Powder, Rouge, and Revolution: Learning French Through Make-Up We’re already into our fourth week of teaching at Stirling and it’s great to see students back in the classrooms again after the summer, learning about everything from the French Atlantic slave tra…

No, we didn't make it up; we did it. 'Apprentissage actionnel' in..... well..... action: frenchatstirling.wordpress.com/2025/10/08/p...

European Day of Languages 2025 Happy European Day of Languages, everyone! Yes, it’s that time of year again and, once again, we’re celebrating by showing off the fantastic range of languages spoken by staff and students across o…

European Day of Languages! frenchatstirling.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/e...

A month in books: August 2025

Literature Ireland's Translation Grant programme invites international publishers to apply for a contribution towards the translation of Irish literature from English or Irish into another language.

Last month we received copies of 10 titles in 10 languages:

UK advertises contract to run Erasmus scheme Tender indicates ministers are preparing ground to rejoin European student swap programme

UK advertises contract to run Erasmus scheme

www.ft.com/content/c79d...

Excellent post by @matthewbarnard.phd which includes this insightful point about UKHE's 'hostility towards intellectualism' 👇

Thank you for writing the piece @matthewbarnard.phd

'We rarely describe care and pastoral work as leadership'

Concern over plunging demand for arts and humanities A-levels - Research Professional News Experts say “ridiculously narrow” UK post-16 education system is overweighting scientific courses

And yet these will be the key subjects as creativity, empathy and critical thinking become the most important facets of living in an automated world. We have got almost everything about post-16 education wrong. We need to go back to the beginning. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

Lost in translation Even in the language app era there are benefits to learning a foreign tongue

' Across the EU, nearly half of all pupils in upper secondary education learn two or more foreign languages.' www.ft.com/content/c9f3...

Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy, the UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences, said it was "sensible for universities to have more regional conversations about how they provide languages to students". But he believed the bigger and "longer-term question is, what languages do we think we need strategic provision in nationally, and how should that be safeguarded? "It would for example be geopolitically unwise to find ourselves without capable Russian or Chinese speakers. While it's easy to turn off the tap, it's much harder to turn it back on.

Will we accidentally lose our capability in geopolitically key languages as universities close provision?
on.ft.com/3Hw6eq3

Students in England shun foreign languages at A-level, report finds Ofqual figures show a sharp fall in pupils taking exams in French and German

New @hepi-news.bsky.social report shows continued fall in foreign language study in England at A-level.

Language teacher recruitment consistently falls well below government targets – in 2024, just 43% of the target was reached.

on.ft.com/4l5SYX4
(Full report www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/07/31/n...)

To be clear, there is much to disagree with in this piece too!

Dundee’s troubles and the state of the sector For all the damning findings of the Gillies report into the University of Dundee, David Duncan argues that the wider problems with funding in Scotland must form part of the debate

Worrying times for universities but 'courts and councils [...] should ensure that senior officers and trade union reps are enabled to challenge heads of institutions and bring any concerns they have to the governing body'. wonkhe.com/blogs/dundee...

NEW on Wonkhe: The composition of REF panels is a litmus test for how seriously the sector takes its commitments to diversity, argue Louise Bracken, Elizabeth Stokoe, Nick Brook, and Rachel Woolley buff.ly/j7UElxW

PhD Studentship: Insurgent Temporalities: Fascism as a Global Anti-Universalist Project at Maynooth University, National University of Ireland Maynooth Explore a PhD Studentship: Insurgent Temporalities: Fascism as a Global Anti-Universalist Project. Apply today and discover more PhD opportunities at jobs.ac.uk.

Two fully-funded 4 year PhD positions on this fascinating project about the temporalities of Global fascism, one focused on South Africa and one on another context outside of Italy or Germany. In a great department with a wonderful supervisor. Share widely. www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNU289/p...

3-year post French language programme coordinator, Dublin (Trinity): universityvacancies.com/trinity-coll...

In Conversation with Professor Dame Angela McLean: The Humanities and Social Sciences in Policymaking Hear from Dame Angela on the value of the humanities and social sciences in delivery of the Government Chief Scientific Adviser’s (GCSA) priorities in putting…

On Monday 7 July the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean will be discussing the value of the humanities and social sciences in the delivery of her priorities.
Watch along on the livestream at 2.30pm
vimeo.com/event/5202389

2025 French Finalists It’s graduation week 2025 and time to offer congratulations to all the Stirling students for whom this is such an important moment. But a special congratulations to our wonderful 2025 finalists in …

Woo hoo!! Our finalists at Stirling graduate today. We are so proud of you! frenchatstirling.wordpress.com/2025/06/25/2...

Regrettably, Foreign Languages continue to be marked too harshly at GCSE. Nobody wants ‘easy’ grades, but fairness is a good starting point.

@ucflangs.bsky.social

Ce week-end, il fera plus de 30 degrés presque partout en France.
Certains iront chercher un coin d’ombre. D’autres, un bassin.
Et si on vous disait que l’histoire de la piscine commence… dans un vivier à poissons de la Rome antique ?
➡️ https://l.franceculture.fr/4D7

The Education Committee wants to understand what is needed to secure a sustainable financial future for the Higher Education sector.

Share your views: committees.parliament.uk/work/9012/hi...

Certainly a worrying time. This (paywall), from a corner of the Anglosphere recently, is more positive about University as an effective route out of poverty www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

1 year post: Commissioning Editor or Senior Commissioning Editor for Modern Languages and Postcolonial Studies

Find out more about our Commissioning Editor / Senior Commissioning Editor role. Applications close on Monday 30th June ⬇️

And on and on it goes....

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

Two 4-year fully-funded PhD studentships available at UCL for Black British candidates. One in History of the legacy of Transatlantic slavery and reparations; the other on reparations and the media/culture focusing on reparations and the media/culture. Here's the History one. 1/2

University of Aberdeen's plans to cut modern language degrees were 'rushed' - review The University of Aberdeen says it accepts there were

A review by @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social into how their consultation on Modern Languages programmes has been handled last year, found decision-making was unstructured and dominated by finances. The university said it accepted there had been "missteps".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Universities on the brink? Education Committee launches new inquiry - Committees - UK Parliament The Education Committee has today launched a new inquiry into the financial viability of universities as they face the challenges of rising costs and falling numbers of international student...

committees.parliament.uk/committee/20...

Graphic for a Special Issue of the Journal of Romance Studies: Journal cover displayed to the left, the cover is a warm white with a decorative square tile in the centre, the journal's title is in a slim mid green font. Behind the cover sits a close up of the decorative tile from the journal's front cover, decorated in blue, green and yellow with a floral motif. On top sits text that reads 'ECOMODLANG: GREENING THE FIELD OF LANGUAGES AND CULTURES Edited by Armelle Blin-Rolland, Margaret C. Flinn, and Martín Veiga'. A white Liverpool University Press logo and a white Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies, School of Advanced Study University of London logo sit at the top. Below sits a green button with white text that reads 'special issue'.

🌿 A new special issue of Journal of Romance Studies explores how language teaching & research can address ecological crises. Featuring global voices, eco-pedagogies & cultural insights.
Read more: bit.ly/ECOMODLANG
@ilcs.bsky.social @erieriverbirch.bsky.social‬ @eedgington.bsky.social #envhum ‬

AI can’t match the human art of translation | The Observer Two translators and a Nobel-winning novelist illuminate an undervalued skill

🔦 Two #translators and a Nobel-winning novelist illuminate the undervalued skill of #translation
observer.co.uk/culture/book...
via @observeruk.bsky.social