Many of Scotland’s best-known folk music stars have joined protests by Gaelic scholars, lecturers and politicians over plans by the University of Aberdeen to axe its languages courses.
Award-winning Gaelic and Doric singers such as Iona Fyfe, Mary Ann Kennedy and Julie Fowlis have described the university’s proposals as “a staggering act of cultural vandalism”, with protests now escalating among students and teaching staff.
Aberdeen’s Gaelic teaching dates back to its founding in 1495, and critics of the planned closure said the university had since played a vital role in supporting Gaelic tuition, arts and literature, attracting students from Japan, the US, Germany and Canada.
Echoing protests from Gaelic scholars, the Royal Celtic Society, a cultural society whose patron is Princess Anne, said axing Gaelic degrees would have “grave consequences” for Aberdeen’s reputation and could leave the university in breach of its statutory duties.
It could exacerbate a Scotland-wide crisis in Gaelic and modern languages teaching in schools, and damage prospects for students in the Highlands and islands at a time when Gaelic is in crisis, the society added.
“The society is at a loss to understand how this situation has come to pass,” it said.
Fyfe, a Doric singer and former Scottish traditional musician of the year brought up near Aberdeen, told the university the closures would have a “devastating impact” on the north-east of Scotland. “Language is culture; it is our way of understanding different customs, traditions and cultures. We are all culturally richer for these degree courses,” she said.
Aberdeen, one of Scotland’s four “ancient” universities, is in the grip of a financial crisis after it failed to arrest a fall in student numbers, particularly from overseas, alongside the effects of rising costs and the burden of servicing its borrowing.
