Raising our voice on the future of language learning
Over the past year, ITI has written to university leaders raising concerns about proposed cuts to modern language provision at Nottingham, Heriot-Watt and, most recently, the University of Exeter. In our letter to Exeter's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lisa Roberts, we set out the importance of maintaining language teaching in a part of the country already recognised as a cold spot in language provision, and asked the university to reconsider the scale of the proposed reductions.
These individual interventions matter, but the wider trend matters more. Language departments are being cut across the UK at a time when the country's need for skilled linguists is not diminishing. For ITI, this isn't only a concern for language learning in general: it is a direct threat to the pipeline that produces the UK's future translators and interpreters, who typically come through a language degree before specialising further at postgraduate level.
ITI has continued to work with the Association of Translation Companies and the Chartered Institute of Linguists to raise awareness of this critical threat. Together, we published The strategic case for languages in UK higher education, sent to the vice-chancellors of every UK university with a language department, making the case for language provision as a strategic investment rather than a cost to be cut. In early July our Chief Executive, Sara Robertson, co-wrote a joint letter to the Guardian with Raisa McNab of the ATC and John Worne of CIOL, arguing that cutting university language courses is a false economy, given the cost to UK exports and the recruitment difficulties this already causes employers.
Our letter was written in response to the Guardian's report on the risk cuts pose to social mobility. Unsurprisingly, other linguists and supporters also added their voices. Dr Darren Paffey MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages, also had a letter published. In it he wrote about his own background as a working-class foster child, arguing that language learning had been transformative for him personally, and calling on government to incentivise languages at GCSE and A-level and to protect language degrees through reform of the strategic priorities grant. Dr Paffey, a university lecturer and researcher in languages, is a valuable ally as he continues to raise awareness of the value of languages in his role in Parliament.
We continue to engage with sector colleagues and with the APPG on these and other issues affecting our profession. By working together we hope to build a body of evidence that will become harder for university leaders and government to ignore.
