Theology & Religion, University of Exeter

22/07/2026

The Church Times has published a story about the current proposed cuts to Theology and Religion at Exeter and the potential cold spot that this would cause for TRS provision in the region. https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2026/24-july/news/uk/cuts-to-theology-at-exeter-university-cause-alarm-among-academics

21/07/2026

We are grateful to all those colleagues, friends and supporters who signed an open letter of support for Theology and Religion at Exeter. This was sent to the Vice-Chancellor and other recipients on 10 July 2026 with just over 600 signatories. It is now up to 650. The letter and list of signatories is now online at https://sites.google.com/view/exetertheologyandreligion

Although the letter has now been sent you are still welcome to add your name in solidarity as an additional signatory. You can do this by following the link at the page above.

18/07/2026

Ruby Granger, who studied Philosophy, Theology and English at Exeter, hears from Exeter staff and students about the value of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences degrees and discusses the context of the currently proposed redundancies.

Please sign this petition (it only takes 20 seconds!): https://www....

17/07/2026

We are immensely proud of Prof Morwenna Ludlow, one of several academics at Exeter newly-elected to the prestigious Fellowship of the British Academy. This is an honour given to only 50 scholars nationally per year and is reserved for those who have reached the highest levels of distinction in their academic fields.

Morwenna and three of the other new Exeter FBAs have issued a joint statement:
"We are all truly honoured by our election to the Fellowship of the British Academy. The recognition of our work from our peers means an enormous amount to us. It also reflects the wonderful, supportive and collegial environment of the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Exeter where we work.

However, it's hard to celebrate when our University's management has decided to launch a devastating attack on humanities and social sciences at Exeter, putting nearly all the academics in the Faculty (including us) 'at risk' of compulsory redundancy.

These drastic, rushed and myopic cuts undermine the very environment in which our work was able to flourish. The targeted attack on humanities and social sciences represents a catastrophic failure to understand the critical role of humanities and social sciences in public life, and why understanding human society and its history is more important today than it has ever been."

10/07/2026

Theology under Threat: "Ruinous plans to slash Theology and Religion at Exeter will have serious implications far beyond Devon" - Dr Jon Morgan, on our blog:

https://modernchurch.org.uk/theology-under-threat

03/07/2026

George Lapshynov responds to the University of Exeter’s considerations to cut Humanities staff and calls for safeguards to religious education.

29/06/2026

Last week we received the horrifying news that 500 academic staff here at the University of Exeter, including all of us in Theology and Religion, are in scope for compulsory redundancies, to be made this September. Of the 153 academic posts the University proposes to cut, 114 will be from our Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

Since then, some of you have already sent kind messages of support and solidarity and have asked what you can do to help. Here are a few requests for those of you who feel you want to do so:

1. Please sign an open letter to our University leadership, to be found at https://docs.google.com/document/d/18-l1SvAhbvgeNO10D4mM37BDd9G84Tu4hyIEycl4yKQ/edit?tab=t.0
We are honoured and humbled that many colleagues and friends have already done so, but we would love more of you to join them.

2. Please circulate the link to the open letter to others you know (colleagues, students, leaders of faith communities, and anyone invested in Theology and Religion) and encourage them to lend us their voices too.

3. If you represent a scholarly society or professional association, please consider whether you could send our senior leaders (via the Vice Chancellor, Lisa Roberts, [email protected]) your own letter on behalf of that organization too. It would be useful if you would copy us in. We aim to demonstrate how many people internationally feel invested in the importance of our subjects, and to send a clear message about how damaging these redundancies would be to our wider fields as well as to Exeter’s own reputation.

4. Sign a petition set up by the University of Exeter branch of the Universities and Colleges Union advocating more widely for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, which can be found at https://c.org/wFzQZCMfdw

5. If you have a platform of any kind - a podcast, a blog, a video channel - please consider highlighting this latest assault on our field. We know your voice has the potential to make a big difference.

Thank you all so much for your friendship and collegiality. We all hope to be able to continue as your colleagues in the field for many more years to come. We know how many of you have been facing similar pressures in your own institutions and we remain committed to lending you our own support too.

18/06/2026

Theology and Religion at Exeter is in the worldwide Top 50 for Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies (and Top 10 in the UK) in the new QS World University Rankings. Find out more about us at https://cahrt.exeter.ac.uk/theology/

03/06/2026

Today we held our first ever Theology and Religion PGR Research Showcakes (sic)! Postgraduate research students presented on their thesis topics and brought along baked items relating to an element of their research. We loved the marmalade rock cakes (on the agency, subjecthood and sacramentality of rocks and minerals), sheep cupcakes (shepherding metaphors in the New Testament), and bloodied gingerbread people (on anthropophagy, people-eating-people, in the ancient world).

29/05/2026

Come and visit us in the Great Hall at the University of Exeter today and tomorrow 9am-4pm to hear all about BA Theology and Religion, BA Religion, Culture and Society, BA Philosophy, Religion and Ethics, and our other programmes!