The principal of Heriot-Watt University has been told pushing ahead with a plan to make cuts to languages courses will have "reputational consequences" for the institution.
Professor Richard Williams was given the warning by leading German scholars in Scotland, the UK and Ireland after his institution drew up proposal to axe undergraduate courses in German and Chinese.
He was also warned language graduates are sought after by employers with businesses particularly needing graduates who know German.
The Heriot-Watt plan has already been criticised by the German Consul General in Edinburgh Christiane Hullmann who has urged the university not to go ahead with it.
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Organisations promoting German have set out the impact of the university's proposal which will involve 11 job losses.
The strongly-worded joint letter to Professor Williams was signed by Professor Peter Davies, Professor of Modern German Studies at Edinburgh University, who is the President of the Association for German Studies of Great Britain and Ireland (AGS), Dr Christiane Schönfeld, Chair of German Studies, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, who is chair of Women in German Studies (W+IGS) and Dr Ulrike Bavendiek, Senior Lecturer in German Studies at the University of Liverpool, who is President of the German Language Association (GLA).
"We are writing on behalf of our members to express our concern about the proposed staff cuts to the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies (LINCS), and in particular the threat to close German and Chinese," their letter said.
"We are, of course, acutely aware of the multiple financial pressures on the HE sector in Scotland, but it is clear that they require creative, positive responses to the needs of students, employers and society more broadly.
"Degree programmes that are closed in response to short term pressures are hard or impossible to reinstate in the long term: once they are gone, they are gone."
They went on to offer their "strong and public support for the courses in LINCS, and for the excellent teachers and researchers who run them".
It went on to say that "no other institution in Scotland" offer the approaches Heriot Watt University takes to language teaching where there is a focus on translation and "most distinctly, interpreting".
It added: "This is not a peripheral strength but a defining academic and strategic asset. To curtail the choice of languages would therefore not constitute a routine restructuring; it would represent a direct erosion of a nationally distinctive capability.
"A contraction of language provision will carry significant strategic and reputational consequences, and will lead to talented linguists from home and abroad looking elsewhere.
"No university that dismantles language programmes can claim, as Heriot-Watt does, to be genuinely internationalist in its aspirations, or to have an interest in the employability of its graduates in a global market.
"As a university that has been consistently at the forefront of teaching and research in translation and interpreting, Heriot-Watt is now in danger of damaging its hard-earned international unique selling point."
Their letter reference a decline in the teaching of German in schools and pointed out that German courses were in danger of being offered exclusively at the so-called "Ancient Universities" - despite a demand among businesses for graduates who can speak German.
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"Scottish institutions have an opportunity to work against the cycle of neglect of strategically important languages at school level and to stimulate demand," it said.
"You will be aware that opportunities for students from Scotland to study German to a high level have been in decline over many years, and are increasingly restricted to programmes at the so-called ‘Ancient Universities’.
"There is demand for German at university level, despite the decline in school teaching. Successful institutions acknowledge the problem and work with partners to provide alternative access routes for students who have not had the opportunity to learn at school."
It added: "Aside from the intellectual and broader disciplinary benefits of language learning, we are sure you are also aware of the professional and economic benefits for graduates of languages.
"Recent research by the British Academy has shown that they are just as likely to be employed as their STEM counterparts, and employers regularly lament the lack of language skills amongst UK graduates.
"Indeed, the shortage of British linguists is thought to cost the UK economy 3.5% of GDP every year, with German being the most in-demand additional language in the UK job market.
"In order to compete on a global market, we should thus be removing linguistic barriers rather than seeking to erect them; in this respect, the UK is already far behind its global competitors.
"With trading partners around the globe, the UK is in desperate need of graduates who are linguistically and culturally equipped for global markets."
Staff at Heriot Watt were due to go on strike on Monday and Tuesday this week over the plans but the action was called off to allow talks to take place.
The University and College Union said strikes are still planned for the coming weeks including Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week.
A spokesperson for Heriot-Watt University said: ““To be clear, Heriot-Watt is not stepping away from language education. Our priority is to ensure that the distinctive strengths developed through language study, including translation and interpreting expertise, intercultural understanding and globally relevant graduate skills, remain sustainable for the future.
“Like universities across Scotland and the wider UK, we are operating in a challenging financial environment. In a small number of areas programmes have been delivered at a sustained financial loss for several years and this cannot continue.
"The University's postgraduate provision will continue to include languages such as German and Chinese.”
