Recent coverage of the future of arts programmes in Irish universities has sparked renewed debate about whether these degrees have a value.
While many academics have rushed to defend the programmes by pointing to the benefits of critical thinking, argument and their wider civic value, it may be time to confront an uncomfortable truth: the traditional arts degree has had its day.
It was designed for a different era, when far fewer people went to university and a three-year, two-subject degree could lead to the HDip for teaching, graduate entry into the Civil Service or one of the professions. The world looks very different now.
Last week’s coverage of proposed changes to arts education at the University of Galway has been interpreted as a story about falling demand.
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Full disclosure: I work for that organisation, although I am not a spokesperson and have no involvement in the current reform plans. But while the story focused on Galway, it could just as easily have been about any Irish university.
In an economy driven by multinational tech, pharma and tightly defined skills pipelines, students and their parents are making hard headed choices about security, income and career direction. Degrees in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), law and business appear to offer a clearer and more predictable route into employment.
Look at the CAO points and the enrolment data. Students are moving towards STEM, law and business in significant numbers.
Languages are in serious difficulty. History and philosophy are flat at best. Post-Covid, graduate media enrolments have fallen sharply. In the context of a growing population, it is clear fewer students are choosing to study the arts and humanities.
The cost of living and accommodation shortages are understandably focusing students’ minds on the economics of their degree choices.
Government policy is also partly to blame. Arts and humanities programmes have been chronically underfunded while the policy signals have favoured the sciences and technology for years. STEM disciplines have been positioned as central to Ireland’s economic strategy.
The Higher Education Authority capitation to universities even funds arts programmes at a lower rate than STEM courses. The result is that arts classes typically have far higher numbers of students and poorer outcomes in terms of staff-student ratios, student retention and completion rates.
You only have to look at what has happened in UK universities in recent years to see where things are headed. Language provision has shrunk dramatically and subjects such as sociology, history and philosophy have been steadily hollowed out. Media and humanities programmes have been closed down as institutions chase enrolments and funding.
But for all the criticism, the Irish university sector has produced arts graduates who have played a central role in the country’s phenomenal economic and social successes. Like many of my generation, I am a direct beneficiary of Niamh Bhreathnach’s introduction of free third-level education in the 1990s.
Part of the problem is that a narrow definition of value has crept into the debate.
Degrees are increasingly judged by parents, guidance counsellors and students on starting salaries and short-term economic return. By those metrics, a STEM degree makes sense.
But that is a thin measure of worth in a labour market already being reshaped by artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.
Arts and humanities graduates have shaped Irish public life in countless ways.
Politics, law, journalism, teaching, the Civil Service, theatre, the arts and public policy all rely heavily on people trained to analyse arguments, weigh evidence, interpret society and communicate clearly. These qualities are central to public debate and policymaking.
An arts education also directly contributes to the cultural success Ireland so often celebrates internationally, from Booker Prizes and Pulitzers to BAFTAs, Tonys and Oscars.
Award-winning author Sally Rooney studied English at Trinity College Dublin; Booker Prize winner Anne Enright studied English and philosophy at University College Dublin; and former president Michael D Higgins and Derry Girls and Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan are arts graduates from University of Galway.
Some years ago, the most useful part of a mini-MBA programme I completed in London was not a finance case study but returning to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to understand ambition, persuasion and the psychology of power.
The strange thing is that the very capacities Government and employers now say they want from graduates are the ones the humanities have long developed.
Policymakers talk about misinformation, democratic resilience and the governance of AI. Employers value judgment, clear communication and the ability to work in teams and across disciplines.
Students today operate in a fast-moving and often manipulated information environment where they must judge claims, assess credibility and make decisions under uncertainty. Those are all capacities developed through sustained engagement with the humanities and social sciences.
Many of the professions traditionally sold to students as secure pathways are themselves undergoing rapid change. Computer science, accounting and even law are already being transformed by AI, and firms in those sectors are scaling back on graduate recruitment.
In that context, sidelining disciplines that train people to exercise judgment, interpret culture and interrogate meaning may prove short-sighted.
None of this is an argument against STEM investment. Ireland’s economic model depends on science, technology and innovation, and sustained investment in those areas is both rational and necessary.
But arts education also has to change. Students today are entering a world shaped by AI, data-driven systems and constant technological disruption. Employers expect graduates who can analyse evidence, work with data and adapt to rapid change.
Degrees still organised around two loosely connected subjects, with little engagement with technology, numeracy or professional pathways, no longer seem relevant.
Arts programmes, therefore, need to look different. Students need classes on numeracy, data literacy and digital fluency alongside the traditional strengths of argument, interpretation and writing.
Students also need a working understanding of technology, the economics of platforms and the social consequences of data driven systems. They should leave university with clearer links to professional life, entrepreneurship and the creative industries.
Other countries are already moving in this direction. Finland has embedded ethics and civic reasoning into its national AI strategy and it supports programmes that combine humanities with technology and design. In Germany, publicly funded research centres bring philosophers, lawyers and computer scientists together to work on questions of governance and democratic resilience.
Irish universities can and should undertake similar reform. That requires resources and the right incentives – the financial structures that consistently underfund arts make that transformation much harder.
In a world shaped by AI, automation and information disorder, the ability to interpret evidence, understand human behaviour and communicate clearly will become more valuable, not less.
Philosophy and ethics sit at the centre of debates about AI. History and politics shape our understanding of conflict and power. Media literacy has become a basic civic skill.
An arts education still has real value. But it must modernise to reflect the world students are entering and be funded in a way that makes that transformation possible.
Tom Felle is an associate professor and former head of journalism at the University of Galway. He writes in a personal capacity
