We’re witnessing a momentous interval in US historical past and tradition. A second Donald Trump presidency guarantees to be just as turbulent, if no more so, than his first time period in workplace.
A correct understanding of how the US works goes to be important in years to return. The UK will want individuals with this information in politics, enterprise and within the media. However given the significance and affect the US holds, it’s puzzling that the recognition of the American research diploma within the UK is in decline.
Data from universities admissions service UCAS reveals that the variety of accepted undergraduate functions within the topic discipline of American and Australasian research has fallen from 410 in 2019 to only 140 in 2024.
Many universities, together with prestigious Russell Group establishments, now not provide American research at undergraduate stage. The course has closed at the University of Birmingham and is not being offered in 2025-26 on the College of Nottingham, as an illustration.
Declining affect
A hostility from the UK authorities in the direction of humanities levels might have performed a component on this decline. Some have been labelled by former prime minister Rishi Sunak as “rip-off degrees”.
There has additionally been a decline in American material in class curriculums. The latest elimination of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Males and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird from the English Literature GCSE syllabus in Wales is simply one example. That is possible contributing to the concept that America isn’t as vital because it as soon as was.
And, whereas America’s picture in Europe certainly improved underneath Biden’s presidency, disapproval about US international coverage was evident amongst younger British individuals in a 2022 Pew Research Centre focus group. British individuals within the research additionally expressed dismay over US healthcare, reproductive rights and gun legal guidelines.
What’s extra, an American research diploma is commonly 4 years lengthy with one 12 months spent within the US. This, mixed with rising tuition charges, is prone to have made it a expensive possibility for a lot of.
However American research is adapting. At some establishments, programmes are providing a semester overseas as an alternative of a 12 months, like we do at York St. John College. This retains the diploma to 3 years however nonetheless delivers the identical experiences.
Universities are additionally providing choices that provide a broader focus or that interrogate America’s function in international affairs. At York St John College, we provide the UK’s solely American research and struggle research diploma, whereas Swansea College affords worldwide relations and American research. The College of Sussex affords regulation with American research. The College of East Anglia affords a 12 months in trade (as an alternative of overseas), to arrange college students for future employment.
Understanding the Americanised world
American research is efficacious for understanding america at a time when it appears to be experiencing a kind of existential disaster. Crucially, American research isn’t simply the research of the US – it’s the research of the Americanised world. And in as we speak’s local weather, that breadth is extraordinarily beneficial for these in search of to raised perceive the society we stay in.
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By understanding presidential character kinds and US media, as an illustration, we start to see how efficient Trump’s use of sensationalism and social media was in dominating and exploiting the 2016 marketing campaign information protection.
Likewise, recognising American financial inequality and cultural displacement amongst white Individuals permits us to see the attraction of a pacesetter like Trump and the willingness of residents to embrace authoritarianism.
American research affords a deeper understanding of American legalisation that continues to have an effect on rights as we speak. These embrace Brown v. Board of Training (1954), which ended racial segregation in public colleges; Roe v. Wade (1973), which made abortion authorized, and was overturned in 2022; the Emmett Until Anti-Lynching Legislation, which in 2022 made lynching a federal hate crime.
Donald Trump has mentioned he needs to finish birthright citizenship – the suitable everybody born within the nation has to US citizenship. This intention must be understood within the context of its introduction in 1868 as a approach of making certain citizenship rights to previously enslaved peoples and African Individuals after the Civil Struggle.
And thru the research of the racial, gender, class, and social crusades in America’s lengthy historical past of protest, American research provides better understanding of social activism and public actions corresponding to Occupy Wall Avenue, #MeToo, and Black Lives Matter.
As Lydia Plath, chair of the British Affiliation for American Research, not too long ago advised me over e mail: “We’re higher geared up than most to know and to contextualise how white supremacy, populism, misogyny and violence have marked the historical past, politics and tradition of america. American research is as important because it has ever been.”
By immersing ourselves within the research of america and its international place, we achieve a clearer understanding of the society that produces such globally vital tradition, literature, movie and politics, and recognise the legacies it creates. As an interdisciplinary powerhouse, American research permits for flexibility and a variety of views that construct connections between areas of data. It’s a beneficial conduit for understanding the world round us.
