Early career opportunities have rapidly declined in the fields of arts and humanities amid UK university job cuts, with teaching-only roles increasingly the only positions available for those just starting out, an analysis by the British Academy has found.

The body has mapped job types and staff data for those working in university humanities, social sciences and arts (Shape) departments between 2012-13 and 2024-25.

It found that early career jobs in Shape are facing the sharpest declines as many UK universities slash jobs, and the growing rise of teaching-only contracts is also having a more extreme effect on early career roles than more senior positions. 

Between 2023-24 and 2024-25, the most recent year for which figures are available, early career academic numbers declined 6 per cent across all Shape subject areas, falling from 52,795 to 49,410 full person equivalent (FPE).

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This was more pronounced than in mid-career or established staff roles, which saw a 1 per cent decline. Meanwhile, professor-level roles increased 2 per cent, while other senior career roles remained “stable”. 

This contrasted with non-Shape subjects, where there was a year-on-year growth of 2 per cent for early career academic posts.

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The report warns that the figures suggest a “slowing pipeline of future academic talent and opportunities” and noted that “declines in early career academic staff matter not only for individual career pathways, but for the long-term health of disciplines and the higher education and research system as a whole”.

The humanities saw the steepest declines in early career staff numbers, falling 20 per cent since 2016-17. In comparison, early career staff numbers in the social sciences grew 22 per cent between 2016-17 and 2023-24, before falling again in the most recent year.

History was most affected, seeing a 32 per cent decline between 2012-13 and 2024-25, followed by Classics (a 30 per cent decline) and English studies (a 19 per cent fall).

These declines at early career level have come at the same time as “substantial growth” at professor level: 23 per cent for history, 29 per cent for Classics and 25 per cent for English studies.

“Early career and fixed-term roles appear to be the first to be affected by institutional reprioritisation, more quickly than senior or permanent posts. Where disciplines experienced rapid expansion in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, recent contractions may also reflect short-term recalibration,” the report says.

“The concentration of losses at early career level, however, suggests that financial pressures are being translated into decisions that disproportionately affect entry points to academic and research careers, with potential long term consequences for workforce renewal.”

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A rise in teaching-only contracts has also been blamed for limiting opportunities for early career academics.

The total number of early career teaching-only staff increased by more than 7,500 FPE between 2012-13 and 2024-25, while the proportion of teaching-only staff at early level increased seven percentage points, from 59 per cent to 66 per cent. 

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At the mid-career/established level, teaching-only roles increased by 12 percentage points, from 15 per cent in 2012-13 to 27 per cent in 2024-25. 

“Taken together, these patterns raise concerns about the sustainability of research capacity and its international competitiveness, interdisciplinary research, and a healthy future teaching research nexus. Where early career academics are less able to operate across both teaching and research, opportunities to build a research profile may be more limited,” it says.

Russell Group universities have seen strong growth in teaching-only roles compared with other types of universities, increasing 129 per cent between 2012-13 and 2024-25.

But growth has declined again in recent years following widespread job cuts. The most recent data shows a 5 per cent decline in teaching-only staff, which was “overwhelmingly driven by losses in early career, part-time, fixed-term teaching only roles, which accounted for 47 per cent of total decline”.

Margot Finn, vice-president of higher education and research policy at the British Academy, said that the “sharp decline” in job opportunities for younger academics and a widening gap between teaching and research roles “pose a real risk to the sustainability of the disciplines and consequently to the UK’s world leading research and development capacity”.

“The whole higher education sector is entering a phase of adjustment, but it is clear the burden is falling disproportionately on early career academics. While some changes in the data reflect short-term financial pressures, the scale and consistency of the trends suggest deeper structural shifts. 

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“Without intervention, we risk narrowing the UK’s research and development knowledge base, reducing opportunity and access to key subjects, particularly in regions already underserved, and weakening the long-term sustainability of the Shape disciplines that underpin society, culture and the economy.” 

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com