Lords debate echoes sector warnings about the language education crisis
A House of Lords debate on 8 January has drawn attention to the crisis facing modern foreign language teaching in the UK, echoing concerns raised in a report recently published by ITI, ATC and CIOL on the strategic importance of language education.
Baroness Coussins moved that the House take note of measures, such as visa waivers, to improve the supply chain of qualified modern foreign language teachers and the sustainability of language learning in schools and universities.
In setting the context for the debate Baroness Coussins described the 'vicious circle' that we are witnessing: declining GCSE take-up leading to falling A-level numbers, resulting in fewer university applications and consequential course closures, ultimately producing fewer qualified language teachers.
Lord Hannay expanded on the challenges citing Higher Education Statistics Agency figures showing dramatic declines: overall modern languages students fell from 125,900 in 2012-13 to 80,100 in 2023-24. Looking at specific languages he noted that the data shows that student numbers for French language courses fell from 9,700 to 3,700, and German and Scandinavian languages from 3,900 to 1,400. These figures reinforce the findings quoted in our report i.e. that 28 universities have closed modern languages degrees since 2014, with 17 post-1992 institutions losing provision entirely.
This pattern directly mirrors findings in The strategic case for languages in UK higher education, which warns that when universities close language departments, they reduce the pipeline of qualified teachers, creating geographic cold spots where young people have no local access to language education. The statistics are stark. Only 43% of the government's 2024 recruitment target for modern and foreign language (MFL) teachers was met. The 2025-26 target appears better at 93%, but only because the target itself was cut by nearly half. Nearly half of all trainee language teachers are foreign nationals, yet multiple obstacles deter them: bursaries have been reduced from £26,000 to £20,000, international relocation payments of £10,000 were scrapped in April 2024, and visa sponsorship costs and complexity mean that up to half of international trainees fail to secure employment after qualifying.
The economic costs of language deficiency came up repeatedly in the debate, with reference made to research that suggests that the lack of language skills in the workforce costs the equivalent of 3.5% of GDP. It was also noted that students who spend a year abroad building international experience are 23% less likely to be unemployed after graduation. As our report demonstrates, SMEs with language capabilities are 30% more successful in exporting, and given that SMEs represent 99.9% of the UK business population, this is highly significant. Lord Johnson noted that the government's industrial strategy contains no reference to languages, despite their strategic importance.
Lord Willetts raised security implications, noting that the UK's capacity to engage with global crises depends on having experts who speak relevant languages and understand local contexts. He pointed out that security vetting requirements mean the UK particularly needs British people studying foreign languages, as those from abroad may struggle to pass security checks requiring long UK residency. Baroness Stuart highlighted the failure to recognise and credential the language skills of bilingual populations in UK schools and questioned why the diplomatic service doesn't recruit specifically for language capability.
On a more positive note, Baroness Lane-Fox challenged the notion that AI translation makes human language capability less important. She argued that AI cannot read intent, interpret ambiguity, appreciate humour or detect face-saving formulations on which diplomacy depends.
As the debate drew to a close several practical measures were proposed: restoring bursary and scholarship levels, introducing visa waivers for qualified MFL teachers in state schools, extending the graduate visa to 24 months to align with the two-year teacher induction period, providing clearer guidance to schools on visa sponsorship, introducing an advanced modern languages premium for secondary schools, and securing strategic funding from the Office for Students for university language degrees.
For ITI members, the debate underscores the high-level skills and cultural knowledge that professional linguists possess. The repeated emphasis that machine translation cannot replace human linguistic capability, cultural understanding and nuanced communication validates the expertise that translators and interpreters have developed through years of study and practice. The debate also reinforces the report's conclusion that universities teaching both translation theory and AI literacy play a vital role in preparing graduates for the hybrid professional reality of the modern language services sector. It was also encouraging to note that the debate demonstrated cross-party consensus that the current trajectory is unsustainable and that coordinated action across education, immigration and economic policy is urgently needed.
Responding to the motion, the Minister, Baroness Smith of Malvern, affirmed that the Government recognises the importance and value of languages and offered a detailed commentary on the points raised.
