MFL expertise

[Katiecan]

Does anyone with MFL expertise know if Sheffield Uni went ahead with their controversial change to MFL teaching - as detailed in news report here?

https://www.thestar.co.uk/education/furious-students-accuse-university-of-sheffield-of-gross-misconduct-over-course-change-3226484

if so, that makes us wary of choosing Sheffield for MFL. Are we right to be?

Where else is good for languages - NOT literature heavy (so no Oxbridge, Durham or Bristol) please. Lancaster and Exeter on our radar and DC’s teacher rates Southampton. But what about Midlands/North? Trying to draw up a list of unis to visit but time/money pressures will probably mean we onl get to 3 or 4 this summer

thank you for reading

DD is at Sheffield doing French and Spanish. She's enjoying the course and loves the uni. As an alumni I am biased but I think it's a lovely place to be a student. We had a friend who was a lecturer there long ago and he reassured us all would be well. His neighbour was a recently retired lecturer and also said positive things. DDs Sheffield offer was the same as Ncl and higher than Notts but she didn't want to go to Notts as we live here. And Ncl is where her sister is.

@travelban interesting. They want ABB (same as everywhere else almost) for their modern languages degree. Quite hard to find a decent insurance option

@stickygotstuck just checked and Northumbria don’t offer any foreign languages now. Must have closed their language department!

@lightdrizzle yes, like the look of Nottingham v much!

@NotNowFGS can you answer the question in my original post by any chance as you have DD at Sheffield? Was v keen on Sheffield until I read the article (linked in original post). Notts, Sheffield and Newcastle all want ABB according their websites?

Manchester, its possible to do a degree without having to even look at literature BUT you cannot take 3 languages there.

If your child is intent on doing 3 languages, that will limit their choice of universities quite a lot anyway. Also if they do end up doing 3, the amount of "content" modules they do will be very limited, they will have very few credits left once the mandatory "language" modules are out of the way. I was going to do 3 myself but ended up doing 2 and I'm glad I did for that reason.

Reading is v good for MFL and has an excellent, well established year abroad programme.

Bath has limited offers for post A level mfl joint honours if you haven’t studied a combination of French, German or Spanish. If you have studied Russian A level or Italian, there’s no course for you. They also go so far as to say native speakers won’t find year 1 very challenging. There seem to be fewer slightly fewer options than other elite universities. But it’s just my opinion.

Given OPs kid wants to do French and Spanish post a-level plus one other, I'm not sure what relevance that is. I'd say the main issue with Bath for this person is they only offer a 2-language degree pathway.

@Phos. I was responding to someone else. Bath is 100% right in offering joint honours with 2 MFLs. Depth is better. You are right. Three limits options. I find it interesting that people quote universities wuth NO MFL department. All university MFL departments have the year abroad partner universities. Reading isn’t remotely unique or different.

@Katiecan That's just shocking. Not that unexpected what with the huge decline in MFL ons schools. But sad, it was a great department.
Sorry about the out of date info. Should have checked first!

I agree with you re Reading. Probably one distinguishing feature is that it offers Modern Greek and BSL which aren't done everywhere but that's only interesting if those languages appeal! Maybe I'm snobbish but I wouldn't say Reading screamed prestige or good reputation amongst employers, especially if compared with the other universities OP mentioned.

Re Nottingham; beyond the MFL considerations; more broadly it is a very nice campus university, centrally located in England with good transport links, in a large city with a low cost of living, on the circuit for all the big music, comedy and arts gigs. Both Nottingham University and Nottingham Trent University are massive which means there is a huge student population and consequently services to meet their wants and needs.

DD1 had offers from Newcastle and Bristol and after much soul searching (not so much with regards to Bristol whose MFL seemed to have been relegated to a dingy outbuildings and whose pitch was all about the prestige of attending Bristol University) - she opted for Nottingham. Her teaching was excellent.

I met DH at Nottingham @lightdrizzle - we were each at different unis but met there during a sports competition weekend ❤️ It’s a great uni. We not looking at Bristol at all - too sprawling, too pricey, too literature heavy for MFL…. Glad your DD happy with Nottingham

@Katiecan Have sent you a PM.

