Abstract
The 1990s was a time of much change both in the university sector and in the Federal government. Such change affected languages taught in the tertiary sector and as such warrants close investigation. For much of this decade, a conservative government was in power with new policies and funding cuts to universities. This chapter looks at the University of Melbourne as a case study. It charts how various languages were introduced either through endowments or Government funding throughout the twentieth century. In 1992 the University introduced a new structure for the teaching of languages after an extensive review. However, that structure was subsequently taken apart. In the wider context, the Group of Eight universities (Go8) signalled its commitment to languages. However reports by the Australian Academy of Humanities showed that languages in tertiary institutions across Australia were in crisis.
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Notes
- 1.
The mining companies were possibly BHP, Hamersley Iron and Rio Tinto which were crucial in that iron ore trade with Japan.
- 2.
Oriental languages, later Asian languages, were important for the Federal government’s push for Asia literacy at the time.
- 3.
It is possible that Hindi was enabled to continue with such poor numbers given the earlier external funds which had been given in the 1960s, although no evidence had been found to support this contention.
- 4.
Greek-born Victorians numbered 79,048 according to the 1971 ABS census. There would also have been many more Australians of Greek heritage.
- 5.
The scale used was the letter grades A, B, C, D, E.
- 6.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that differential funding for languages began around the mid-1970s. The Commonwealth Parliamentary Librarian was unable to supply any information. Additional investigation would be required.
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Baldwin, J.J. (2019). Languages in the 1990s: The Context and the Changes. In: Languages other than English in Australian Higher Education. Language Policy, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05795-4_7
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