Languages (Not) For All

Second and third year students have been left outraged after the university has introduced new plans to give free language courses to all first years while making older students pay.

Under the new scheme, introduced this year, all first year students will be entitled to a free Languages For All course of their choice in a bid by the university to improve the job prospects of students. The Vice-Chancellor told LFA last year that he would pay the £105 fee for each first year out of his own budget in a desperate attempt to increase York’s position in graduate job league tables.

Margaret Ferguson, the LFA Director told Vision: “The Vice-Chancellor would like York to be a university that stands out because it has a global dimension. The international element that students will have will also help the employability of York graduates. In a tie break situation in a interview, having a range of language skills could make the difference.”

Already LFA has been inundated with first years keen to take advantage of the new offer with 1600 students already registered for courses compared to 500 at the same point last year. LFA have had to quadruple the number of courses available in exotic languages such as Arabic and Chinese and have spent the summer recruiting new staff.

But second and third years have already expressed their disgust at the new move.

One second year Politics student who was keen to study Arabic, but who was unable to afford the £105 registration fee told Vision: “The University has totally let down second and third year students. We all know that money is tight but the University has got to be fair about what it’s offering. It seems to be that the University has tried to make a cheap marketing move to try and encourage students to come to York, but in the process has completely disregarded current students.”

Rich Nicholls, a second year Environmental Economics and Environmental Management student studying French through LFA said: “I just think it’s absolutely disgusting. It’s totally unfair on us, and if they have this money to spend then why are they spending it on languages and not on something that affects everybody, such as providing extra porters”

Ferguson agreed that second years had been left at a disadvantage: “I can fully understand the disappointment of other students and that is something that we are concerned about. It was discussed originally and I think it is something that the university would like to extend.

“We would love everybody to be able to do a language for free, but it’s an issue of resources. I just wish I had a big pot of money so I could give everybody language courses, but we have to start somewhere.”

A university spokesman said: “The Vice-Chancellor has allocated funds for the introduction of free LFA courses to first years. In an ideal world, we would like to extend the opportunity to other groups but we have neither unlimited resources nor unlimited capacity. Students can continue the courses during their second and subsequent years by paying an annual fee of about £100.”