Current students will be taught out but that’s it

Last year LT U announced it wanted to stop teaching, Greek, Hindu and Indonesian, because “market demand and student enrolments have been consistently low for several years,” (CMM November 23).

A community campaign followed on behalf of Greek, (the Victorian Government even kicked in $40 000 for ten one-year scholarships, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Greek independence!) and lo, LTU relented committing to teaching the language for three more years (CMM January 29).

And then it was hooray for Hindi, which survived, after “considerable discussion with staff and students, community groups, government and other stakeholders.”

“Notwithstanding the significant financial challenges faced by the university, there are compelling reasons to continue teaching our Hindi programme, including the increasing importance of Hindi language proficiency for diplomatic and commercial activities,” LT U announced (CMM February 9).

Which sounded like a case to keep teaching the language of Australia’s nearest big neighbour but apparently not, with “consistently very low” demand for Indonesian meaning this year’s in-take was the last.  Any future LT U students who want to study Indonesian will have access to cross-institutional enrolment.