Make languages mandatory at GCSE, says Hepi

Think tank calls for compulsory language GCSEs and more university funding to protect courses

Students should be mandated to take a language at GCSE to reverse declining language capability and save university language departments from closure, according to a higher education think tank.

In a report called A Languages Crisis?, the Higher Education Policy Institute says that the 2004 decision to make languages optional at GCSE should be reversed to boost the country’s language skills and encourage more students to take languages at university.