Sir, - In his "Welcome" statement on the Queen's University website, the president and vice-chancellor, Prof Sir George Bain, states that Queen's is "one of the most talked about universities in Britain and Ireland". Recent perusal of the Letters pages in the press proves this to be true.
It is ironic, however, that such discussion is not prompted, as Sir George would wish, by a programme for development at Queen's "which will consolidate the benefits of earlier investment in recruitment and research". Instead, Queen's finds itself at the centre of attention because of its decision to close its School of Classics and Ancient History. This closure hardly qualifies as the consolidation of earlier investment, but appears to us, as it undoubtedly will appear to others, to be a desperate jettisoning of the fruits of such investment.
It should also be mentioned that Queen's is the only university in Northern Ireland where classical subjects are taught. By closing down the School of Classics and Ancient History, Queen's is denying Northern Irish students the opportunity to pursue third-level study of the classics at home. For many Northern students, particularly those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the costs of attending university in Britain or the Republic of Ireland may be prohibitive. Thus the decision to close Classics and Ancient History, together with other recent closures at the university, sits at odds with another of the aspirations expressed in Sir George's "Welcome" statement, that Queen's strives to "make a material difference to the quality of life for the people of Northern Ireland".
On another level, the decision to close the School of Classics is quite simply a tragic development. It betrays the heritage that so many of us embrace, just as it denies students at the university the opportunity to study subjects that lie at the heart of the European and wider Western cultural tradition. How this enriches the learning experience at Queen's or can make it a university that pretends to "excellence" is beyond us. - Yours, etc.,
Prof David Scourfield,
Professor of Classics;
Dr Mark Humphries,
Lecturer in Classics;
Dr Gordon Campbell,
Lecturer in Classics;
Dr Kieran McGroarty,
Lecturer in Classics;
Dr Michael Clarke,
Lecturer in Classics;
Dr Michael Clarke,
Lecturer in Classics,
National University of Ireland,
Maynooth.