With recent populist policies affecting Danish higher education, English-taught programmes at Aarhus University have taken a huge hit with cuts to places, lack of language support, and language exclusion. This presentation discusses the recent effects on the Intercultural Studies programme, a small, new MA programme with four language tracks.
The Danish government's decision in both 2014 and 2018 to cut places on foreign language, and specifically English taught programmes in higher education for claimed 'economic reasons', echoes the many recent populist sentiments in the country. The consequences for the relatively new Intercultural Studies MA programme at Aarhus University have been particularly severe, as it runs tracks in four languages. This presentation will examine the results of research conducted in partnership with Denmark's National Centre for Foreign Languages in late 2019 of how Aarhus University's internationalisation strategy, in addition to the government's policies, has expressed itself in this particular Art's degree programme. It will include examples of lack of language support, lack of inclusion, and dimensionering (reductions) for the English language track. This presentation provides a clear example of how neo-nationalist policies have affected foreign-language based learning at higher education.
