9. Discussion

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The context

This report presents a snapshot of the state of Dutch language teaching and of Low Countries Studies at British and Irish higher education institutions in 2005-06. However, a report like this can only be as good as the data on which it is built and we are aware of its limitations in that respect. Section 5 noted that 'it is highly likely that a good deal more [research activity] is to be found in the History departments of the non-participating universities.' This is true in one other respect too: section 2 highlighted the difficulty in arriving at exact figures for Dutch in IWLP (Institution-Wide Language Programmes), so what about IWLP activities in universities that did not respond to our survey? Furthermore, it is a fact that many departments outside the arts and humanities have contacts with the Low Countries through socrates/erasmus exchanges, but we have not looked into the extent of this nor, more significantly, into the linguistic preparation that may take place for such exchanges. Some of these questions will have to be left for future surveys of this sort.

The last inquiry into Dutch took place 14 years ago against a very different background. Events in Europe are as important now as they were then. In 1992 The Single European Act had just been signed and there was much discussion about the need for improved language capability for it to work. Moreover, EU membership was relatively stable. The expansion of the EU in 2004 with ten new members and nine new official languages was not accompanied by a similar discussion about language capability. Yet the position of Dutch in the pecking order of European languages has radically changed.

The higher education context is equally important for our evaluation. Since 1992 students' choices in degree programmes have changed significantly. There is a general tendency towards more vocationally oriented courses at the moment, a trend that appears to have set in the second half of the 1990s. Modern languages have suffered because of that, as have the pure sciences, for example. Whether there is a link between this and the introduction in 1998 of fees for undergraduates in England is a moot point. However, there can be little doubt that the decision in the late 1990s by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to scrap its special support for Dutch as a minority subject, contributed to Dutch being discontinued in several places.

Student numbers, programmes and levels

The tables 1 and 2, and figures 3-5 in sections 2 and 3 of this report demonstrate the decrease in numbers studying Dutch since 1992. The decision in Hull to stop recruiting for Single Honours Dutch from 2001 onwards makes itself clearly felt between 2003-04 and 2004-05: from an already very narrow base there is a sudden drop of 50%. In October 2004 the numbers fell into single digits, to just under 15% of the 1992 level. From 2006-07 there will be just one named Single Honours degree in Dutch: at UCL. The number of Dual Honours students has decreased by approximately a third since 1992. Overall this entails a halving of the number of specialist graduates in Dutch Studies, a much more dramatic figure than the 17% reduction in students of German reported in section 3b.

This must be seen in the context of a reduction in linguistic specialists in other languages, with only Spanish bucking the trend. However, in anglophone higher education it is usually through German that students enter into Dutch, and the reduction in numbers of students specialising in German is more pronounced than for other languages. Hence, numbers of Dutch specialists are not only affected by the general downward trend in languages, but also by a significant additional factor in German.

There are some positive signs, however. The number of students in the category 'other' (taking Dutch as a secondary subject alongside German) remains stable. And although a direct comparison with 1992 figures is not possible, this stability appears to have been maintained over a longer period. Similarly, the take-up of Dutch in IWLPs seems on the surface to be increasing at a healthy rate, from 73 in 2003-04 to 160 in 2005-06. Still, these figures are not stable - 2004-05 saw a dip of 15% to 62. Moreover, the numbers for IWLP and 'other' students are not sustained in any significant sense beyond the beginners level. We are definitely not making up for the loss of specialist linguists here.

A further cause for concern is the geographical distribution of Dutch in anglophone Europe: it is taught not at all in Northern Ireland and at only four institutions in the Republic of Ireland . In Scotland and Wales it is virtually non-existent. Specialist teaching takes place at three English institutions ( Cambridge , Sheffield and UCL) and just one Irish one (TCD). The English regions that traditionally have had the strongest links with the Low Countries are East Anglia , Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire . With effect from the autumn of 2006, however, the only institution in this area with a significant Dutch presence will be the University of Cambridge .

Staff

Only approximately 40% of staff teaching Dutch are permanent academics. The remainder are employed on casual contracts, usually as part-timers, often very junior or even students (in the case of Harting Scholars undergraduate students). The strength of their voice within institutions is very weak and this situation makes it easy to suspend Dutch modules and indeed programmes. It also brings a risk of deprofessionalization: the subject often lacks the depth that full-time specialist staff bring.

There are two further related staffing issues that will be important in the longer term. First, the small number of research students means that there is little scope for succession planning. The subject is simply not training the professors of Dutch for the future. This has resulted, and will continue to do so, in such staff being imported from the Low Countries . A further result of this is that the number of permanent staff teaching Dutch who are native speakers of English is extremely low. Yet a good modern languages department has a healthy balance of target language and home language natives. Native speakers of English with a high proficiency in Dutch are the best role models for our students.

'Culture' and research

We have already hinted at the likelihood that our survey has not uncovered all the teaching activity in the broader area of Low Countries Studies, nor all research activity. On the assumption of more such activity existing in History departments we carried out a preliminary search on www.history.ac.uk, a resource of the Institute for Historical Research. This revealed the name of just one individual academic in addition to those in appendix C. Needless to say, more information on this aspect of Low Countries Studies must be sought as a matter of urgency. However, the present picture leaves the impression of Low Countries Studies as a peripheral subject, that, outside a few small centres (London, Sheffield), is largely dependent on individual effort and interest.

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