Dear David and Tony
As you can see here, this was raised as part of our submission to the FCO
but it certainly needs building on.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmfaff/writev/fcogov/m10.htm--
It is also something the subject centre at LLAS are dealing with
http://www.llas.ac.uk/events/6335
This is going to be a vital issue after next year and we have to make the
case for the value of the Year Abroad, not only in cultural terms but also
as THE thing which sets our graduates apart and which improves both their
employability and their initial salary level, as this Hecsu document
shows:
http://www.hecsu.ac.uk/assets/assets/documents/lmi/WDGD_Nov_2010.pdf
Peter
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 2222 888
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/peter-thompson
Quoting "Dr D.R. Midgley" <[log in to unmask]>:
> I think this message should be seen by the GERMAN-STUDIES list too.
> David
>
> --
> Dr D.R. Midgley
> Reader in German Literature and Culture
> St John's College
> Cambridge CB2 1TP
> Tel. ++1223 338779
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2011 23:03:03 +0000
> From: Tony Chafer <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [FRANCOFIL] Saving the year abroad post-2012
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Dear colleagues,
>
> Many of us in English universities are very concerned that the
> four-year
> language degree will be increasingly difficult to maintain after the
> 2012 fee increase. While we welcome the government's decision to
> maintain the Erasmus fee waiver for next year, we need to persuade
> government to retain the waiver after 2012. We also need to persuade it
> to extend the waiver to countries outside the EU, so that students who
> are required to spend a year abroad in [eg Latin America, China, Japan]
> are not disadvantaged in fee terms. But this on its own will not be
> sufficient to guarantee the future of the year abroad. With other arts,
> humanities and social science degrees lasting three years, will
> students
> interested in studying languages be prepared to incur a further year of
> debt in order to take a 4-year degree programme? Or will a course with
> a
> 'minor' language route and no year abroad or no language look more
> attractive, as these can be completed in three years?
>
> Following the success of our emailing and writing campaign to keep the
> British Council assistantship scheme, can I encourage colleagues to now
> do the same and write emails/letters to both/either: the Minister for
> Higher Education, David Willetts and the Chief Executive of HEFCE, Sir
> Alan Langlands, urging them to provide targeted support for the year
> abroad under the new fees regime.
>
> At Portsmouth our Deputy Vice-Chancellor agreed to write to the
> Minister
> on this. A number of us have also written in a personal capacity to the
> Minister and have received broadly supportive - but non-committal -
> replies. It would be good if, as with the assistantship campaign, a
> large number of colleagues could now write and thus add weight to our
> case.
>
> For information I provide below a synopsis of the points made by our
> DVC
> in her letter, which colleagues may find useful in drafting their own
> letters.
>
> 1) pleased to see the recent announcement by Mr Willetts of the
> retention of the fee waiver for students who undertake study abroad
> through the Erasmus scheme. Emphasised importance of this continuing
> post-2012.
>
> 2) expressed concern that, in the context of the new fees regime that
> is
> being introduced in 2012, many students will be put off studying modern
> foreign languages because, unlike other arts, humanities and social
> science degrees, students taking language degrees follow four-year
> degree programmes, which involves them incurring a further year of debt
> for their living costs, plus a further year of fees (albeit probably at
> a reduced level) if they are not on an Erasmus programme.
>
> 3) pointed out that 25% of students on modern language degree
> programmes
> come from independent schools, as against 9% for all degree programmes.
> Suggested that this trend towards narrowing participation will
> accelerate further unless specific measures are introduced from 2012 to
> support the extra year of study that modern languages students
> undertake.
>
> 4) recommended that the following measures are considered:
>
>
> * the provision of targeted funding from the BIS/HEFCE to support the
> year abroad, for example through full bursaries or partial bursaries
> combined with interest-free loans;
> * the extension of the fee waiver to non-Erasmus placements, so that
> students electing to undertake placements outside the Erasmus scheme
> are
> not disadvantaged. (pointing out that an increasing number of students
> now take up placements in China, Central and Latin America and Africa,
> all of which are likely to be of increasing economic and strategic
> importance to the UK in future).
> 5) pointed out that any reduction in the number of students taking a
> language degree post-2012 will have an impact on the number of language
> teachers being trained, which will in turn make it much more difficult
> for the government to deliver its policy of increasing the take-up of
> modern foreign languages in schools.
>
> I apologise to Francofil colleagues living in more enlightened
> countries
> than this one for cluttering up your inbox with an issue that does not
> directly concern you. For this, I can only request your forbearance.
>
> Cordialement
> Tony Chafer
>
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