In her party conference speech this week, the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, announced the return of maintenance grants for students in greatest need. While the Society welcomes recognition of the financial pressures and impediments many student face, it’s clear that this is a policy with nothing for the arts and humanities, including history.

In a new article for the RHS blog — ‘The value and provision of history and the humanities: it’s time for a political response’ — the Society’s President Lucy Noakes, offers a response. As is clear to many of us, questions of access and opportunity are equally pressing for students in the arts and humanities and are, indeed, becoming more so. As a new British Academy report on ‘Cold Spots’ shows, choice—in subjects including history—is being further eroded for many as the provision of higher education contorts to the financial crisis facing UK higher education.

As Lucy argues in her article, if the government is serious about choice, social mobility and access to education it needs to appreciate that provision of many degree subjects is now at considerable risk in a growing number of regions across the UK.

For students to have greater choice and access we need the environments in which choices are made to be fair, balanced and accurate. For this we require political leadership to help us address structural failings and false narratives.