Preface

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The last assessment of the state of Low Countries Studies in Great Britain and Ireland dates from 1992. Since then, much has changed. Within the British and Irish communities as a whole, the climate for language study has changed, as EU enlargement has brought more "lesser studied" languages competing for students' attention. Within UK education policy, Dutch as a discipline has lost support - symbolically in that Dutch is no longer supported as a minority language by Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), and very concretely in the discontinuation of Dutch as a subject in a number of institutions. More positively, initiatives like the development of the Virtual Department of Dutch and other regular activities such as our Undergraduate Student Day reflect an ongoing strong commitment to and interest in maintaining the subject within these islands.

Against this changed background, it is high time to take stock once more of the state of Dutch Language and Low Countries Studies in these islands so that we - the ALCS and other interested bodies - have an informed basis on which to plan for the health of the discipline in the years to come. The following report offers food for thought, showing an overall decline in numbers taking Dutch and, simultaneously, a growing tendency to study Dutch and the Low Countries as a smaller part of inter- or multidisciplinary degrees and research initiatives. There is without doubt a significant net loss in expertise in the subject, but, at the same time, a growing awareness of Dutch studies amongst a wider audience, which represents an enrichment of the discipline in one way at least. This is particularly obvious in my own field of German and Germanic linguistics, where - as a result of a series of conferences since 2000 - British and Irish scholars of larger Germanic languages are far more aware of current research of the Dutch language than they were a decade ago. Still, there is no doubt that continued work is needed to maintain and support Low Countries Studies in these islands, and the Discussion section of this report presents a number of concrete recommendations that we in the ALCS and others will need to address if we are to ensure the continued health of Low Countries Studies in Great Britain and Ireland.

I commend the report and its recommendations to you warmly.

Dr Nicola McLelland
President, Association for Low Countries Studies

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