We strongly condemn the proposal from the University of Wollongong to disestablish its entire Languages Discipline, including English Language and Linguistics, Mandarin, French, Japanese and Spanish, effective 31 January 2025. Language skills and cultural competency cannot be outsourced and are essential to an Australia adapted to our globalised world of multilingual commerce, cultures and geopolitics. We call on the University to reverse this shortsighted decision immediately.

Languages at Wollongong are a thriving scholarly and teaching disciplinary block, which consistently draws significant enrolments for a regional university. Wollongong Languages staff are internationally recognised researchers, with several ARC and international grant-holders, experts in areas as diverse as functional and applied linguistics, dialects and creoles of the Francophone and Hispanic worlds, medieval and modern literature, medical discourse and disability studies. They include three holders of regional and national teaching awards and are respected among peers and organisations in their field nationally and internationally.

Languages are not only vital assets in a rapidly globalising world and recognised as priority career skills by the Australian Government, including in concrete terms through its Job-ready Graduates Package. They also foster profound critical thinking, interdisciplinary and cross-cultural competencies in our students, support our multicultural communities and generate crucial new knowledge that strengthens academia, the economy and society.

We call on all colleagues, students and friends of languages in Australia and abroad to mobilise against this shortsighted and harmful decision. We stand with the NTEU and our UOW colleagues at this difficult time and urge you all to sign this petition, write to the University and share widely with your networks.

Most importantly, we call on the University of Wollongong to acknowledge the importance and viability of Languages at UOW and to abandon its plan.

In solidarity,

The Australian Society for French Studies

The Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities

The Australian Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association

Women in French Australia

Asie du Sud Est Research Network

The Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia

The Australian Systemic Functional Linguistics Association

The Diversity, Decolonization and the French Curriculum Collective

The Applied Linguistics Association of Australia

The Australasian Humour Studies Network

The Modern Language Teachers Association of NSW

The German Studies Association of Australia

The Australasian Universities Languages and Literature Association

The Institute for the Study of French Australian Relations

Japanese Studies Aotearoa New Zealand

The Japanese Studies Association of Australia

The Sydney University Research Community for Latin America

School of Humanities, University of Westminster UK

The Society for French Studies (UK and Ireland)

The ACT Bilingual Education Alliance

If you wish your organisation to be added as co-signatory to this petition text, contact the Australian Society for French Studies at asfsexecutive@gmail.com.