We had Reading down to visit @Tinytigertail as wants BBB so possible insurance. But I was reading another thread where someone mentioned Surrey and I looked it up and it seems even better (BBB too). Will try and visit both before November if we can coz can’t get a feel from the virtual campus tours on You Tube

DNiece graduated from Sheffield in 2022. The changes did go through.

She didn't think the changes ended up being as negative as she had thought they would be, but she still wasn't happy about the changes or the attitude towards students during the process.

Yay! You have answered the question in my original post. Thank you. That’s Sheffield off our list then

@LightDrizzle
Bristol MFL has not moved. Not relegated anywhere. The reason they talk about the quality of the university is because it matters. Lots of their MFL courses are highly ranked but it’s what you do after uni that matters and plenty of Bristol grads are ambitious. Like Cambridge, they won’t have that many using their MFLs at work. It’s about transferable skills and quality of lecturers. Not flashy buildings!

They didn’t talk about the quality of the university, they talked about the prestige of attending, that may seem like splitting hairs to you but I think it complacent. Perhaps if the prestige of attending is its own reward, they don’t feel the need to provide a good undergraduate learning experience? We don’t know, they didn’t bother making a case for it. At Newcastle they were spoken to about why choose MFL and why Newcastle for it. At Nottingham the speaker said he wasn’t going to talk about why choose MFL because their presence meant they had that information, he talked about why Nottingham for MFL and made a brilliant case for it. Whichever donkey ended up organising the Bristol MFL open day did a very poor job and barely tried to sell the course. It was all about the prestige of the university and a presumption that if you had the chance, you wouldn’t choose to go elsewhere. When they were given the tour, her languages were based in small, dingy premises a bit out of the way.

I also think it is really important that students have passion for their subjects and I’d want my daughter to enjoy her course, not just grin and bear it for the leg-up the career ladder. I think admissions tutors and academics at good universities care too. I was at Cambridge and then Oxford and perhaps I was fortunate in my colleges, but they were not complacent about their prestige and they wanted students who were passionate about exploring their subjects and stretching their minds.

There’s no evidence students don’t like Bristol. You are reading far too much into a talk! I know my DD volunteered on open days to speak to prospective students when she was there and obviously told them about the courses she took, Did you not speak to a student or lecturers?

You obviously don’t know Bristol. The MFL department is not out of the way! From what exactly? I can see you and DD don’t like Bristol but you seem overly persuaded by flashy presentations that exude “passion”. To say all the students at Bristol do not have “passion” is somewhat rude. Actually I think it’s an over used phrase. As at Oxbridge, most MFL students won’t use their MFLs after graduating in a vocational way. So passion for a decent job might count for more. That’s the way DD looked at it. Means to an end whilst enjoying the degree. Looking for 100 dead keen passion filled MFL students might be a stretch! Looking for 100 career minded Bristol students is probably easier. When we went not a word about prestige. It was all about MFL. Maybe you had selective hearing?

@TizerorFizz - do you have to be so dogmatic on these threads? It's really tiresome when people want to chat about their DC's choices without getting into a row.

Do you have to follow me around? Stalking? I am not going to stop calling people out who write what I think is rubbish. The post about Bristol is a snapshot. A few hours spent there. It’s an opinion but mine is valid too. At least mine comes from years of visiting! The info about Bristol is highly edited and also untrue - mostly. So no. I am going to continue to say what I think. And so can you. It’s the freedom we enjoy.

@TizerorFizz
I know very little about Bristol, I didn’t accompany her. We knew it had an excellent reputation. I assume it is excellent in many areas. Their MFL open day was their opportunity to showcase their offer to prospective students and on that day, they failed to do so.

Don't be silly - I'm not stalking you. DD has 5 offers for MFL (not Bristol!) so I'm going to be on this board for a while. I just think you should tone it down a bit.

OP asked a specific question. Glad she did as Sheffield is on DD's list.

Anyone has any opinions with regards to Liverpool, Lancaster, Manchester or Newcastle for MFL?

Ps Dd has offers for all of them but really struggling to decide