Imperial scraps languages in course review

Imperial College London is cutting back its foreign-language teaching provision with the loss of up to 20 jobs. All beginners' language courses are to go, while courses in Arabic, Italian, Japanese and Russian are to close completely by 2010-11.

Times Higher Education
28 May 2009 (p.11)

Language degree review announced

England's higher education funding council has confirmed it will examine modern foreign language provision amid concern about university budget cuts.

Several have had reduced funding for languages following an assessment of research by the funding council.

BBC website

Protest held over language cuts

A demonstration has taken place at Edinburgh University in protest at potential cuts to language departments.

Students, staff and politicians have backed the protest against an alleged £400,000 funding cut to the European Languages and Cultures division

BBC website

Language degrees to be reviewed

The health of language provision at England's universities will be reviewed amid concern at cuts to course budgets.

Several universities have seen funding allocations for languages cut following a research assessment exercise by the higher education funding council

BBC website

Top university language departments face harsh cuts

Some of the country's most prestigious universities – including Oxford, Edinburgh and King's College London – are facing swingeing cuts to their language departments because the government has diverted funding from arts and humanities subjects to protect the sciences.

The Guardian

Science alone won't save us. Where is the funding for linguists, anthropologists and sociologists?

Changing behaviour will be as vital as new technologies in tackling climate change. So where is the funding for linguists, anthropologists and sociologists?

The Guardian

French GCSE: are we losing our taste for the language?

In our [The Times] second report on GCSEs, we compare French exam papers from 1988 and 2008, and Alexandra Blair finds out why far fewer pupils learn French and German now than 21 years ago

The Times

SCOTLAND: German and French exams show drop

One in five secondary schools is not presenting candidates for Higher German and one in 10 do not offer Higher French, BBC Scotland has learned

BBC website