Polly McMichael

I urge you to fill in this consultation if you can - with this very helpful support from Amnesty International - although AND because ! it is heart-breaking that this country has sunk so low that Amnesty suggest in a number of cases to provide no answer as the terms of the question are so evil

YOU SIGNATURE MATTERS! Help us save Modern Languages at Leicester.

Sign the petition: www.change.org/p/save-moder...

This is a permanent research snd teaching post. Please share widely and forward to suitable candidates.

Archive on 4 - Paris with Marianne - BBC Sounds Jude Rogers revisits her afternoon in Paris with Marianne Faithfull.

This was wonderful www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

'In a House of Lords debate on 8 January, Smith said she recognised “concern…about the reduction in the number of students going into higher education to study modern foreign languages and the threats to some of those modern foreign language courses”.' 1/2

Staff fear ‘catastrophic’ impact of Nottingham ‘consolidation’ Increases to staff-student ratios could send university into a ‘death spiral’, says union leader as vice-chancellor insists institution must act now

'The institution currently has between 15 and 16 students for every staff member but wants to increase this to between 18 and 22 students, according to a “case for change” document recently shared with employees.' 5 faculties mooted to become 3 colleges.' 1/3

Coalhenge: Britain’s colossal wonders | Jonathan Glancey | The Critic Magazine Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, closed in September 2024 and was the last of its English coal-powered kind

thecritic.co.uk/issues/decem...

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Embassy concerned by under-threat language courses in Nottingham The University of Nottingham has announced proposals to suspend its modern languages courses.

Embassy concerned by under-threat language courses www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A discipline in danger | Alexandra Wilson | The Critic Magazine I have written previously for The Critic about the closure of Music departments in British universities and it gives me no pleasure to be revisiting the issue. Unfortunately, the domino effect that…

‘If things carry on as they are, there will be very few opportunities for young people to study Music at university, and therefore hardly anybody training as music teachers, and the whole system will then be stuck in a vicious cycle of decline.’ thecritic.co.uk/a-discipline...

Protest over future of University of Nottingham language courses The University of Nottingham has suspended entry for new students on modern language courses.

I cringe at this kind of disingenuous justification from Nottingham U.
"Students are telling us that the way they want to learn languages is changing... we currently have almost 2,000 students studying languages as part of their degree through our Language Centre"
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

MU Sends Open Letter to University of Nottingham on Music Course Cuts Music courses are being suspended for new students at the University of Nottingham while the university’s council decides whether to terminate the courses permanently. Read our open letter to the Univ...

Suspending music courses will have a devastating impact on musical life at the University, as well as future courses, job, and career opportunities across Nottingham and the wider East Midlands

👇 Read our open letter to the University

⛔ Second statement in one week #saveleicesterml #saveleicesterlanguages

Following last week’s formal letter to the University of Nottingham, AHGBI has now issued a second statement—this time to the University of Leicester—regarding the proposed closure of its Department of Modern Languages.

Protest over future of University of Nottingham language courses The University of Nottingham has suspended entry for new students on modern language courses.

Protest over future of university language courses www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘the progressive closure of foreign language degree programmes is especially worrying because of the desperate need for language skills in government’

“Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story” – Bob Dylan in Killarney, 24th of November 2025 Passing a point of no return. That’s what it’s about – to be crossing the Rubicon. When the singer asks rhetorical in “My Own Version of You”: What would Julius Caesar…

"Sing in me, oh Muse, and through me tell the story" - Bob Dylan in Killarney, 24th of November 2025 johnnyborgan.blog/2025/11/25/s... via @johnnyborgan

Critics of this proposal argue that the problem is not one of unsustainability but of under-resourcing. Language departments are easy targets because they tend to be relatively expensive to run, as they usually offer a large amount of contact hours and need comparatively high levels of staff. Yet the skills and intellectual rigour they foster are worth saving. As Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy argues, we need to 'safeguard' our language provision: '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. Foreign language degrees may not be the most traditionally lucrative, but do we really want to be a society that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?

I’ve been quoted in @thespectator1828.bsky.social about the importance of taking a strategic approach nationally to language provision as universities are making individual decisions to slash provision which may collectively be very bad for the national interest
www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-p...

Nottinghamshire MPs have written to @uniofnottingham.bsky.social, urging the university to reconsider proposed course suspensions and potential closures, which would significantly impact staff, students, and our wider city and county.

'It is notable that in the last Research Excellence Framework exercise the Department of American Studies at Nottingham was ranked third in the Area Studies unit of assessment and was one of the top-performing units across the whole of the University of Nottingham.' 1/2

Please email a postcard to (at least) two members of the Council of the University of Nottingham by 24th November, to explain to them all the reasons why England’s ‘global university’ should keep language degrees. Council is made up of staff members, SU Officers and some lay members, and will meet on 24th and 25th November to make a decision about whether to confirm the proposed course suspensions, or to reinstate the applications for the affected programs.

University of Nottingham Council meets on Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 to decide on the proposal to close modern languages degrees www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk/home#how-you...

AHGBI, led by Professor Sarah Wright, opposes the University of Nottingham’s move to suspend—and effectively close—all Modern Languages degrees. SRUK/CERU, led by Dr Carlos Soler Montes, has also raised concerns.

AHGBI urges immediate reconsideration.

#SaveNottinghamLanguages

savenottinghamlanguages The University of Nottingham has suspended applications to all languages degree programmes, with a view to permanent closure of all of its undergraduate languages degrees. Under the proposals, it…

Colleagues and UCU members from UoN's Department of Modern Languages have put together this wonderful guide on supporting their programmes. A lot of what they suggest is also helpful in challenging the 48 courses at risk across the university

www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk

Help save Modern Languages at UoN!

❤️

savenottinghamlanguages

Save Modern Languages at the University of Nottingham www.savemlcatnotts.org.uk

www.change.org/p/stop-the-r...

www.change.org/p/save-moder...

Happening everywhere - not just Nottingham but also Leicester now. On the horizon: more cold spots in languages provision and (crucially) access to HE language teaching for those who need to study close to home. We should be widening access, not narrowing it. Solidarity to colleagues affected ✊

Times Higher article out today explains the folly of yet more proposed closures in languages (also music, film, philosophy, and others). This time at the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham. Oversight of the changing UK HE landscape for our disciplines has never been more needed or vital.

The latest threat to UK modern languages is yet another faux pas Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists

‘given that the UK needs more graduates with languages qualifications, the task of universities is not to accelerate the decline of language learning but to find ways to bolster their student intakes’ www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/late...

'The threat to languages is particularly ironic given Nottingham’s strategy, which promises a vision of a “university without borders” and Leicester’s “Citizens of Change” agenda, aiming to promote global citizenship and inclusivity'.
Global but monoglot: how's that supposed to work?