TheHumanities

MATTER!

The Humanities are academic disciplinesthat seek to understand and interpret thehuman experience, from individuals toentire cultures, engaging in the discovery,preservation, and communication of thepast and present record to enable a deeper
understanding of contemporary society.

The Humanities encompass literature, classics,
ancient and modern languages, history, philosophy, media studies, the fine and performing arts,and other related subjects. It can be a challenge
to show the benefits the Humanities bring: in thisinfographic we gather available evidence toshow the Humanities matter!

Presented by 4Humanities and UCL Centre for Digital Humanities

WHAT THE HUMANITIES DO
The Humanities are about
what it is to be human.

They fostersocial justice and equality

Understanding others in
the world through theirLANGUAGES,HISTORIES,& CULTURES.

&reveal how people have tried to make moral,
spiritual, and intellectual sense of the world.

They teach empathy.
They teach us to weighevidence skeptically,

The Humanities teach us to deal
critically and logicallywith subjective, complex,
imperfect information.

and consider more than
one side of every question.

The Humanities
encourage us tothink creatively.

Humanities students build skills inwritingandcritical reading.

They teach us to reason about being humanand to ask questions about our world.

The Humanities develop informed and critical citizens.
Without the Humanities democracy will not flourish.

The value of the Humanities ismore often in the?
?

questions posed?

?

than the answers found;

Humanistic study is
not formulaic.

?

?

?
?

?

One only needs to turn on the news to see that
we need the skills and knowledge of the humanities in:understanding other cultures,
being able to communicate effectively,realising the ramifications of history, andanalysing human behaviour.
The Humanities are more important to global society than ever

THE CRITICS SAY…
Critics accuse the Humanities oflacking cultural or economic relevance.
They saythe Humanities
have no purpose.
They say ouracademic work is
inaccessible to the public.
They say that Humanities students are

not immediately employable.
They say in times of economic recession

resources should not be spent on thestudy of the human condition.
They saythe Humanities are in crisis.

BUT THE EVIDENCE SHOWS…
A 2012 survey of 652 U.S.
born Chief Executive
Officers and Heads ofProduct Engineering
showed almost

A study of 100 FTSE companies’ CEOs showed that

60%

31%

34%

had a Science andTechnology
backgroundstudied the arts,
Humanities andSocial Sciences,

had degrees inthe Humanities.

In 2011, of the 650 UK Members of Parliament

20%
65%

5%

unknown

had a vocational degree10%

had an Arts, Humanities
or Social Science degree

had a scientific qualification
It has been estimated that the economic
importance of UK universities amounts to54%of all qualifications achieved each year are in
the Humanities and Social Sciences.

£45bn

The total annual economic benefit tothe UK from non-UK Arts andHumanities students is approximately

The underinvestment in language skills costs theUK economy a minimum of £9bn annually£2.7 billion per year

Over two thirdsof Humanities and Social Science graduatesenter the private sector, primarily thefinancial and business sectors,
followed by wholesaling and retailing.

These sectors represent some of thefastest growing
areas within the economy
2006 Canadian Census

94.4%
94.6%
96.4%

On average Humanities graduates
have a comparable
employment rate to graduateswith other degrees

National Employment

History graduates
employmentof graduates in Theology andReligious Studies employed

In 2008 – the year the recession hit –those who were employed in Canada were:

95%
94%
94%
Skills of Humanitiesstudents are

91%
90%
84.1%

of Engineering graduatesof Health Workers
of Graduates of fine andapplied arts programsin demandfrom employers:of Humanities andSocial Science graduatesof those with only
a high-school diplomaof those with only
“some” high school189%

81%75%

75%

want effective
oral and written
communication

want criticalthinking andanalyticalreasoning

want employees
to analyze andsolve complex
problems

wanted employees
to connect
choices to ethicaldecisions.

Despite these benefits, inthe USA in 2010, just0.45%

of federal research money
went to the Humanities
Between 2007 and 2013, European
Commission Funding to the Social
Sciences and Humanities was just

1.06%

of their total research budget of£55.51 bn

CULTURE IS IMPORTANT…
Every year

76%

55%

of people think their lives
are richer for having theopportunity to visit or viewthe historic environment

50%
25%
6.5%
4%

88%
of people believe that it isimportant in creating jobs
and boosting the economyof people read works of fiction, including
novels, plays and short stories
buy a novel, play or poetry for themselves
read biographies
read poetry

write poetry

We need to understand the role culture plays in people's lives:
this is the role of the Humanities.

The Humanities are about discovery:
discover the Humanities!

4Humanities.org
These concepts are edited from a crowdsourced list generated at
http://www.allourideas.org/4Humanities.
Vivek Wadhwa (2011) “Silicon Valley needs Humanities students”, Washington
Post.
New College of the Humanities (2011), “A Case for the Humanities”.

Data collected by @melissaterras with assistance from@ernestopriego and the @4hum collective: @alanyliu,@GeoffRockwell, @sgsinclair, Christine Hensler, and@lindsaycthomas.

British Academy (2008), “Punching our weight: the Humanities and social
sciences in public policy making”.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (2009), "Leading the world: The
economic impact of UK arts and Humanities research".
CIRCA (2013), “Preparing for Advocacy”.
http://circa.cs.ualberta.ca/index.php/CIRCA:Preparing_for_Advocacy
Jeffrey Simpson, (2012). “A university degree’s value is incontestable” Globeand Mail, July 20th.
AAC&U and Hart Research Associates (2010), “Raising the Bar: Employers’
Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn”.
Toby Miller, (2011) ‘Dilemma of blowing up the Humanities’, The Australian(Higher Ed).

Do you know any more statistics about the Humanities?
Please do contact us at contact@4Humanities.org

British Academy (2010), "Past, Present and Future. The Public Value of theHumanities and Social Sciences".
Mulkerne and Graham (2011), “Labour Market Intelligence on Languages andIntercultural Skills in Higher Education”
European Commission (2013), “Research and Innovation FP7 Budgets”,
http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/index_en.cfm?pg=budget

How to cite this infographic: Terras, M., Priego, E., Liu,A., Rockwell, G., Sinclair, S., Hensler, C., and Thomas,L. (2013). “The Humanities Matter!” Infographic,
4humanities.org/infographic.

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