Dear PSA members & colleagues, 

With many UK universities currently reducing staff numbers, departments and course offerings, the Political Studies Association (PSA) is deeply concerned about the state of higher education (HE) and the unprecedented impact this is having on our discipline, student opportunities and our colleagues.

We offer our profound solidarity to all those impacted by these changes.

We fully understand that the financial pressures and other challenges facing universities in the UK are real and pose difficult choices for university leaders especially where student recruitment is under pressure. However, the scale of the reductions we see being proposed has the potential to undermine high quality research and teaching and limit the potential for opportunity and growth.

We speak up for our members and our discipline 

The PSA has a long history of liaising with University Vice-Chancellors and other senior managers in the HE sector when members or Politics & IR departments have been at risk. This has often been done in partnership with our friends at BISA and UACES. We work closely with the relevant head of department or school on these communications and take their lead on whether to go public or not. Sadly, the number of such interventions has gone up over the last few years. We hold regular sessions with heads of departments to understand what help we can provide and are working alongside other learned societies to develop our offer of support.

This is alongside engaging with sector-wide processes to strengthen the discipline and ensure excellence, including the QAA subject benchmark process and the REF, and our work in partnership with the British Academy and the Academy of Social Sciences as they advocate for the Social Sciences across the HE Sector.