The cuts come against a backdrop of increasingly difficult university finances and years of falling GCSE and A-level entries, which have exacerbated inequalities. Languages are now compulsory for all pupils at GCSE in only 22% of state secondaries, compared with 41% of independent schools, according to this year\u2019s Language Trends<\/a> survey.<\/p>\n Former education ministers and other experts said the downgrading of languages at elite universities could further harm the life chances of pupils, in particular those from working-class backgrounds.<\/p>\n David Blunkett, the Labour education secretary from 1997 to 2001, said: \u201cInstead of the current tendency to go for retrenchment as the only way of balancing the books, we need universities to think really creatively. [Cutting courses] precludes you from a joined-up approach to learning. If you haven\u2019t got a language faculty any longer in the university, it can\u2019t link with tech and engineering, and digital, and all the other possibilities that now exist.\u201d<\/p>\n David Blunkett described cutting language degrees as \u2018a missed opportunity\u2019. Photograph: Roger Harris<\/p>\n Scrapping language degrees was therefore \u201ca missed opportunity\u201d to improve social mobility, he added, \u201cbut it needs to be linked with the revitalisation of languages in the school system, so you\u2019ve got a pipeline\u201d.<\/p>\n Estelle Morris, his successor, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a terrible message \u2013 these are our country\u2019s leading universities. I\u2019d like to think that they felt they had a role to play in the solution, not make it even worse. If Nottingham or anywhere else closes down a modern foreign language degree, middle-class children might go elsewhere. But working-class children won\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cThey will be more likely to choose a subject available to them locally. And then all the skills and job opportunities modern foreign languages give go out of the window because those pupils haven\u2019t taken a degree.\u201d<\/p>\n The warnings come as Guardian data analysis suggests that language degrees could enable students from poorer backgrounds to get into the most selective universities more easily, because there is less competition for places and grades required can be significantly lower.<\/p>\n Latest figures show that at the University of Oxford in 2025 there were just under 17 applicants per offer to study economics<\/a> and just under 10 for every offer on computer science, law and maths. In contrast, around half of applicants for languages were offered a place. Similarly at the University of Cambridge, more than half of applicants<\/a> for modern and medieval language courses got a place, compared with 14% of applicants for chemical engineering and 13% of those for psychological sciences.<\/p>\n Comparison of Ucas entry requirements by the Guardian shows that required A-level grades at the most elite universities are on average two to three grades lower for single honours language degrees than other popular subjects. Whereas median entry requirements at Russell Group, Bath and St Andrews universities are A*AA for maths and economics, and AAA for law, they are ABB for French, German or Spanish degrees.<\/p>\n At some universities the grade difference is four grades: at University College London and Bristol, for example, you need A*A*A for maths, but ABB for languages. For combined degrees the required language grade at A-level is also typically at least one lower than the two or three other A-levels studied.<\/p>\n Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at University of Exeter, said: \u201cSchools need to recognise that languages are a powerful pipeline for social mobility. If state schools want to improve the life chances of all their pupils, they should be actively promoting language study.<\/p>\n
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