For a top university place, try studying a language

IT is becoming easier to win a place on language degree courses at top universities because of dwindling application numbers, research suggests.

Analysis of the elite Russell Group universities, which include Oxford and Cambridge, shows a sharp drop in applications for European language courses in the last five years.

Overall, there was a 20 per cent fall between 2010 and 2014, while at Oxford the drop was 11 per cent and at Cambridge it was 34 per cent. As a result, a higher proportion of applicants is now being accepted – with the share increasing from 28 per cent to almost half at Cambridge.

It comes amid continuing concerns about the popularity of languages at schools and universities, with fewer now taking the subjects at GCSE and A-level.

Yesterday, universities said more needed to be done to encourage teenagers to consider languages at degree level.

Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Rus- sell Group, said: ‘If the UK is to engage fully with the wider world in business, diplomacy and academia then many more young people need to be studying languages. It is a real shame so many students have missed out on taking languages over the last few years.’

Analysis by the Press Association examined applications made through the Ucas scheme to study European languages, literature and related courses at the 24 Russell Group universities and the number of acceptances.

At Cambridge, there were 580 applications in 2010, and 165 acceptances, a rate of 28.4 per cent, while in 2014 there were 385 applications and 170 acceptances, a rate of 44.2 per cent.

Overall, there were 17,390 applications in 2010 and 2,765 acceptances, resulting in a rate of 15.9 per cent. In 2014 across these universities, there were 14,075 applications and 2,455 acceptances – a rate of 17.4 per cent.