Call to halt decline in foreign language teaching

In a report the academy has called on universities to encourage youngsters both at school and in higher education to study languages.

Failure to act will have a detrimental impact on the UK’s social, cultural and economic wellbeing, it warns.

Under the last Labour government, in 2004, a requirement for all pupils in England to study a language to GCSE level was scrapped, and since then the proportions of students taking the subject has dropped dramatically.

The latest figures show the just over a third of state schools had more than half of their final year pupils studying a language at GCSE last year.

At the same time swingeing university budget cuts are impacting on higher education courses, particularly arts subjects, which have not been protected in the way that science and maths-based courses have been.

The academy says that declining numbers of school pupils studying languages has resulted in fewer students taking the subject at university, language departments closing and the subjects mainly being studied at elite higher education institutions.

At the same time, plans to triple tuition fees and reduce public funding for higher education means that from next year, funding for courses will be led by student demand.

The paper said: “While universities will be able under the new system to expand programmes in response to student demand, they may also find it necessary to close or reduce programmes where numbers are low.

“Given that language degrees are already vulnerable, the British Academy is concerned about the consequences of reduced student demand for language learning.”

It calls for vice chancellors to avoid closing language courses .

The paper said: “The British Academy is concerned that the individual decisions taken by vice chancellors as they respond to the new funding system and refocus institutional priorities may unintentionally lead to the large-scale closure of language departments.”

The British Academy promotes and funds the study of languages and humanities. The new Government has promoted language learning by making them part of the new English Baccalaureate awarded to GCSE students.