Languages departments are closing as undergraduate numbers fall. This must change to protect the UK’s international relations
Just after the first world war, the UK produced its most comprehensive review of languages provision, the Leathes report. In the Brexit era we’re now faced yet again with different ideological, cultural and economic battles that have us examining our languages capacity, and discovering it falls well short of what is required.
After Brexit we will need a strong language base for trade, international relations and soft power. Yet instead of a growth in languages, we’re experiencing steep decline: the number of modern languages undergraduates fell by 54% between 2008–9 and 2017–18. With fewer students applying, at least nine modern languages departments have closed in the last decade, and many others have shrunk in size or reduced their range of languages. By one estimate, the number of German units has halved from more than 80 in 2002 to fewer than 40 today.
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Nicola McLelland is professor of German and History of Linguistics at the University of Nottingham
This article was amended on 1 August 2019 to remove the University of Hull as an example of a language department closure. After publication, a spokesperson for the university said its department was not closing but was reducing recruitment.
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