Shakespeare Institute to be moved out of Stratford-upon-Avon, prompting a vow from its director to resign rather than 'aid and abet' the move

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The Shakespeare Institute is to be moved out of Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham, prompting its director to announce he would be 'resigning rather than aiding and abetting this move.'

Published: 19:45 GMT, 15 November 2026 | Updated: 19:49 GMT, 15 November 2026

It was founded 75 years ago and stands just moments away from William Shakespeare’s childhood home.

But the Shakespeare Institute is to be moved out of Stratford-upon-Avon to Birmingham, prompting an outcry from humanities scholars and its own director to announce he would be ‘resigning rather than aiding and abetting this move.’

The institute is the University of Birmingham's centre for the study of Shakespeare.

It will be moved away from the Warwickshire town synonymous with the playwright to the parent body’s Edgbaston campus for the start of the 2027-28 academic year.

Its director, Professor Michael Dobson, said the decision had been made without consulting staff.

In a message to faculty members, he wrote: ‘[On Thursday] the assembled faculty of the Shakespeare Institute were told by university management that as of September 2027 we are to leave the building the institute has occupied in the centre of Stratford since 1951.

‘We were not party to this decision, and we were not allowed to inform it.

‘I personally do not expect that the institute’s long-established MA programmes in Shakespeare studies will long survive the move (students tend to come to the institute because they wish to be in Shakespeare’s home town and close to the RSC [Royal Shakespeare Company], not because they have strong feelings about Birmingham), and without Shakespeare students to teach I fear my colleagues will soon be at risk of redundancy.’

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