According to the BBC a demonstration has taken place at Edinburgh University’s Old College building in protest at the potential cuts to language department’s budget. It is alleged that the £400,000 in funding is to be cut from the European Languages and Cultures Division. Students, staff and politicians are outraged and have backed the protest against the cuts. Around 400 people attended the event including 20 – 30 staff who had been asked by the university not to attend.
The university did admit that it is dealing with funding issues but says there are no immediate plans to reduce language provisions. It is understandable that cuts need to be made in these bad economic times, but by having the current funding slashed to £200,000 students are worried some language subjects will no longer be available, especially minority subjects such as Russian and Portuguese.
Edinburgh University have said that no funding cuts will be made next year and every effort is being made to avoid funding cuts in the future. Many other higher education institutions are in a similar position and more and more students giving up modern languages it is difficult to see a future for modern language degree studies.