The University of Aberdeen has said it “will continue to teach and value languages”, ahead of a rally to “defend” modern language courses which face being axed.

The university is considering scrapping courses including single and joint honours in French, Gaelic, German and Spanish, or just offering elective language courses to students who would primarily be first years.

It has said the current low uptake of language courses is causing losses of more than £1.5 million per year, and on November 30 announced a consultation into possible cuts.

The university said recruitment to undergraduate modern languages programmes fell to 27 full-time equivalent (FTE) students in September 2023, down from 46 FTE in 2022 and 62 FTE in 2021, while there are 28 FTE staff members.

However, a group of modern languages academics said there are 270 students (more than 150 FTE) registered on undergraduate degrees in modern languages, not including students who take sub-honours language courses as electives.

READ MORE: 'Academic vandalism': Protest against university's planned cuts

More than 11,000 people have signed a petition opposing the proposals, and UCU general secretary Jo Grady called it “academic vandalism”.

A rally to “defend” modern languages will be held at 6pm on Monday on the Old Aberdeen Campus, where MSP Maggie Chapman will speak alongside UCU Aberdeen and Aberdeen University Students’ Association representatives.

A University of Aberdeen spokesperson said: “We totally understand how much our colleagues, students and the wider public care about modern languages including Gaelic. We do not make these proposals lightly.

“Our difficulty is that the number of students beginning full-time modern language degrees has over the last two years fallen from the equivalent of 62 to the equivalent of just 27.

“At the same time we have the equivalent of just under 29 full-time members of staff teaching in this department. Even though there are students in the years above, the current staff-student ratio is such that the department is running at a loss of over £1.5m in this financial year alone.

“The university has always made clear that it will continue to teach and value languages, and we are grateful to all those who are sending us their views and ideas on how we can do this in a sustainable way.”

It added: “The University Court will discuss the consultation under way with regard to future provision in modern languages at its meeting on Tuesday.”

A group of academics from the modern languages department described the proposals as “institutional vandalism”.

In a statement they said: “It appears a decision was taken in a matter of days to dismantle degrees that have taken generations to build, and which continue to receive excellent reviews, on the basis of last year and this year’s student numbers, without engaging our highly experienced staff in seriously considering alternatives that don’t undermine our core charitable mission or our reputation.”

They added: “The management’s self-destructive plan would see the University of Aberdeen become the first ancient university in the world not to offer language degrees in one of the most monolingual countries, and the first public body in Scotland to renege on statutory commitments made under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, while widening our 18% gender pay gap and the rural attainment gap in the North East, and worsening language teacher shortages in the region, which are already at crisis point.”

It is understood the university’s position is that a decision was taken to begin a consultation, not to dismantle degrees.