Barbara Burns talks to Dr Robert (Rob) Ley, MHRA Languages and Policy Postdoctoral Researcher, and his Cambridge-based mentors Professor Wendy Ayres-Bennett and Professor Charles Forsdick.

BB. This year’s MHRA Special Research Grant focuses on setting up a curated language policy space on the UCFL website, with a link to the Languages Gateway. Charles, can you start by telling us about the rationale behind the project?

Charles Forsdick

CF. Yes, our work this academic year with Rob Ley has focused specifically on developing a dedicated language policy space to assist policymakers in identifying relevant researchers and in accessing research pertinent to their interests and needs. As was the case in 2024/25, when Olivia Glaze conducted important work on establishing an initial database of concise, accessible summaries of language research specifically designed for policymakers, we have again sought to make progress on addressing the recommendations from Wendy’s Languages and Policy: Building Collaborations between Academics and Policymakers report from 2024.

In our work with policy professionals in a variety of spheres, we have discovered a definite appetite for research on languages and cultures but a degree of frustration over the lack of a central resource connecting language researchers and those responsible for making policy. We have again enjoyed working with multiple partners including the x-Government Languages Group (xGLG), whose advice has proved invaluable. At the same time, collaboration with the University Council for Languages has been crucial as they will host the materials that Rob has developed.

BB. Among other things, your work aims to promote awareness of the UK government’s Areas of Research Interest (ARIs), a list of priority topics which can benefit from external research to inform policy decisions. What types of research conducted by scholars in Modern Languages departments could be relevant here?

CF. It is important to stress that there are opportunities to engage in language policy and language-informed policy in multiple fields, including across the devolved administrations of the UK where the everyday use of English, Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, and Ulster Scots creates specific contexts in which it is essential to reflect on bilingualism and the broader implications of multilingualism. It’s also crucial to remember the policy challenges associated with NGOs, especially those working in international situations, as the work led by Hilary Foottit on the ‘Listening Zones of NGOs’, focused on languages and cultural knowledge in development programmes, demonstrated several years ago.

The Great George district of Liverpool began as a community of Chinese sailors working the Blue Funnel Shipping Line in the 1860s. Its paifang, or gateway arch, was built at the millennium and is the largest in Europe. There are now nearly 120,000 Chinese speakers in the United Kingdom, making it our 14th-most-spoken immigrant language. French and Lithuanian, ranked 12th and 13th, are only slightly more attested. The current top five are Polish, Romanian, Punjabi, Urdu and Portuguese.

A range of policy partners publish and support ARIs, one of multiple ways that researchers can engage with policy. In Whitehall, these are co-ordinated by the UK Government Office for Science. The Scottish and Welsh Governments and the Northern Irish Executive publish them too, often covering policy gaps in devolved areas of responsibility such as health, education, economy, and justice. Research in Modern Languages departments is relevant for a broad range of ARIs, some of which have direct linguistic dimensions, others of which would benefit from enhanced sensitivity to questions of language and culture. Language learning and skills are regular topics, but it is important to ensure that researchers in languages engage more widely across other policy areas and provide evidence on, for instance, the economic and social role of languages in a multilingual nation. Research on languages, notably in areas such as translation and interpreting, is relevant too for policy on migration, integration, and social cohesion. Specialist understanding of languages and cultures is highly significant too for domestic policy on justice and public health, but also informs policy on international priorities such as soft power and cultural diplomacy.

BB. Rob, your research background is in medieval French literature, but you’ve also spent two years at the European Commission in Brussels. How does your experience in policy work complement your Modern Languages focus?

RL. During my time in Brussels, I worked in communication around digital policy initiatives, as well as helping to design prototypes of online public services that simplified the movement of individuals, families, and businesses across the EU. A key part of this second project was clearly communicating to citizens how their information could be securely shared across borders to make mobility within the EU more seamless.

This experience helped me envisage my research from a broader perspective. In my doctoral thesis, I explored how late medieval and early modern French ideas of community and cultural belonging were not merely abstractions, but took root in lived experience through bodily language. Designing the ‘Languages in Policy’ zone has enabled me to engage with the more immediate, concrete implications of the connections between language, community, and lived experience in the world of policy. Many of the reports and research summaries I’ve encountered while curating content for the website show how languages can foster social cohesion and support the wellbeing and resilience of migrant and refugee communities. One thing that has particularly resonated with my policy and communications work in Brussels is how vital clear, culturally sensitive communication and robust language services are for removing barriers to public services and civic participation.

BB. What is the purpose of the website you’re designing, Rob, and what has the experience been like?

Rob Ley

RL. Over the course of this project, I’ve been curating content for, and designing the structure of, the ‘Languages in Policy’ zone, soon to be hosted on UCFL’s website. This space aims to help policymakers incorporate languages research and linguistic and cultural expertise into their work, as well as providing guidance for languages researchers to get more involved in policy. Among other things, it will include a directory of languages experts, a database of languages-related policy reports and success stories showing how languages research has already shaped policy.

While I’ve been able to draw on my digital policy experience at the European Commission, designing the website has been a really fun challenge. Over the last few months, I’ve been honing prototype webpages so that I can gather feedback from researchers and policymakers and then make further iterations of the prototype, ensuring the space is as useful for them as possible.

While curating content for the website, I’ve particularly enjoyed learning just how far-reaching the policy implications of languages are. I had always appreciated their importance for social cohesion, inclusion, identity, and international relations, but I was fascinated to discover how deeply they can affect mental and physical health, as well as the economic benefits associated with multilingualism.

