Seven Russell Group unis plan to join up courses with each other ‘to keep them going’

Um, eight of the UK’s leading unis – including seven Russell Group unis – are contemplating joining up some of their courses to save money.

Management from the N8 group of universities are discussing ways to merge their language departments with those at other unis, so these courses become cheaper for them all to run.

The N8 group is formed of research-led unis in the north of England. It consists of seven Russell Group unis – Durham University, the University of Leeds, the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester, Newcastle University, the University of Sheffield and the University of York – plus Lancaster University.

The deputy vice-chancellor of Newcastle University, Professor Nigel Harkness, told the Financial Times that these eight unis had become “initial scoping” of how they could merge their language departments. He explained: “At one end of the scale, you can share best practice in teaching – for example, exploring how AI could be used in language learning. At the other end… shared degree provision, which is incredibly complex and not something we’re directly exploring.”

Uni students vibing on their year abroad

A different academic said to the Financial Times that even the most prestigious Russell Group unis are “thinking they might need to share courses in languages to keep them going”.

Different unis could share modern languages professors. This would save the unis from having to all pay for as many staff (and would result in fewer jobs for academics).

None of these ideas for joining departments are set in stone yet – the Russell Group unis are just looking into what their options are for making language courses cheaper to run.

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Someone tell the teenagers that language students get to go on the best trips

Languages are becoming less and less popular among UK students. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), 96,740 students enrolled for “language and area studies” courses in the 2019/2020 academic year. In 2023/2024 academic year, just 80,180 did. A new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) shows more sixth-formers now take A-Levels in physical eduction than French, German and Classical languages combined.

When fewer students sign up for a course, it becomes less effective for the uni to run it. They can’t cram as many students into each lecture hall, for instance.

Loads of unis across the UK are really struggling with money at them moment. Even top Russell Group have huge deficits. Some UK unis are resorting to scrapping whole departments in 2025. So, it wouldn’t exactly be a shock if the northern Russell Group unis do go ahead with their ideas to merge their language departments.

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