The Institute of Advanced Studies will close at the end of July after 11 years, with its members describing the discontinuation as a “huge loss for UCL”.
The IAS is an interdisciplinary research group working across the humanities and social sciences.
Focusing on topics such as gender, race, genocide, and LGBTQ+ studies, the IAS has been home to research centres like the UCL Centre for Capitalism Studies, the Gender and Feminisms Research Network, qUCL (a research network for LGBTQ+ studies), and the Centre for Collective Violence, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Reasons for closure unclear
Members of the IAS told The Cheese Grater that the reasons for the institute’s closure remained unclear. The announcement of the closure did not suggest a reason but an article by Times Higher Education alleged it is due to funding cuts and economic sustainability.
In the announcement of its closure, the Institute’s members asserted that a space for open, interdisciplinary dialogue about complex topics is an “indispensable element of research. But an increasingly utopian one in the current climate of academia”.
One member of the IAS told The Cheese Grater that “it is exactly the wrong time to wind down such a unique institution as mass redundancies are taking place across UK HE”.
Tough times for the humanities
The closure comes at a time of significant precarity for many social science and humanities departments.
The University of Hertfordshire decided to “suspend” five humanities programmes last month, while the University of Nottingham announced the suspension of all music and modern language programmes in November 2025.
Higher education also faces scrutiny following increasingly high levels of unemployment for university graduates and proliferating debates about which degrees could be considered ‘serious’ or ‘worth it’.
IAS members also voiced concerns that the closure was a financial decision that neglected to consider the Institute’s academic significance, with one member suggesting that it was “a decision made by corporate-inspired managers who have no idea even what IAS is, or what universities are about; they are so ignorant it beggars belief”.
Another suggested that “it shows a lack of vision, a lack of community spirit and a lack of courage that sadly seems to have become the norm in UK HE senior management”.
Members also praised the IAS as an essential forum when “funding conditions are increasingly constraining the art and cultural community to provide spaces for openness, experimentation and criticality”.
The IAS was a home for many
The IAS was significant for many UCL community members. One member spoke of their “wonderful experience with the IAS” while another said they were “deeply grateful to the outstanding team led by Nicola Miller, who created a warm and supportive home for us”.
Despite this setback, a UCL PhD student wrote that while “it feels like we are in a constant battle against the stereotype that our field is ‘unnecessary’” they “refuse to give up [...] I hope, through our research, we can still make this world a little better.”
A UCL spokesperson said:
“Last year we took the decision to close the Institute of Advanced Studies in its current form. This was communicated to all IAS staff, as well as colleagues across the Faculties of Social & Historical Sciences and Arts and Humanities.
“The decision followed an independent review, which concluded that the Institute was not sustainable and recommended that the faculties support interdisciplinarity in new ways. This marks a transition as we develop new, university-wide approaches to supporting interdisciplinary research.
“The research centres currently associated with the IAS will continue their work and there will be no redundancies.
“Interdisciplinary collaboration remains a central priority for UCL and we are committed to strengthening opportunities for exchange across disciplines.
“We are immensely grateful for the IAS’s contributions over the past decade and proud of the vibrant intellectual community it has fostered. Its legacy will play an important role in shaping the next phase of interdisciplinary activity at UCL.”