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Higher education in Australia is in a period of crisis and transition. While COVID-related events and their impacts have made it difficult for all areas of university academic endeavour, among the hardest hit have been humanities. Drawing on live interviews with professors in a range of humanities disciplines, the paper elucidates various elements of the crisis, which includes a summary of the impacts of the last three decades' rise in neoliberalist imperatives within the university sector. The paper then argues that a robust defence of the humanities needs to be made and uses literary studies as its focus. Today, we are more in need of the humanities than ever. But this is a complex undertaking as research in higher education and live interviews reveal; the dictates of measurement, accountability, and questions of value within the humanities remain vexed; and while the aims and requirements of humanities studies may be at odds with neoliberalist demands and corporatisation, the humanities themselves may also be contributing to their own demise. Therefore, I offer future directions: I argue for the urgent need for the humanities to reinvigorate their ethical and critical functions, the need to demonstrate the connections between the humanities and wellbeing, the imperative to slow down and to eradicate the over-casualisation of academia, and the necessity for the humanities to articulate more clearly their connections with employment outcomes for a dynamic and evolving future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Societal Impact Statement: The coronavirus pandemic has reminded us that green spaces provide sanctuary and comfort, as well as opportunities for release and relief, during difficult times. However, to ensure continuing viability, botanical gardens can do more to address important societal concerns, especially around the environment. Sustaining relevance through action, especially local action, while also thinking beyond botanical science, and making creative use of electronic outreach will help botanic gardens to flourish. Summary: This paper is a personal reflection on high‐level issues relevant to future of botanic gardens and similar organisations, based on the personal experiences of the author at the Field Museum in Chicago, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (now the Yale School of the Environment) in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in northern Virginia. Botanic gardens have the inherent advantage that passages of nature, especially in cities, are vital for individual and social well‐being. But this natural advantage needs to be supplemented by actions that take into account a changing world and that respond in meaningful ways to the concerns of supporters and stakeholders. I emphasise five principles that are important now and for the future: (1) Sustaining relevance is key; (2) science is not enough; (3) actions speak louder than words; (4) local action is disproportionately important; and (5) electronic outreach is not optional. Leadership from outstanding individuals is also vital. Finding, encouraging and developing energetic people who are open minded, determined to make a difference and willing to embrace change is vital for institutional success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Humanities at a Crossroads: Challenges and Prospects in the (Post-)COVID-19 World The widespread social and political changes at the end of the 20th century influenced and reshaped higher education and, consequently, research in and the position of the humanities at universities around the world. This paper examines the much-debated crisis in the humanities and poses questions on its course in the light of the global COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that the COVID-19 pandemic might be an opportunity for reflections that may lead to changes in higher education that aim to revive humanistic research, which provides people with tools such as critical thinking, which has proved to be crucial in times of crisis, like pandemics. We consider the example of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, the most prominent place for language, culture and literature research in Serbia, as this is an institution that faces many challenges, primarily a decline in enrolment in certain programmes. Finally, we analyse this Faculty’s strategies to cope with both internal and external problems and to revitalize the interest of prospective students in philological studies. Nauki humanistyczne na rozdrożu – wyzwania i perspektywy w świecie po pandemii COVID-19 Szeroko zakrojone zmiany społeczne i polityczne pod koniec XX wieku przekształciły szkolnictwo wyższe, a co za tym idzie, badania i pozycję nauk humanistycznych na uniwersytetach na całym świecie. W niniejszym artykule analizie poddany został szeroko dyskutowany kryzys w humanistyce oraz postawiono pytania o jego przebieg w świetle globalnej pandemii COVID-19. Autorka przekonuje, że pandemia COVID-19 może być okazją do refleksji prowadzącej do zmian w szkolnictwie wyższym, które mają na celu ożywienie badań humanistycznych, dostarczających ludziom narzędzi, takich jak krytyczne myślenie, będące kluczowym w czasach kryzysu (np. pandemii). Analizie poddany został przykład Wydziału Filologicznego Uniwersytetu w Belgradzie, najwybitniejszego miejsca badań nad językiem, kulturą i literaturą w Serbii. Wybór ten został podyktowany faktem, iż jest to instytucja, która stoi przed wieloma wyzwaniami, przede wszystkim związanymi ze spadkiem liczby zapisów na niektóre kierunki. Na koniec analizuję strategie tego Wydziału w zakresie radzenia sobie zarówno z problemami wewnętrznymi, jak i zewnętrznymi oraz ożywienia zainteresowania przyszłych studentów studiami filologicznymi.

Humanities are an integral part of health professions. However, with educational focus shifting gradually toward knowledge, information, evidence-based medicine, and technology, it has taken a back seat and become a part of the "hidden curriculum." Humanities are hardly ever taught upfront to students of the health profession, let alone its assessment. With the need of its inclusion in health professional education now recognized and established through competency-based education, we need to be aware of the tools and strategies which can be used to teach and assess it. In this article, we share selected tools with relevant readily usable examples for teaching humanities to students of the health profession. Faculty may find it useful to plan sessions around related competencies. Incorporation of such experiential teaching and learning methods can help us achieve the transition from "high-tech" to "high touch" health professions education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]