Administrative jobs have been threatened at UCL as it moves forward with the restructuring of its modern language departments.

A 47-page consultation report released in January has detailed the logistical changes entailed by the move to conflate all modern language departments, currently running autonomously, into a single ‘division.’

If the report’s propositions in their current form get the go-ahead, the departments of Dutch, French, German, Italian, Scandinavian Studies, and Spanish and Latin American Studies would become governed by a single administration. That body would take over the current administrative structures attached to each department, and eventually centrally coordinate the departmental curriculum. Up to 5 administrative jobs are threatened by the transition.

As London Student reported last year in November, the Arts and Humanities Faculty has quoted a number of benefits associated with the plan. In the current report, the restructuring promises an improvement in research culture, and to “help academics in the Modern Languages Departments to realise their full research potential.”

There is suspicion though that this kind of rhetoric is designed to gloss over the true purpose of the exercise, which some believe to be financial.

“The proposed changes are being pushed through as part of a cost-cutting exercise across UCL,” says Craig Griffiths, UCLU Environment and Ethics Officer. “By making up to 5 staff members redundant quick savings can be made, and by removing the independence of each department they can be softened up for further redundancies in the coming years.”

The report itself does single out a number of cost-saving measures as being of key importance, including the streamlining of undergraduate courses and increased recruitment in the more lucrative postgraduate sector: “In particular, the change seeks to create a sustainable and cost-effective undergraduate programme; to increase taught and postgraduate research student numbers; to simplify administrative and teaching structures in order to free time for academic staff to pursue their research.”

The belief that the restructuring is motivated by a desire to save money has only been fuelled by warnings of possible redundancies. The consultation report plans to maintain the same number of staff, but qualifies that number by reducing the pay scale of five posts, an effective demotion. The report emphasises that it will offer support for staff who are caught out in the loop, but adds, “there is the possibility of some redundancies.”

The current report only details the changes in administrative structures within modern languages, with a second report dealing with course changes to be released later this year. The early impressions of what that report will entail are mixed. The current consultation report states that: “The current range and coverage of languages in the Faculty will be maintained and, if possible, enhanced.” However, a supporting discussion document proposes: “one change that can be made relatively swiftly is to reduce the number of courses on offer. A small working group will be set up as soon as possible to look into this.”

There has been strong resistance from staff and students with links to the affected departments. Adam Gillett, organiser of ‘Defend Modern Languages at UCL’, believes that, “It’s not a bright future, and the time left to oppose it is rapidly running out.”

He also is critical of UCL’s budget policy. Last year UCL ran a ‘Campaign for UCL’ to attract donations from alumni. Gillett believes that “UCL has decided that its buildings are more important than its staff and students, and has ring-fenced the majority of the £100million emergency fund raised from alumni last year for infrastructure projects.”

Jane Gilbert, a senior lecturer in French at UCL, acknowledges that the restructuring “is not in itself necessarily a bad thing…It has the benefits of protecting small language departments which might otherwise be under threat. It permits worthwhile economies of scale in relation to some admin tasks (for instance, admissions or exams). It can improve flexibility, communication and co-ordination between elements.”

However, Gilbert points out that a centralised administrative set-up may not “lead to the eradication of work needing to be done within departments,” because of the specific requirements of individual languages. Of particular concern is the Year Abroad, where “a knowledge of language and of educational structures of different countries is necessary to deal with students coming into the departments on ERASMUS exchanges.”

Wherever the report leads, Gilbert adds: “For whatever reasons, insecurity and mistrust have been allowed to grow up around the proposals, which is detrimental both to staff doing their jobs at present, and to the likely success of the reorganisation. This needs to be addressed urgently.”

In October 2009, UCL Vice-Provost Michael Worton headed a review of Modern Languages across the UK. In that review, “one of the most significant outcomes of the consultation was the number of respondents who wished to stress the disadvantages of presenting or thinking of MFL as a collective discipline, given the differences between the specific premises and practices of different languages.”

The new Modern Languages Division is set to come into full operation from August 1st 2010.