UK Edition
Budget supermarket Lidl launches Oxford University scholarship for students to study German
Lidl has launched a new scholarship for Oxford University students to study German.
The budget supermarket chain announced plans to fund one graduate who enrolls on a masters degree in Modern German and sponsor competitions with cash prizes of up to £500 for undergraduates from next year.
It comes as education experts warned of declining numbers of students learning the language in schools, which a British Council adviser suggested was partly because pupils still associate Germany with war.
Professor Ian Watson, chair of the faculty of medieval and modern languages, said: “We are delighted that, at a time when the teaching of modern languages in the UK is facing considerable challenges, a major German company in the shape of Lidl has stepped forward to offer its support.
“The package of support that Lidl is so generously donating will allow us to raise the profile of the subject of German at Oxford at all stages of the undergraduate degree as well as for postgraduate study.”
This year, just over 3,000 students sat German A-level exams, which is nearly half as many as in 2010. While a quarter of state schools that offered German as a subject after GCSE in the last three years no longer do so.
Education experts have called for urgent action to halt the decline, pointing to Britain's post-Brexit relationship with Germany as an example of the langauge's potential future importance.
The British Council's school's adviser Vicky Gough suggested students' apparent waning interest in German stemmed from the choice to speak other "exotic" languages and from learning about the First and Second World Wars.
She said: "Less and less people are taking German up and that is a big issue.
"The perception of German is that it is harder, that it is less useful and it is something for the elite. In many schools it’s only an option for the top set.
"Spanish is seen as far more cool, it’s known as the ‘Despacito effect’ all the celebrities are using it.
"I have asked students what languages they want to study, many of them say Spanish because there are so many places where you can use it or Chinese because they think it’s exotic. But the only thing they know about Germany is the war.”
Overall, the number of students learning modern languages is down by 15 per cent at the end of the last academic year, compared to 2010.
But German is recognised as performing worse than other subjects. Last year saw 7,600 entries for A-Level Spanish, more than double the numbers for German.
The move by Lidl to support German language students has been welcomed by education experts.
Suzanne O’Farrell, curriculum and assessment specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "German is perhaps not as high profile as French and Spanish, but German is an important language economically and there is a real danger that if something is not done its decline could become a self fulfilling prophecy.
"There needs to be some urgent action taken or promotion like the Lidl scholarship, to turn the tide.
"German speakers are going to be so few and far between it could make them very employable.
"If we cut that off we are going to do ourselves some damage. As a trading partner Germany are just as important as they always."
Lidl’s UK CEO Christian Härtnagel said: “As a British supermarket with roots in Germany, we saw this opportunity as a great fit and are incredibly proud to be working with Oxford to support both undergrad and graduate students of German.”