Education and Skills Secretary, Charles Clarke has today written to the
Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) seeking advice on how to protect higher education courses of national strategic importance.
He has asked HEFCE to consider the following as courses of national strategic importance:
* Arabic and Turkish language studies and other Middle Eastern area studies, former Soviet Union Caucasus and central Asian area studies - this is mainly for strategic security and inter-cultural awareness reasons, as highlighted by the recent British Society for Middle East Studies Report;
* Japanese, Chinese, Mandarin and other far eastern languages and area studies - for business and trade purposes, as highlighted by, among others, the UK-Japan 21st Century Group;
* Science, technology, engineering and mathematics - chiefly for maintaining the UK's excellent science base and ensuring our national productivity;
* Vocationally oriented courses of particular interest to employers in industries that are of growing importance to the UK economy; for example, the cultural and creative industries, and e-skills; and
* Courses relating to recent EU accession countries, especially those in Eastern Europe and the Baltic.