Dear friends and colleagues,

The University of Nottingham has proposed severe reductions in staffing of Modern Languages, including 3 FTE from the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies, 4 FTE from German and 2 from Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies. Last year French and Francophone Studies lost 5 staff who have not been replaced. Such cuts will result in compulsory redundancies and further undermine efforts to halt the crisis in foreign language learning in the UK. What is happening at Nottingham could be reproduced elsewhere, with an emphasis on short-term strategy to make pay savings rather than the social responsibility of publicly-funded institutions to serve long-term academic and national interests.

Members of staff in the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Nottingham have received many letters of support from colleagues around the UK. We are very grateful for these encouraging words. Many of you have asked us how you can help. Please add your voice to the campaign to protect Nottingham’s School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies as a national beacon for teaching and research in modern languages, and in Russian and Slavonic Studies. Protest letters – from subject associations, Departments and other groups, as well as from individuals – should be sent before 22 April 2016 to the Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Jeremy Gregory (jeremy.gregory@nottingham.ac.uk , Room C20 Trent Building, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD), and to the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Sir David Greenaway (david.greenaway@nottingham.ac.uk , Vice-Chancellor’s Office, Trent Building,  University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD).

With your permission, letters received will be posted on a website: http://nottinghammodernlanguagessolidarity.weebly.com/

You may also wish to sign a petition: https://www.change.org/p/jeremy-gregory-nottingham-ac-uk-defend-modern-languages-at-university-of-nottingham-fd05831b-e323-4700-af36-5bd44d58186b?recruiter=117396925&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink

Points that you may wish to raise include:

Financial background: the non-transparent levels of contribution to central University finances, which seem to prioritise building projects over the retention and treatment of teaching staff, who have worked tirelessly for the University for many years.

SSR – the staff-student ratios used as a basis for justifying cuts: the University’s proposed cuts in Russian and Slavonic Studies will result in a staff-student ratio of 1:16, at the bottom of the Faculty’s proposed range of 1:16 to 1: 20, with no allowance made for the special needs of language teaching, recognized historically in HEFCE bandings.

Quality in research and teaching: modern languages at Nottingham was ranked in the top five nationally in the last REF in terms of research power, the University’s preferred metric, compared to the University’s overall result of eighth. The Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies at Nottingham has a long tradition of outstanding teaching in its core languages (Russian, Serbian/Croatian and Slovene) and is this year celebrating the centenary of its founding. Its robust standards and broad curriculum have been regularly praised by external examiners. Our research-led teaching gives students in the Department a comprehensive understanding of Russia and southeastern Europe.

Employability: most recent graduate destination data (2013/14) indicates that 96% of our language graduates are in employment or pursuing further study, with over 80% in graduate employment or graduate level further study. Attention has been drawn to the skills deficiency in British industry concerning the lack of suitably qualified language graduates among the workforce.

National needs: relating to the specific demands for retaining high-quality provision in Russian and Slavonic Studies in the UK. HEFCE has stated the need to maintain courses relating to recent EU accession countries, especially those in Eastern Europe and the Baltic region. The Foreign Office drew attention last year to the skills deficit in Russian language as the crisis over Ukraine grew: ‘UK struggles with language of Russian diplomacy’ (16 March 2015) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31856880. GCHQ is advertising now for candidates with Russian language under the listing for ‘Russian Language Opportunities’:

https://recruitmentservices.applicationtrack.com/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-a18/candidate/jobboard/vacancy/1. The opening sentence of GCHQ’s advert serves as a reminder of the importance of the work we all do in modern language studies, and not just in a utilitarian fashion: ‘Thoughts can be lost in translation. It takes knowledge of the culture, history, politics and ideology to fully understand the original idea. And if you can do that, you can enable us to make the right choices to help safeguard national security.’ The core languages taught in Russian and Slavonic Studies at Nottingham respond to these demands. It is our contention that Universities, as publicly-funded institutions, should be aware of the need to prove their sustained contribution to the society which funds them.

We hope that by challenging the assumptions behind the University’s proposals and making a positive argument for the value of language learning and retention of staff entirely committed to their students we shall be able to strengthen Modern Languages at Nottingham rather than see a reduction in the UK’s language learning capacity in the Higher Education sector. We firmly believe in the need for further consultation to find a way forward and avoid unnecessary redundancies. We have been heartened by the support received so far from friends and colleagues outside Nottingham, and from our own undergraduate and postgraduate students who are making their own voices heard at what they see as an attack on the subject which they have chosen to study.

Kind regards in the name of all the staff in the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies

Dr David A. Norris
Head of Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham NG7 2RD
United Kingdom
(david.norris@nottingham.ac.uk)