UCML is delighted to launch a new Special Interest Group (SIG) – the Widening Participation Languages Network – which will be chaired by Dr Becky Muradás-Taylor, Associate Professor of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Leeds.
Becky’s recent research shows that universities with higher entry tariffs and students from more privileged socioeconomic backgrounds accept more students to study languages and offer a wider range of languages to degree level. Universities with below-average entry tariffs who offer languages to degree level are therefore doing so ‘against the odds’.
The network has been formed to support the vital work lower-tariff universities do to widen access to language degrees. Current members are Bangor, Chester, De Montfort, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Nottingham Trent, Oxford Brookes, Portsmouth, Reading, Sheffield Hallam, UCLan, Ulster, Westminster and York St John. Any other university with a below-average entry tariff (128 UCAS points) who offers any signed, oral, ancient or modern language to degree level is invited to join by contacting Becky at b.muradas-taylor@leeds.ac.uk.
The SIG will report to the UCML Steering Group and Executive Committee, and the SIG Chair will be a member of the Executive Committee.
