Only four of America's top universities require their students - the English teachers of the future - to take a course focusing on Shakespeare, a new study has found.
The Unkindest Cut: Shakespeare in Exile 2015, a report by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (Acta), unearthed the information from the nation's 52 US News & World Report-ranked universities and colleges.
Michael Poliakoff, vice president of policy for the Washington DC-based council and lead author of the study, called the findings "a terrible tragedy".
"It is with sadness that we view this phenomenon," he said. "It really does make us grieve for the loss to a whole generation of young people who would look to a college or university for guidance about what is great and what is of the highest priority."
The report was released on what is believed to be the Bard's birthday in 1564. It comes a day after the new musical Something Rotten! opened on Broadway that mocks Shakespeare as a rump-shaking word thief.
The universities which still ask English majors to study the Bard are Harvard University, the University of California-Berkeley, Wellesley College and the US Naval Academy.
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