Recent research by the British Council and the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) highlights a continuing challenge to formal language learning in educational settings, as well as disparities linked to learners’ socioeconomic backgrounds. Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. What is different is that we have lost ground in recent years, as a number of positive initiatives and programs have fallen away. The UK’s return to Erasmus+ provides an opportunity to reinvigorate these efforts and ensure we take full advantage of renewed mobility opportunities.
There is a strong track record of policy support for language learning and mobility in the UK. The previous Labour government funded the National Centre for Languages (CiLT) and its project partners—directly and through funding agencies—to deliver initiatives from 2007 to 2011 across primary, secondary and further education, with the aim of inspiring language learning and fostering collaboration across the education sector.
These included the innovative Languages Work campaign and Business Language Champions project—both highlighting the value of language skills in the workplace—as well as the groundbreaking Routes into Languages (RiL) program. Under RiL, universities, colleges, and schools collaborated at a regional level to encourage student mobility and promote the take-up of languages at university and in schools.
Additionally, to help boost the number of students participating in study mobility, in 2013 the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) funded Universities UK International to deliver the UK’s first Outward Mobility Strategy through the Go International program. This helped build capacity across higher education, and produced important research on the benefits of outward mobility.
Managed by the University of Southampton, the RiL consortium of 67 English universities across nine regions was working with 2,300 schools and 87,000 young people by the end of its HEFCE funding in 2016, with a particular focus on those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Meanwhile, Education Secretary Michael Gove’s introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), including a required foreign language, helped maintain uptake at the GCSE level.
Since 2016, challenges that RiL sought to address have remained largely unchanged. Fewer students experience the benefits of language learning, whether at a basic or more advanced level. School curricula, alongside an increasingly metrics-driven education culture, mean that learners and their advisers must balance competing priorities when selecting options for GCSEs and A levels, which can make it harder to continue language study.
More positively, pockets of RiL activity continue, driven by committed and resourceful practitioners at a local level.
In the same period, the UK left the European Union and the Erasmus+ program, removing a well-established incentive for language learning and changing the landscape of student mobility. At the same time, higher education institutions have faced significant financial pressures, leading to cuts in jobs and courses, with arts and humanities disciplines often reported to be more affected than STEM subjects. Furthermore, the current review of the GCSE curriculum creates some uncertainty around the future shape and status of language qualifications.
However, the recent news that the UK will return to Erasmus+ provides renewed hope for language skills development and student mobility.
The Welsh Government’s Taith program has successfully delivered inclusive, reciprocal mobility opportunities, while the Turing scheme has helped ensure that UK students can still study abroad for defined periods.
The UK’s return to Erasmus+ provides an opportunity to reinvigorate these efforts and ensure we take full advantage of renewed mobility opportunities.
At the same time, the growth of English-taught courses across Europe, alongside strong enthusiasm for informal language learning in the UK, provides grounds for optimism. Students across all disciplines may feel increasingly confident participating in Erasmus+ placements in non-English-speaking countries. Crucially, such experiences can, in turn, help strengthen the UK’s overall language capability over time.
The enthusiastic engagement with the Duolingo Westminster Language Challenge—and Duolingo’s own data on language learning habits in the UK—suggests that the public and policymakers retain a strong appetite for language learning. As the UK prepares to rejoin Erasmus+, an important question is whether a more accessible approach to learning—focused on languages learners are motivated to study, rather than only those available in school—could help encourage greater participation in study abroad opportunities.
Pressure on public finances means that a return to large-scale, centrally funded programmes to promote language learning may be challenging in the current fiscal context. However, the government has committed, through its International Education Strategy, to providing opportunities for UK students to study and collaborate internationally. Relatively modest, targeted investment could help refresh successful initiatives such as Routes into Languages and the Go International program, supporting universities to engage students from all socioeconomic backgrounds and enabling more young people to access transformative international experiences.
