Academics protest at impending closure of Heythrop

Professor Robert Stern

Leading academics from the UK and Australia have signed a letter expressing their grave concern at the impending closure of Heythrop College. The letter, published in the Tablet on 25 July, was written by Professor Robert Stern from Sheffield University, President of the British Philosophical Association. Other signatories include heads of philosophy departments such as Professor Maria Rosa Antognazza, Head of Department of Philosophy, King's College London.

Professor Julian Dodd, Head of Philosophy at Manchester University and Professor Fiona Macpherson, of Glasgow University. Dr Edward Harcourt, Chair, Philosophy Faculty Board, Oxford and Professor Fiona Macpherson, Head of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Glasgow.

"Anyone who has worked in higher education over the past decades knows how difficult it is for a small institution to survive financially in the current climate, that financial crises are a constant fact of life, but also that things can quickly improve," the letter states. "It would be a tragedy if this unique Jesuit college, with its centuries'-old history, were allowed to go under now, at the very time when it is making a really significant contribution to philosophical and theological research both nationally and internationally."

Heythrop rovides an intellectual space where religious thought is brought into dialogue with philosophy in the contact of academic scholarship. Its impact cannot be underestimated. It would be a real loss if it her to disappear.'

The Jesuits who have funded Heythrop and own its site in Kensington, central London, are currently exploring the creation of an institute outside of the control of the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Read the letter with full list of signatories here: www.thetablet.co.uk/news/2284/0/philosophers-from-across-the-uk-call-for-jesuit-s-heythrop-college-to-be-saved-from-closure

See also: ICN 13 July 2015 Dr Michael Kirwan SJ reflects on Heythrop College www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=27922

and ICN 27 June 2015 London: Heythrop College faces major changes www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=27787

See PETITION here: https://netivist.org/campaign/stop-the-closure-of-heythrop-college