Cutting language courses at universities and schools dangers weakening social mobility and trade skills, previous education secretaries and experts in the UK have warned.More than 70 languages academics were among 500 staff at the University of Exeter to be told last week they were at danger of redundancy as it looks for to cut 150 full-time posts, primarily in the liberal arts. The announcement followed the proposal by the University of Nottingham to end up being the first Russell Group university to provide no language degrees.The cuts come versus a background of progressively challenging university financial resources and years of falling GCSE and A-level entries, which have actually intensified inequalities. Languages are now mandatory for all students at GCSE in only 22%of state secondaries, compared with 41 %of independent schools, according to this year’s Language Trends survey.Former education ministers and other specialists stated the downgrading of languages at elite universities might further harm the life chances of students, in specific those from working-class backgrounds.David Blunkett, the Labour education secretary from 1997 to 2001, stated:”Rather of the existing tendency to opt for retrenchment as the only way of stabilizing the books, we need
universities to believe truly artistically. [Cutting courses] prevents you from a joined-up method to learning. If you haven’t got a language professors any longer in the university, it can’t relate to tech and engineering, and digital, and all the other possibilities that now exist.”David Blunkett explained cutting language degrees as’a missed out on chance ‘. Photo: Roger Harris Ditching language degrees was for that reason”a missed out on chance”to improve social movement, he included,”
however it requires to be related to the revitalisation of languages in the school system, so you have actually got a pipeline”. Estelle Morris, his successor, stated: “It’s an awful message– these are our country’s leading universities. I wish to think that they felt they had a role to play in the service, not make it even worse.
If Nottingham or anywhere else closes down a modern foreign language degree, middle-class children may go somewhere else. However working-class children will not.”They will be more likely to pick a subject readily available to them in your area. And then all the skills and job opportunities modern foreign languages provide head out of the window because those pupils have not taken a degree.
“The cautions come as Guardian information analysis suggests that language degrees could allow trainees from poorer backgrounds to enter the most selective universities more quickly, because there is less competition for places and grades needed can be substantially lower.Latest figures show that at the University of Oxford in 2025 there were just under 17 applicants per offer to study economics and just under 10 for every deal on computer science, law and maths. In contrast, around half of candidates for languages were offered a place.
Likewise at the University of Cambridge, more than half of candidates for contemporary and middle ages language courses got a place, compared with 14% of applicants for chemical engineering and 13%of those for mental sciences.Comparison of Ucas entry requirements by the Guardian shows that required A-level grades at the most elite universities are on average two to three grades lower for single honours language degrees than other popular subjects. Whereas average entry requirements at Russell Group, Bath and St Andrews universities are A * AA for mathematics
and economics, and AAA for law, they are ABB for French, German or Spanish degrees.At some universities the grade difference is 4 grades: at University College London and Bristol, for example, you require A * A * A for maths, but ABB for languages. For combined degrees the required language grade at A-level is also usually a minimum of one lower than the two or three other A-levels studied.Lee Elliot Major, teacher of social mobility at University of Exeter, stated:”Schools require to acknowledge that languages are a powerful pipeline for social mobility. If state schools want to improve the life opportunities of all their pupils, they should be actively promoting language study.skip past newsletter promotionFree newsletter|Every weekday Sign up to First Edition Our morning e-mail breaks down the key stories of the day, informing you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion “GCSEs and A-levels in languages are a covert passport to elite universities, a possible social movement path that might transform lots of pupils ‘lives.”More than 70 languages academics at the University of Exeter have been informed they are
at risk of redundancy. Picture: geogphotos/Alamy Jo Johnson, the former Conservative universities minister, stated”student choice is not formed in a vacuum”, adding:”If pupils have poor access to language teaching at school,
fear harsh grading at A-level
, experience weak careers suggestions, miss out on Erasmus-style mobility and have couple of local HE choices, then low demand partially reflects system failure instead of settled trainee preference.” The previous school standards minister Catherine McKinnell said: “It is so crucial for youths from across the nation to have the
opportunity to study a language”that”offers abundant transferable abilities for life that need to not be the preserve of the more rich”. A Department for Education spokesperson stated every kid wishing to learn a language must be able to.”That is why we are supporting the next generation of language instructors with tax-free financial rewards to train in crucial topics including French, German and Spanish.
“Universities are self-governing and make their own choices about courses– however our decision to increase tuition cost caps will support their financial resources, allowing them to continue offering a breadth obviously, consisting of languages. “