“The downturn for foreign languages in Denmark should be stopped.”<\/p>\n
This is according to two of Denmark’s eight university rectors, Hanne Leth Andersen, (Roskilde University, RUC), and Per Holten-Andersen (Copenhagen Business School, CBS) on 15th January in an article in the Danish newspaper Berlingske.<\/p>\n
The solution, according to these and other rectors in the Danske Universiteter interest group is to build language centres at Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen and only retain major languages such as English and German at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) and Aalborg University (AAU).<\/p>\n
The reason is that language programmes in Denmark are in crisis, and are being offered to a much lesser degree than previously.<\/p>\n
This is clear when you look at the websites of the six universities outside Aarhus and Copenhagen. From the universities’ websites it can be seen that neither the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the IT University of Copenhagen, or RUC offer classic study programmes in foreign languages.<\/p>\n
At SDU and AAU you can study English, German and Spanish (and the rectors propose maintaining English and German at both places). In addition, SDU\u2019s master\u2019s programmes such as the Business, Language and Culture programme (Negot) offers a degree in international negotiation which consists of half economics, half language and culture in Arabic and Chinese respectively. But these programmes and Spanish have already opted to stop admitting new students in the coming years. There are, in other words, not that many subjects to pool together in the large universities.<\/p>\n
“It is mostly a matter of us making it clear that we all agree that it is UCPH and AU that will provide actual language study programmes,” says RUC rector Hanne Leth Andersen. “Languages should continue to be used in other universities’ programmes, as the whole point is that we need the languages. It’s a big loss in quality if Danish university graduates can only speak Danish and English.”<\/p>\n
“You should be able to read texts in other languages to access other sources, voices and epistemologies. There are programs where language is a distinct component, for example, like on the language profiles of RUC, where you have the option of choosing German, French or Spanish in the social sciences and humanities,” she says.<\/p>\n
\n
\nHanne Leth Andersen says that she does not therefore want fewer linguistic options in education. Quite the contrary. But we should distinguish between pure education programmes in languages that should (almost) only be offered at UCPH and AU, and education programmes including a language element that will be available in several places.<\/p>\n
Should the remaining language subjects be split between Aarhus and Copenhagen?<\/p>\n
“Yes, we expect this. When it comes to the smaller language subjects \u2013 small because they have few employees, not small necessarily in terms of being a small language \u2013 UCPH and AU should decide between them who should offer what. ”<\/p>\n
The problem for language subjects today is that they typically do not attract enough students to be economical. The government taxameter subsidy per student is also too small, and too many students drop out. This is the toxic cocktail that had the University of Copenhagen in 2016 \u2013 in the face of protests \u2013 closing small language programmes like Finnish, Tibetology, Thai, Greece studies and Indonesian. More closures are being threatened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2005, there were 97 language education programmes nationwide. Today we are down to 56. This is something that approaches a reduction by half in ten years,” says Jens Erik Mogensen, who is Vice Dean for Education at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Copenhagen and chairman of the university’s language programme. “The trend will continue if we don\u2019t find a better way of financing these subjects, as the financing behind them is the reason why they are closing.”<\/p>\n
According to Jens Erik Mogensen, who is also the UCPH member of a reference group which is to make recommendations for a future government language strategy, the new language powerhouses will make a big difference.<\/p>\n
“The centres are basically an extension of a consortium we have already set up at UCPH between this university and two university colleges Metropol and University College Capital. Here we work together to support language programs with joint calls of PhD positions, researchers that are half employed by universities and half by the professional colleges, and a joint offering of courses. We are trying to make a consistent language teaching all the way through the entire education system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The A.P. M\u00f8ller and Chastine Mc-Kinney M\u00f8ller Foundation for General Purposes has donated DKK 12 million to the UCPH cooperation in order to improve an early language start in schools, says Jens Erik Mogensen.<\/p>\n
For K\u00f8benhavns Universitet giver koncentrationen af sproguddannelser ogs\u00e5 andre nye muligheder. Efter at CBS har udfaset undervisningen i sprog, har KU overtaget portef\u00f8ljen og udbyder nu uddannelse i sprog med erhvervsfokus.<\/p>\n
\u00bbVi har for nylig f\u00e5et akkrediteret kandidatuddannelsen Interkulturelle Markedsstudier sammen med CBS,\u00ab siger Jens Erik Mogensen. \u00bbDet er KU’s f\u00f8rste cand.ling.merc. Vi fik 105 ans\u00f8gninger og optog 44 studerende.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Den nytiltr\u00e5dte uddannelsesminister S\u00f8ren Pind (V) roste id\u00e9en om, at universiteterne sl\u00e5r pjalterne sammen for at forbedre sproguddannelserne. Da Uniavisen m\u00f8dte ham 17. januar, kaldte han rektorernes plan for en \u00bbmodreaktion\u00ab mod den konkurrence mellem universiteterne, som efter hans udsagn havde skabt \u00bbspekulation\u00ab om at optage s\u00e5 mange studerende som muligt hver is\u00e6r – for at opn\u00e5 et h\u00f8jere statstilskud – i stedet for at v\u00e6gte kvaliteten h\u00f8jest.<\/p>\n
\u00bbJeg synes, man er begyndt at lytte til den kritik, der har v\u00e6ret,\u00ab sagde Pind.<\/p>\n
Uddannelsesministeren har ogs\u00e5 over for Weekendavisen givet udtryk for, at han synes, det er en skam, at studerende ikke l\u00e6ngere kan fransk og tysk, n\u00e5r de begynder p\u00e5 universitetet. Den udvikling er kendt p\u00e5 KU.<\/p>\n
\u00bbVi oplevede, at de studerende efter den seneste gymnasiereform ikke l\u00e6ngere kunne hovedsprogene, og derfor lancerede vi allerede i 2011 vores egen sprogsatsning,\u00ab siger Jens Erik Mogensen, der kalder ordningen for en succes.<\/p>\n
\u00bb4.500 KU-studerende har indtil nu modtaget sprogundervisning p\u00e5 grund af vores sprogsatsning. Prim\u00e6rt har de l\u00e6rt at l\u00e6se tyske og franske tekster bedre, og planen er, at flere uddannelser skal have integreret sprogkompetencerne i selve den undervisning, de enkelte studerende f\u00f8lger.\u00ab
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rectors to save embattled language subjects by pooling them together in two of eight Danish universities. The plan is that the large universities will be language teaching ‘powerhouses’ in all subjects and through the entire education system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":42539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-uncategorized","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n