End of the road for studies in seven languages at CBS

French, Spanish, German and Japanese among those to be cut

Due to budget cuts proposed by the government in the education sector next year, Copenhagen Business School (CBS) won’t be able to offer studies in seven languages.

Among the affected languages are German, French, Spanish and Japanese.

“We can’t afford to educate small groups when we are under such financial pressure,” Per Holten-Andersen, the dean of CBS, told Politiken newspaper.

“Unfortunately, the smaller language groups have attracted fewer students in recent years and less demand from the labour market. We can no longer finance that.”

READ MORE: CBS forced to cut students places

Could be problematic
Business advocacy organisation Dansk Industri (DI), which has campaigned for a national strategy regarding languages for years, was concerned about the development.

“We are facing a potential problem because it is really important for us that there is a national coverage of languages at universities,” said Charlotte Rønhof, the deputy head of DI.

According to the education and research minister Esben Lunde Larsen, the government’s proposal already includes a national strategy.

CBS had already revealed in late September that it would be forced to cut 2,700 student places by 2019, reducing the intake of new students by 15 percent, due to the government’s proposed education cuts.