Abstract
This chapter takes as its starting point the government’s recognition that languages in Higher Education are strategically important and vulnerable, considers the trends which gave rise to this classification and explores the role that higher education can play in rebuilding the UK’s capacity to communicate with and understand the world. It argues that universities are in a very strong position to build capacity in tomorrow’s graduates, to address national and international strategic needs. Degrees in languages are already developing a wide range of skills that have been identified as needed by employers across a range of sectors. Increasing numbers of graduates in other disciplines are entering the workforce equipped with at least some skills in an additional language as a result of provision in institution-wide language programmes. While departments conducting language-based research and delivering degrees remain vulnerable, they are in a strong position to make an evidence- and demand-based case for the importance of their disciplines
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Notes
- 1.
Data obtained through the HEFCE interactive data set: http://www.hefce.ac.uk/analysis/supplydemand/ug/ November 2016.
- 2.
Analysis of data from surveys of first-year undergraduates in successive years showed that 48–54% agreed that these interventions had influenced their decision to study languages at university (Gallagher-Brett 2016: 16).
- 3.
For information on Erasmus+ see the website: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/.
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Wyburd, J. (2018). Building Capacity in UK Higher Education. In: Kelly, M. (eds) Languages after Brexit. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65169-9_15
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