobs and student numbers.

The number of jobs being advertised in politics departments at universities has fallen to a record low, which paints a “troubling picture” for the discipline amid the higher education financial crisis, the report has warned.

The pandemic hit politics departments hard and recovery since that period has been weak, the report notes. Academic staff numbers and advertising rates fell in 2020-21 and have never recovered to their pre-Covid trends, it says, based on an analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency and job advert data.

“While politics generally fared better than some other humanities and social sciences subjects leading up to the pandemic, student numbers have been declining since, which contributes to the troubling picture,” said Scott.

This also creates an ‘early career knock-on effect’. The financial crisis facing universities across the UK has seen many institutions reporting deficits and making redundancies—but early career researchers in politics departments are being hit particularly hard, the report says.