The potential closure of language degrees at the University of Aberdeen has been met with understandable outrage across the language education sector.
We share this concern, and about the geographic “cold spots” that closures create. We also share the view that the graduates of language degrees contribute important knowledge and skills to the economy and society.
However, the reported fall in student numbers at Aberdeen – the equivalent of 62 full time first year students in 2021 to only 27 in 2023 – makes it likely that the cost of teaching and supporting students outstrips the income they contribute.
The proposed solutions to this financial unsustainability – closing all or most of the language degree programmes – are based on the assumptions that fewer and fewer young people want to study languages and that languages are expensive to run. We disagree. We believe it is possible to design language programmes that are attractive to students and financially sustainable.
