The British Academy argues that a GSCE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) should be a compulsory requirement for placement at a university. The Academy also says that more must be done to encourage young people to develop language skills.

A report on languages and research says that poor language skills prevent the United Kingdom from remaining a “world-class hub of research” and may damage the country’s economy.

Language Matters, which is the British Academy report, assesses what impact a decline in modern language is having on the United Kingdom as a research base. The report says that a lack of language skills means that UK researchers are less able to compete with their counterparts in other counters. In the global world of research, serious shortcomings and deficits undermine the government’s objective of positioning the United Kingdom as a hub of international research.

The British Academy praises the decision by University College London to require all undergraduates from the year 2012 to have a GCSE or equivalent qualification in a modern language. Students who are unable to meet this requirement will be required to take at least a half-course unit in a foreign language as part of their chosen degree.

The Academy believes that other universities in the UK will follow the example set by UCL. It would encourage students who intend to go to university, but would otherwise have been deterred from language study, to take up foreign language learning. It also sends a powerful message to schools about the importance universities place on language learning. “GCSE and A-level entry requirements for admission to individual courses are for each university to decide in line with their admissions policies,” said a spokesman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in England.

Language learning in the United Kingdom has been in a decline for several years. The British Academy report states that in 2001, twenty-two percent of students in England did not take a GCSE in a language. By the year 2008, the percentage rose to 56 percent. The report said that the government’s then decision in 2004 to make languages optional for pupils in England from the age of fourteen only aggravated the decline.

The report says that A-level language entries had decline by twenty-eight percent between 1996 and 2007. The loss of A-level candidates had led to a decline in the number of students taking language degrees which resulted in the closure of as many as a third of university language departments in seven years.

Students in Wales are allowed to drop languages for Key Stage 4. In Northern Ireland a revised curriculum introduced in 2007 requires students to study a language in the first three years of secondary education but not as GCSE level. Schools in Scotland did not have languages as compulsory courses since 2001.

Schools are expected to offer students the chance to study a modern language no later than Primary 6 until the end of Secondary 3. The government has set a target of all primary school students in England getting a chance to study foreign languages by 2010.

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