Catriona Seth
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catrionaseth.bsky.social
Catriona Seth
@catrionaseth.bsky.social
2K followers 69 following 200 posts
18th-century cultural history, French literature, art etc. Currently Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature, University of Oxford/All Souls College
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Reposted by Catriona Seth
hetanshah.bsky.social
‘More than ever before, we need British diplomats, spies and soldiers to speak the language of our adversaries.’

Stark piece from a former diplomat on how loss of language learning hits our defence & geopolitical capabilities
www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/proc... @timeshighered.bsky.social
More than ever before, we need British diplomats, spies and soldiers to speak the language of our adversaries. We need universities like Nottingham to be pumping out Russian and Mandarin graduates each year, to work across Whitehall. A British Academy report from 2013 on the need for foreign languages in diplomacy and security recommended strengthening the pipeline between academia and government. Practically nothing has been done to advance this agenda in the intervening 12 years, however. My old department, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has a dreadful track record in training its staff to speak foreign languages. A target recommended in 2018 by the Foreign Affairs Committee for 80 per cent of diplomats who study foreign languages for their jobs to pass their exams, has never been met.
November 26, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Catriona Seth
hetanshah.bsky.social
‘linking much-needed support for students to international recruitment – an unstable and overworked income stream - is risky and unsustainable. This measure could further weaken universities’
Read our Budget response here www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/news/british...
The British Academy's response to the Autumn Budget
The British Academy has responded to the Autumn Budget (26 November 2025)
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk
November 26, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Catriona Seth
hetanshah.bsky.social
I’ve been quoted in @thespectator1828.bsky.social about the importance of taking a strategic approach nationally to language provision as universities are making individual decisions to slash provision which may collectively be very bad for the national interest
www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-p...
Critics of this proposal argue that the problem is not one of unsustainability but of under-resourcing. Language departments are easy targets because they tend to be relatively expensive to run, as they usually offer a large amount of contact hours and need comparatively high levels of staff. Yet the skills and intellectual rigour they foster are worth saving. As Hetan Shah, chief executive of the British Academy argues, we need to 'safeguard' our language provision: 'It would, for example, be geopolitically unwise to find ourselves without capable Russian or Chinese speakers. While it's easy to turn off the tap, it's much harder to turn it back on. Foreign language degrees may not be the most traditionally lucrative, but do we really want to be a society that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?
November 24, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Reposted by Catriona Seth
hetanshah.bsky.social
See my thread above as to why this is a bad idea
bsky.app/profile/sgfm...
sgfmann.bsky.social George Mann @sgfmann.bsky.social · 3d
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 23, 2025 at 10:38 PM