Language for All shortlisted in prestigious Times Higher Education Awards

The University’s unique Languages for All (LfA) programme was recently shortlisted in this year’s prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Awards.

LfA provides Cardiff students with the chance to improve their language skills alongside their undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Classes are flexible and cater for all abilities, from beginners to advanced levels, and students can sign up for free.

The fact that students can attend classes for free makes the Cardiff scheme unique in the UK. Consequently, the LfA team felt that an application to the ‘Outstanding Support for Students’ category was a fitting accolade for the programme.

Since starting the programme in 2014/15, undergraduate and postgraduate enrolments have reached almost 8000 in a variety of modern foreign languages. At first, students could choose from six languages, but this number has now grown to nine with Portuguese being added to the taught portfolio in 2017.

LfA programme director Dr Catherine Chabert said of the shortlisting, “I am very proud to work in a University that puts languages and international mobility of its students at the heart of its strategy. After winning the Cardiff University Award for Outstanding Contribution to the University’s International Activities  last year, applying for the THE awards seemed like the logical next step. I am pleased that the panel acknowledged our achievements and we look forward to growing the programme in years to come. We plan to develop our offering by further expanding our use of new digital technologies to continue to improve the ways in which we teach languages.”

LfA programme staff attended the THE awards ceremony which was held in Grosvenor House Hotel, London on 24 November however, it was the University of Wolverhampton’s “Three Minutes to Save a Life” programme that won the Outstanding Support for Students category. Designed to provide support for students with suicidal thoughts, almost 200 have so far been trained in workshops dedicated to tackling the issues of suicide, self-harming and emotional resilience. These have taught staff to recognise early warning signs in at-risk students and explained how they can escalate concerns proportionately and compassionately.