HELLO ALL!

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CONFIRM YOUR SIGNATURE WHEN IT ARRIVES IN YOUR INBOX, OTHERWISE YOUR SIGNATURE WON’T COUNT.

The University of Nottingham has announced the potential permanent closure of Theology and Religious Studies, which will officially be decided on the 25th of November. 26/27 intake has already been suspended.  

I truly am so devastated by this decision, among the decision to axe other courses such as Music, Modern Languages, Nursing, Microbiology and more. The decision comes after the moving of the Theology department into the general Philosophy department at the end of the last academic year, along with staff redundancies and removal of Hebrew and Jewish modules. The university IS continuing the joint honours courses in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics and Philosophy and Theology, but the absence of the Theology department in its entirety will have huge implications for any students in future years who do decide to study these subjects. University reasoning for course cuts is lack of funding, which comes after some poorly managed financial decisions.

Whether you believe in God(s) or not, Theology and Religious Studies has and is absolutely central to growth of the human psyche, culture, and our general moral awareness, not only the Western world (in the form of what many people think of as the Western religion of Christianity), but also across the whole globe. Religion and spirituality has and always will be current as well as something that challenges how we see other people.

Without studying deeply cultural, personal stories and belief practises in detail, we cannot begin to appreciate the weight and utter uniqueness that religion can bring to our world. I am fascinated by the Ancient Egyptians who devoted their lives to building pyramids in which one could retreat to The Land of the Reeds (like heaven); that Buddhists pursue enlightenment through the example of Buddha, giving over days to meditation in order to become better people; that all religions, despite their imperfections and occasions where they have blood on their hands, choose the unseen over the seen.
Whether or not you believe in Jesus Christ as I do, I believe that Theology is a subject that is of vital importance to our world. 

But it is also that without the academics, professors, researchers and lecturers I have been taught, I would not be able to write everything I just told you. I owe upmost thanks to them and their expertise in creating me to be both the academic but also the person that I am, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been taught by them. I know that many people on our Degree program feel the same. Not least to mention that they are some of, if not the most, kindest, selfless, deeply passionate and considered people I have ever met. 

Please, help me in signing this petition to get Theology back in lecture rooms in 2026-27.  Protect the Arts and Humanities!