University of Nottingham to suspend MFL and Music for new students.

[HPFA]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly9zwqvn53o

Also some undefined changes to nursing courses.

I’ve got a music degree (Oxford) and I teach music and French in a comp. I think the problems are:

1. Trad academic music courses haven’t kept up with the times. Music performance and production courses are more up to date and relevant.
2. Languages are difficult in a similar way to sciences, but STEM subjects are preferred by undergrads because the career options seem well-paid.

I read recently that one of the reasons the UK is going down the tubes is the inability of people to speak foreign languages. And no, English is not that widely spoken around the world

As someone who has a music degree, this is another sad day for music. And a child who is holding offers for MFL (though not at Nottingham) I worry others might follow suit.

No such thing as a tripos at Oxford …

Gosh, Nottingham rejected me in the mid nineties and I had three As. I had started another course, left and applied again perhaps they didn’t fancy taking me on. I thought them pretty choosy though.

Yes, as far as we know. Looking at Manchester now.

If it helps at all, we went to Manchester’s open day on 11 October and the MFL talks were very well-attended. There was a real buzz around the place, and feedback on French (from DD) and Spanish (DD’s friend) was very positive.

I think that poster meant the trivium/quadrivium

My DD had the same, we are going to the University of Birmingham open day on 15th November to look at MFL as a family friend is at the University and rates it highly

You’re right it’s Cambridge. Still exists though. And because Oxford and Cambridge were the places where clergy trained, music was an important subject. Not a “nonsense” course.

@mamansloth - i think there is still a lot of buzz around MFL at many unis. My DDs are at Edinburgh and Durham, both doing a humanities subject plus Arabic. They both have friends doing the same and other languages at those unis; also at Newcastle and Leeds. All of them are enjoying the language teaching very much.

Yes all the best to those DC who had offers for MFL at Nottingham. This is really not OK for them. At least Lancaster removed the MFL courses it has dropped before anyone could apply. Former colleague of mine was telling me she had a student with a Nottingham offer which had obviously disappeared. I would think they can surely replace that with another uni application.

Tbf I don’t think @LlynTegid was talking about music or MFL when they used the phrase “nonsense courses”. Former polys tho? They have been universities for more than 30 years, I think we can drop that tag.

This is the UCAS page on withdrawn courses. The procedure it describes all seems a bit clunky if the withdrawal of the course happens before the equal-consideration date, when you’d have thought the withdrawn course could simply be vacated and replaced with another choice elsewhere.

https://www.ucas.com/applying/after-you-apply/tracking-your-ucas-application/if-your-undergraduate-course-withdrawn

@clary I thought it was UCLAN that had cut languages courses - not Lancaster Uni? Lancaster seemed totally committed to MFL when we visited

This is such sad news. When my Dd studied there 17 years ago it was a thriving department.
Hull lost its modern Language department in recent years too. These are not poor quality departments

This was predicted by many when the requirement for a MFL was downgraded in schools.

My DC applied for one of the courses on the suspended list. Fortunately, she already has offers from Exeter, Bristol and Leeds, so she's not too broken up over it.

But does anyone know if it would be possible to swap out Notts for another uni on UCAS? She applied early since she's also applying for Oxford, so I am hoping that won't lock one slot in for a suspended course...

All of them are enjoying the language teaching very much

DD and her friends were loving the language teaching at UoN and are very sad about the closure.

Hopefully, the unions won't carry out their threats to strike and the students will be supported in their final year.

Terrible. Nottingham has a great reputation in both fields. Why oh why?

Agree. I have an MFL degree and had a second brief career teaching secondary MFL. I love languages and am just off for an extended visit to a country where I will be using my primary MFL constantly.
However I do think it is outdated and the way it is taught in schools is pointless - ridiculous to have kids in classes of 20+ which v was necessary in Victorian times, when we have much better options now with AI and Internet and fantastic apps and cheap flights.
When I learned in school there was none of that. If someone genuinely wants to learn s language, go and study and work on that country. And easy to read the literature and find courses snd people to discuss it with with online. With real experts in the field, not just Nottingham lecturers. 3 (!) years studying in Nottingham with one year in a uni abroad makes no sense at all.
Let’s hope more universities pare their courses down and young people find better ways to learn without incurring debt.

And considering scrapping paediatric and mental
health nursing as well.

And for those complaining about lack of Turing ‘funding’ / just get a job instead!!!

Lancaster still has a course where you can study MFL; but the courses in (eg) French and politics are not running next year. If you search on the uni website for French you get one course.

I should add re Uni of Lancaster that a poster on another thread said it was basically streamlining the MFL courses as there were too many variants on offer before. That may well be true (I don't pretend to expertise on that un) but all the same, a number of MFL courses there are not running after this year's intake.

And now the University of Leicester is also considering closing MFL for next year...

Ds went to the open days for Nottingham, Lancaster and Leicester MFL last year.
They all seemed like a fantastic order for MFL - particularly Nottingham, Ds came out of the talk buzzing.
It’s so disappointing they are struggling for funding. Nottingham is a very traditional, wide reaching academic course with a traditional literature component (if you want to choose it)- maybe that puts too many off now.

Dd is also considering MFL at university, her best friend is considering music - they’re both year 11 now. Hoping there will be some departments still left by the time they come round to applying!