Slavonic studies all but extinct in devolved nations

University courses in Slavonic and East European studies are “to all intents and purposes” no longer available in Wales and Northern Ireland, a report commissioned by the Higher Education Academy and the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies has found.

The ‘Review into the Present State of Slavonic and East European Studies in the Higher Education System of the UK’, published on 8 April, says that provisions for languages other than Russian are either at a very low level or non-existent. They have have “failed to develop in a way that reflects the social and political changes” in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, it adds.

There are no undergraduate degree courses in any Slavonic language in Wales or Northern Ireland, with the last Northern Irish course closing in 1996.