University of Aberdeen

at the future of teaching of modern languages at the university. It was looking at three options, "all of which involve the end of single honours French, Gaelic, German and Spanish", and was engaging in consultation with student and faculty. It was stated that departmental "income does not cover even the direct costs of staff delivering Modern Languages provision before any central costs ... leading to a projected deficit for Modern Languages of £1.64m in 2023/24." The financial statements were contested by staff and UCU. At an online meeting of the University Senate on 6 December, senators voted 78–15 in favour of a motion which "called for an immediate halt in the consultation process until an overall plan is presented in detail to Senate for appropriate scrutiny." Five senators abstained. On 8 December The Gaudie reported that staff had been sent 'Risk of Redundancy' letters which stated that staff who are made redundant would receive four months pay. This contrasts with the university's severance policy which states that "the maximum redundancy package available to staff is 12 months of pay or £100,000; whatever is lower."
A group of academics from the department released a statement which described the proposed changes as "institutional vandalism". They continued "The management's self-destructive plan would see the University of Aberdeen become the first ancient university in the world not to offer language degrees in one of the most monolingual countries"
A university statement said: "Our difficulty is that this academic year, following longer term declining demand in the UK for traditional specialist language study, a total of just five students began Single Honours across our four Modern Language programmes including Gaelic."
A public petition to save Modern Languages gained over 18,600 signatures. After the submission of two motions calling to protect languages degrees at the University of Aberdeen, a debate took place in Scottish Parliament, where the university was urged to explore alternative options. …