Lack of foreign language skills costly for British economy

The growing lack of foreign language skills among UK youngsters will damage the economy unless immediate action is taken, the British Academy warned last Wednesday.

In a new position paper the Academy calls 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 well-being, it says.

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 proportion of students taking the subject has dropped dramatically.

According to the latest Language Trends survey from CILT, the National Centre for Languages, the proportion of state schools where more than half of Year 11 pupils are studying a language dropped to 38 per cent in 2010.

At the same time, swinging 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’s paper argues that declining numbers of school pupils studying languages has reduced the number taking the subject at university, the paper says.

This has led to closures of university language departments, so many of those remaining are now in the most elite 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.

“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,” the paper says.

“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 because they feel demand is low. “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, or to a situation where language learning becomes even more concentrated in certain universities or parts of the country.

“This will not only have a harmful impact on the vulnerable condition of university language learning, but will also have wider detrimental impacts on UK social, cultural and economic well-being.”

Languages are increasingly important at a time when the job market is becoming more international, and are needed to ensure the UK can trade and compete with other nations, the paper suggests.

It says there is a lack of language skills right from primary school through to higher education, but universities are well placed to help boost the subject.

It sets out a number of recommendations, including encouraging and enabling students to take time out of their courses to work or study abroad, and allow students who are not taking a language degree to take classes in a language.

Universities should also work together, if necessary pooling their resources, to continue language courses at a time when money is tight.

The paper concludes: “We firmly believe that the study of languages is fundamental to the prosperity, well-being, security and competitiveness of the UK, and we therefore urge universities to place languages at the heart of their missions.”

Minister for universities and science David Willetts said: “Studying foreign languages is worthwhile in its own right; it is a window on the world.

“In addition, almost three-quarters of our international trade is with non-English speaking countries, making language skills essential to economic growth.

“The latest figures show an increase in overall language learning at university in 2009-2010 – the first increase in four years. There’s strong demand for courses in Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.

“The Government wants to increase the numbers studying modern foreign languages at all levels.”