The closure of Archaeology: an open wound for the University and the city

A few years ago, a friend said “Ah, you live in Sheffield! The city famous for steel and archaeology!”. The archaeology he was referring to was not the physical remains of the city, but rather the research carried out in Sheffield. The Department of Archaeology at the University of Sheffield was for decades a core point of reference for worldwide archaeological research, something that the city was justly proud of. 

However, over the years the University gradually dilapidated such a precious asset, failing to invest in its famous department and trying only to squeeze as much as possible from its severely reduced staff. In less than twenty years the permanent teaching staff was depleted to a third of what it once was. Nevertheless, the Department continued to punch well above its weight, maintaining its global reputation. The lack of support that it received from both the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in which it was based, and the wider University was, however, disconcerting.

In 2021, it led staff of the Department to write a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the University asking for a meeting to discuss a situation that had become unsustainable. The Vice-Chancellor never replied; rather he initiated a process that after a few months led to the suggestion to close the Department for good. 

The process was cowardly and shambolic, with the University’s Executive Board making decisions on processes and situations that they did not even try to understand properly. There was no proper consultation or discussion, and a “departmental review” was just a farcical procedure with a foregone conclusion. 

The cherry on the cake was an online meeting between the Vice-Chancellor and selected members of the Department, in which the final decision to close the Department was communicated. The meeting lasted for less than 12 minutes, with departmental staff not having any opportunity to speak or ask questions as their microphones were muted. The Vice-Chancellor was so scared that the video cameras of the Archaeology staff were obscured. He didn’t even have the guts to look at his colleagues in the face.

The backlash against the University  was fierce. Within hours of the first announcement the news spread like wildfire across the world. Many inside and outside academia were in disbelief that this could happen. A very strong campaign to push back against the decision was organised by departmental staff and students with stalwart support from the local UCU branch. A rally was organised within three days and more would follow in the next few months. Students and staff worked together to organise a petition that collected more than 48,000 signatures and the Vice-Chancellor was sent more than fifteen hundred letters of complaint from institutions, learned societies, academics, heritage operators, community groups, alumni, politicians, and mere citizens from across the globe. 

The international, national, and local presses as well as endless online outlets reported the news expressing serious questions about such an act of cultural vandalism. Social media were on fire, and it was sad to see that the arguments of the Executive were almost exclusively sustained by online trolls. Many donors withdrew their support, and many students refused to accept offers to study in Sheffield (an issue that still affects us to this day). A documentary portraying the campaign was shortlisted for the Spirit of Independence film festival.

But what were the real reasons for closing the Department? We wish we could answer, but the University’s Executive Board constantly moved the goalposts as each justification they proposed was disproved, ranging from student numbers to lack of leadership and research output. Perhaps most worryingly given the financial situation we find ourselves in, the financial projections provided to the Senate and Council showed that closing the Department would hurt the University financially.

Humiliated in front of the world and confronted with the possibility of industrial action following a successful local ballot, in December 2021, the University’s Executive Board decided to change the tone of its language. No longer a useless bunch to get rid of, the archaeologists suddenly became valuable, but it was claimed that they would have been better off without a department… 

Most importantly, the campaign had forced the hand of the University’s Executive Board to save the academic jobs with the relevant staff being moved to other departments; labs and collections would also be preserved. The campaign had therefore obtained some results, but professional service jobs were still lost, and the integrity of the discipline was destroyed. The Department would also remain open for two more years (it eventually closed in September 2024) to allow current undergraduates to complete their courses – a demand that the departmental staff had repeatedly made but had originally been ignored.

Consultations about the transition continued from 2021 to 2024 but the process remained opaque and unclear, with the consequence that staff and labs still do not have a clear physical destination and future teaching is plagued by uncertainty.

The process of closing the Department has been hugely costly and it remains so, with the question of the relocation of offices, labs, and collections still unresolved. The main cost, however, has been the loss of students and the huge amount of time invested at every level of the University to get rid of a Department that employed fewer than 20 staff – academic, technical, and professional services included. It is another example of how the University’s Executive Board has been squandering public money to pursue extremely dubious objectives. 

Most harmful of all has, however, been the reputational damage. Throughout the world, the University of Sheffield is nowadays known as the institution that acted so absurdly that it closed one of its best-known and most-loved departments. By doing so, it has become known as the epitome of the corporate and neoliberal mentality that has made academia such a toxic place to work. The University’s Executive Board, especially those closest to the decision-making (the Head of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, and the VC himself), along with the University’s Council will forever be remembered as the ‘butchers of archaeology’.

The approach that the University’s Executive Board brought to the discussions around the future of archaeology in Sheffield typifies the rotten management culture that has brought the institution to its current state. Asphyxiating levels of control over procedures and decision-making structures, evidence cast aside or manipulated to reach the ‘right’ conclusions, closed mindedness and group-think, sham consultations over faits accomplis, and a disconnect with the University community as a whole. 

With the impacts of their failures now falling on staff, students, and the city of Sheffield, it is time that the University’s Executive Board took responsibility for their actions. The people who got us into this mess lack the competence to pull us out of it, and it is long past time they made way for others. We urgently need a change of approach and personnel to rebuild the reputation and cohesion of our University.