American Studies Degrees Are Declining In Popularity But The Subject Has Never Been More Important

(MENAFN- The Conversation) We're witnessing a momentous period in US history and culture. A second Donald trump presidency promises to be just as turbulent , if not more so, than his first term in office.

A proper understanding of how the US works is going to be vital in years to come. The UK will need people with this knowledge in politics, business and in the media. But given the importance and influence the US holds, it's puzzling that the popularity of the American studies degree in the UK is in decline.

Data from universities admissions service UCAS shows that the number of accepted undergraduate applications in the subject field of American and Australasian studies has fallen from 410 in 2019 to just 140 in 2024.

Many universities, including prestigious Russell Group institutions, no longer offer American studies at undergraduate level. The course has closed at the University of Birmingham and is not being offered in 2025-26 at the University of Nottingham, for instance.

A hostility from the UK government towards humanities degrees may have played a part in this decline. Some were labelled by former prime minister Rishi Sunak as “rip-off degrees” .

There has also been a decline in American subject matter in school curriculums. The recent removal of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird from the English Literature GCSE syllabus in Wales is just one example . This is likely contributing to the idea that America isn't as important as it once was.

And, while America's image in Europe certainly improved under Biden's presidency, disapproval about US foreign policy was evident among young British people in a 2022 Pew Research Centre focus group. British people in the study also expressed dismay over US healthcare, reproductive rights and gun laws.

What's more, an American studies degree is often four years long with one year spent in the US. This, combined with increasing tuition fees, is likely to have made it a costly option for many.

But American studies is adapting. At some institutions, programmes are offering a semester abroad instead of a year, like we do at York St. John University. This keeps the degree to three years but still delivers the same experiences.

Universities are also offering options that offer a broader focus or that interrogate America's role in global affairs. At York St John University, we offer the UK's only American studies and war studies degree, while Swansea University offers international relations and American studies. The University of Sussex offers law with American studies. The University of East Anglia offers a year in industry (instead of abroad), to prepare students for future employment.

American studies is valuable for understanding the United States at a time when it seems to be experiencing a sort of existential crisis. Crucially, American studies isn't just the study of the US – it's the study of the Americanised world. And in today's climate, that breadth is extremely valuable for those seeking to better understand the society we live in.

By understanding presidential character styles and US media, for instance, we begin to see how effective Trump's use of sensationalism and social media was in dominating and exploiting the 2016 campaign news coverage.

Likewise, recognising American economic inequality and cultural displacement among white Americans allows us to see the appeal of a leader like Trump and the willingness of citizens to embrace authoritarianism.

American studies offers a deeper understanding of American legalisation that continues to affect rights today. These include Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which ended racial segregation in public schools; Roe v. Wade (1973), which made abortion legal, and was overturned in 2022; the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Law, which in 2022 made lynching a federal hate crime.

Donald Trump has said he wants to end birthright citizenship – the right everyone born in the country has to US citizenship. This intention needs to be understood in the context of its introduction in 1868 as a way of ensuring citizenship rights to formerly enslaved peoples and African Americans after the Civil War.

And through the study of the racial, gender, class, and social crusades in America's long history of protest, American studies gives greater understanding of social activism and public movements such as Occupy Wall Street, #MeToo, and Black Lives Matter.

As Lydia Plath, chair of the British Association for American Studies, recently told me over email:“We are better equipped than most to understand and to contextualise how white supremacy, populism, misogyny and violence have marked the history, politics and culture of the United States. American studies is as vital as it has ever been.”

By immersing ourselves in the study of the United States and its global position, we gain a clearer understanding of the society that produces such globally significant culture, literature, film and politics, and recognise the legacies it creates. As an interdisciplinary powerhouse, American studies allows for flexibility and a wide range of perspectives that build connections between areas of knowledge. It's a valuable conduit for understanding the world around us.

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