Subjects such as History, English, Classics on ice regrettably (6,8)
I believe the answer is:
social sciences
'subjects' is the definition.
(social science is a kind of subject)
'english classics on ice regrettably' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'regrettably' indicates anagramming the letters.
'e'+'classics'+'on'+'ice'='eclassicsonice'
'eclassicsonice' is an anagram of 'SOCIAL SCIENCES'.
'such as history' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for social sciences that I've seen before include "Eg, economics, politics" , "Economics, politics, etc." .)