Baroness Coussins, chair of the All-Party Group on Modern Languages, has expressed her concern about funding for students taking their year abroad, in a recent debate on the impact of Government policy on universities. Her concern centres around the fact that the fee waiver to universities for students taking their year abroad will continue for students who started their course in 2011 or earlier, but that after that there is currently no fee compensation built into the plans.
She commented: ‘Language degrees are four-year courses, including a year abroad. Without this year, the quality and value of a modern language degree would be severely undermined… Languages, along with the STEM subjects, are defined as strategically important and vulnerable and, as such, receive some additional support, for example through the funding of the routes into languages programme and the language-based area studies programme.’
However, she urged the the government to review the situation as a matter of urgency, with a view to reassuring universities and prospective students that the fee waiver for the year abroad will remain, and also queried whether specialist PGCE courses for language teachers would also continue to include funded teaching practice in a foreign country.
To follow the debate, go to: http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2011-10-13a.1870.1&s=speaker%3A13922#g1889.0.