yes, please add my name and affiliation, and thank you for taking the
initiative on this.
Susanne
--
Susanne Kord
Professor and Head of Department
Hon. Secretary, English Goethe Society
Editor, Publications of the English Goethe Society (PEGS)
German Department
University College London
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
Tel. (0)20/7679 3103
FAX (0)20/7679 0157
Main (0)20/7679 7120
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/german/aboutus/staff/kord.htm
> From: Peter Thompson <[log in to unmask]>
> Organization: University of Sheffield
> Reply-To: Peter Thompson <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:08:44 +0100
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: QUB letter
>
> Dear all
> Below is the draft of a letter to the VC at Queen's
> University Belfast about the closure of German there. If you would like to
> add your signature to this appeal for a reconsideration of the decision
> then please let me know ([log in to unmask]) as soon as possible.
> Senate at Queen's is meeting on Tuesday and we need to get this appeal to
> them by the weekend. It would be good to be able to append the names of as
> many Heads of German as possible.
> Thanks in advance for your support
> Peter
> -----
> The Vice-Chancellorıs Office
> Queenıs University of Belfast
> University Road
> Belfast BT7 1NN
> 17 June 2009
>
>
> Dear Vice-Chancellor,
>
> As academics and university teachers of Modern Languages, we are dismayed
> to learn that Queenıs University is considering closing its Department of
> German.
>
> Qualifications in German, as in other major European languages, are highly
> important in order to make graduates employable in the international job
> market. Moreover, since German is integrated into a School of Languages,
> Literatures and Performing Arts, one component of such a School cannot be
> removed without damaging the viability of the rest. The Level 1 intake at
> Queenıs is regularly between 20-30 students. These students are on a joint
> degree pathway with other subjects; the majority are with French and are
> invariably of an extremely high quality. This number has held steady and
> even slightly increased over the years at a time when university student
> numbers for German have fallen in many other parts of the UK. The German
> area has been continually developing new and challenging courses to meet
> the needs of todayıs students.
>
> Besides developing the syllabus, German staff at Queenıs have also been
> active in producing research of high quality. In the past year alone they
> have raised £100,000 in external funding: a £90,000 joint AHRC/DFG award
> for a 3-year collaborative research project with the University of
> Freiburg and £10,000 for two British Academy awards. They continue to
> publish material of high quality and it is difficult to see what grounds
> of academic policy there can be for ending an operation which is working
> successfully in difficult times. It is equally difficult to see an
> economic argument for closing a department whose small size three
> lecturers and a DAAD lector must make it relatively inexpensive.
>
> Foreign language competence is a vital part of the intellectual culture of
> a nation as well as its economic strength. The population of the
> German-speaking area of the EU numbers some 100 million and has long been
> one of our most important trading partners. German literature, music and
> culture together contribute to the common cultural reserves of Europe from
> which Britain is gradually removing itself. The decision to close German
> at Queenıs will only worsen the language skills deficit in the UK which
> as was recently stressed in the British Academyıs position paper Language
> Matters already damages the economic and cultural performance of the UK
> by comparison with most of its EU competitors. We urge you to reconsider
> this decision.
>
> Yours sincerely
>
> Prof. Ritchie Robertson, FBA, St Johns College Oxford
> Dr Peter Thompson, University of Sheffield
> Prof. Anne Fuchs, University College Dublin
> Prof. Karen Leeder, New College, Oxford
>
> --
> Dr Peter Thompson
> Director, Centre for Ernst Bloch Studies
> http://shef.ac.uk/ernstbloch/)
> Senior Lecturer in German
> Department of Germanic Studies
> Jessop West
> 1 Upper Hanover Street
> Sheffield S3 7RA
> tel: 0114 222 4907
> fax: 0114 275 1198
>
> --
> Dr Peter Thompson
> Director, Centre for Ernst Bloch Studies
> http://shef.ac.uk/ernstbloch/)
> Senior Lecturer in German
> Department of Germanic Studies
> Jessop West
> 1 Upper Hanover Street
> Sheffield S3 7RA
> tel: 0114 222 4907
> fax: 0114 275 1198
>
> Von einem gewissen Punkt an gibt es keine Rückkehr mehr. Dieser Punkt ist
> zu erreichen.
> Kafka
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