Faculty board approves new language and culture programme for humanities
The Board of the Faculty of Humanities has given the green light for the creation of a new language and culture programme. The existing language programmes will be incorporated into this new programme as of 1 September 2029.
The number of foreign language students has been declining significantly for a number of years, with the result that many foreign language programmes have actually become “minor languages”. Keeping these programmes running as separate courses is often seen as detrimental to their quality and is also expensive. A frequently heard criticism is that it is no longer possible to conduct proper research if programmes become too small. The new language and culture programme is intended to provide a solution.
Incidentally, the faculty has previously stated that this is not a “cost-cutting exercise”, but a necessary “renewal of the field”. The one does not exclude the other, but in any case it cannot become more expensive, because the UvA will have to tighten its belt in all areas in the coming years.
The programmes that will be incorporated into the new programme (see box) have seen a significant decline in the number of Bachelor's students in recent years. According to the UvA Factbook, the programmes mentioned above will see a decline of 34 per cent compared to the 21|22 academic year.
* Arabic language and culture
* German studies
* French language and culture
* Hebrew language and culture
* Italian studies
* Modern Greek language and culture
* Slavic languages and cultures
* Scandinavian studies
* Spanish and Latin American studies
Romanian
Such a decline seems endemic among the lesser-known languages: over the years, all kinds of programmes have been discontinued or merged with similar programmes elsewhere in the country. Romanian, Portuguese, Finnish and Hungarian are examples of languages that disappeared a long time ago. Other foreign languages remained, but were given a different, more regional approach with contemporary themes.
For example, Scandinavian Studies, Italian Studies and German Studies actually originate from language and literature studies that were merged into regional studies with a language component. But those regional studies are now also being incorporated into the new language and culture programme. The content of the new programme will be developed in the coming period. The faculty councils will also be involved in this process. The accreditation organisation NVAO must also approve the new programme.
Future-proof
The faculty sees the new programme as a “renewal” of the foreign language programmes, offering “future-proof education” in the field of languages and cultures to “new generations of students”. The starting point is to further deepen language and cultural expertise “on the basis of a broader range of social issues”. In essence, this is a continuation of the interdisciplinary approach of regional studies, but on an even broader scale. The faculty expects this approach to appeal to “a larger group of prospective students”. Whether this will be the case will become clear after 2029.
