Cultural excellence is invaluable to 'brand UK'

David Cameron told us last week that he wants top universities to put the "Great back into Britain". But at Royal Holloway, a long-established, prestigious department is fighting for its life.

The attack is led by a new principal who has met classics staff only once, for an hour. Surely a nation that wants to advertise itself as a centre for cultural excellence does not dispense on a whim with the ancient Greeks who gave us the Olympics, democracy, and the best stories in the world - the Cyclops, the Argonauts, and Oedipus? Surely we might have something to learn from the Romans, who ran a world empire for centuries? We can't afford to watch the demolition of an academic department with a global reputation, just because it might not show a profit next year. The value that world-leading scholarship in the Humanities adds to Britain's brand is immeasurable and can't always be converted into monetary terms.

An intellectual culture takes many decades to take root and mature. It takes only weeks to destroy.

Edith Hall is a research professor in classics and drama at Royal Holloway, University of London.