New Undergraduate and Postgraduate Philosophy Pathways Under Development Following International Support for the Programme

The Philosophy programme at the University of Dundee will continue to exist in the form of three joint honours pathways, and Philosophy have furthermore been given the opportunity to develop new undergraduate and postgraduate pathways for future academic sessions. The programme have received international backing over the summer as they had faced total closure. 

All currently enrolled philosophy students will see their courses run until completion. As it stands, Philosophy and Psychology, Philosophy and Art, and English and Philosophy will be the only existing philosophy courses at the University accepting new entrants from the 2027/28 academic session.

Philosophy as a single honours course and remaining joint honours programmes (including Philosophy and Politics, which was my undergrad degree and a belter of course) will cease to exist and will have their last student intakes this summer. Philosophy staff remain in a redundancy pool.

These decisions come as the University closes its consultation period on proposed voluntary redundancies. Significant changes were made to the initial proposals, including a reduction of 154 from 190 staff that were initially at risk of redundancy.

A source close to the developments has told The Jute Journal that the University has permitted the development of a new ‘Philosophy and AI’ pathway, which will potentially begin to be rolled out by 2028 for both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This is somewhat similar to the redevelopment of Mathematics pathways announced by the University on Tuesday, but further details of that remain unknown.

Philosophy and AI pathways were tabled by the Philosophy lecturers themselves in response to the initial proposals to shutter their programme entirely.

The source close to these developments told TJJ that “Compared with the way other parts of the University have been treated, it is a mixed outcome for Philosophy and their programmes.”

The source went on to note that the proposals of three joint honours and the development of a fourth is a much better position for Philosophy to be in compared to the beginning of the consultations in June.

“Philosophy have been given the opportunity to be at the forefront of the University on critical thinking and AI. ” they contiued.

Both Mathematics and Philosophy at the University of Dundee were rated among the best courses in Scotland in the National Student Survey of 2026, based on ratings by final-year students. This could be among the lines of ‘student feedback’ the University took into account during the consultations.

This is all still to be finalised at the next University Court meeting on 8^th September, where the final VR and, if required, compulsory redundancies terms will be voted on. At this juncture, Philosophy looks to have left the University with food for thought as proposals have been reversed and reconsidered in their favour.