Social sciences and business courses have borne the brunt of master’s closures in the past year, with academics who taught on disappearing programmes warning that niche, more specialist study is “losing legitimacy” in the eyes of university leaders.
An increasing focus on employability and courses that pay their own way are to blame for the wave of hundreds of shuttered programmes not recruiting for September entry this year, critics warned.
An analysis of Times Higher Education’s Courses 360 data collected between September 2025 and April this year revealed that 321 postgraduate programmes within the field of social sciences were closed for the 2026-27 cycle.
Other hard-hit subject areas included education, which suffered 148 programmes cut; subjects related to design, and creative and performing arts – 151 cuts; business and management – 450 cuts; languages and courses relating to the study of specific areas and regions – 131 cuts.
Meanwhile, 96 courses relating to historical, philosophical and religious studies closed.
