The British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Association of School and College Leaders, the British Council and Universities UK have produced a report encouraging a national strategy for languages. The document recognises the vital role languages must play in the UK’s future and suggests a number of ways we might collectively correct the decline in languages study.
The paper calls on the Government to invest in languages education from primary level to HE, as well as reinforcing the importance of languages research in a global economy.
The document is broken down into short- and medium-term actions, including the creation of an Advanced Languages Premium (on the model of the Advanced Maths Premium), the addressing of severe grading at GCSE and A-Level, and funding for Higher Education.
UCML Chair, Professor Claire Gorrara, contributed to round tables that fed into the Strategy, and UCML is fully supportive of the call for action the report represents.