BB. Can you tell us about some of the disciplinary and policy-related partners you’ve been working with?

RL. Working with Wendy and Charles has made me more aware of the growing momentum among policymakers, researchers, and educators advocating for multilingualism not just as a cultural asset, but an economic, social, and democratic one. The start of the project, when I was gathering information from various stakeholders on how the website’s resources would be used, gave me the opportunity to speak with people from a huge variety of organisations. This included language advocacy groups and professional bodies, such as the Chartered Institute of Linguists, funding bodies like the Arts and Humanities Research Council, not to mention other languages researchers involved in policy engagement, which has really opened my eyes to directions in which I can develop my own career.

I have of course also had the chance to speak with policy professionals from a wide range of areas, from education policy in the devolved nations to HMRC, Defence, Health and Social Care, the Cabinet Office and GCHQ, which has been a highlight. It’s been encouraging to see how many people across different policy areas are coming together to champion languages as a field with real relevance to broader societal issues.

BB. Rob, which aspects of this postdoctoral research project are most useful to you in terms of your early-career development? What insights and experience have you gained?

RL. This project has given me plenty of opportunity to become more embedded in the wider languages community in the UK, and to develop my professional skills, especially communicating effectively to diverse audiences.

I regularly attend meetings of the Academic Engagement sub-group of the x-Government Languages Group, which brings together numerous civil servants, researchers, and educators who are advocating for the importance of languages skills in the UK. I also now sit on the Editorial Group of The Languages Gateway website, which collates resources for people interested in languages from various disciplinary perspectives. This in turn led to my becoming the chair of an early-career sub-group for the Gateway, where I act as a conduit between early-career voices and the Editorial Group of the website.

Thanks to this, I have a much better awareness of what’s going on in the world of languages advocacy and policy, and I’ve been able to make lots of great connections. I’ll also be presenting an early version of the website at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies ‘Thinking Strategically’ seminar series on the 12th of June, where I’ll share the work I’ve been doing on this project. This will be a great opportunity to show how we’re facilitating more collaboration between researchers and policymakers, so that important policy issues are informed by the right linguistic and cultural expertise.

I’d like to thank MHRA for funding this project, and to thank Wendy and Charles for all of the support and insight they have given me throughout – I hope to see the website go live soon!

The sitcom Yes Minister still characterises the public image of the Civil Service, and for all that it belongs to a bygone age, its policy dilemmas never go away. In this episode, broadcast on 2 March 1981, Sir Humphrey (Nigel Hawthorne) is persuading Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) of the importance of continuing to teach Arabic in British universities. ‘If the diplomatic service had nowhere to immerse its recruits, the results could be catastrophic.’ Sir Humphrey gets his way, and Arabic is saved.

BB. Wendy, what encouragements have you had in the last year or two of this strategic work?

Wendy Ayres-Bennett

WA-B. We have been very encouraged to see a growing interest in language policy among academics and civil servants alike. Many academics are now seriously considering how to embed policy work into their research and public engagement as they look towards the next REF in 2029. Since she completed the languages research database, Olivia Glaze, our previous MHRA postdoc, has been invited to speak about her policy work at the Institute for Languages, Cultures and Societies, at Queen’s University Belfast, and at the universities of Exeter and Warwick. I have offered a number of well-attended training sessions for PhD students on getting started in policy work. As Charles and Rob have suggested, the work of the academic engagement subgroup of the x-Government Languages Group is flourishing, and we have had our first success in getting a question in a department’s Areas of Research Interest rewritten to include a reference to languages. There is also now more senior representation of civil servants in the promotion of languages across government. There is a sense that the structures are now being put in place to embed language policy more firmly within the civil service.

BB. Presumably your work on the policy zone is not finished and there are always further ways of facilitating dialogue and collaboration. Which areas would you like to develop in the near future, and why is this important for our disciplines?

WA-B. Since my 2024 report on Building Collaborations between Academics and Policymakers was published, good progress has been made on a number of the recommendations, not least thanks to the generous funding of the MHRA, but there is a continuing need to improve the opportunities to create trusted partnerships and productive dialogue. I firmly believe that languages education needs to be supported across government by a range of departments such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, and the Ministry of Justice.

The Mandarin Excellence Programme offers:
  • £15,000 a year for schools in the programme
  • extra payments for student retention
  • a partnership with a hub school to help you develop the programme
  • specially designed teacher meetings for professional development and to share ideas and resources
  • an online professional network
  • online teaching materials and resources
  • support and guidance from the programme co-ordinator
Depending on the availability of places, the programme is open to:
  • all state-funded secondary schools in England with ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ Ofsted ratings
  • highly able and motivated key stage 3 pupils (pupils begin the programme in year 7)
  • schools that are committed to developing a strong curriculum presence of Mandarin Chinese
  • schools that can ensure students study Mandarin for an average of 6 hours per week, with a minimum of 3 hours’ face-to-face teaching
— from the www.gov.uk thumbnail sketch of the Mandarin Excellent Programme. Where Sir Humphrey (see above) was never less than loquacious, www.gov.uk prides itself on giving concise and clear descriptions of government.

To cite an example of how this works in practice, the decision to continue the Mandarin Excellence Programme for an additional year in 2025, albeit on a reduced basis, was reported to have been influenced by the support of the then Foreign Secretary, David Lammy. Giving oral evidence to the International Relations and Defence Committee in March last year about the erosion of China-related knowledge and expertise, Lammy pointed to the strategic value of ‘Mandarin speaking and the capability of the next generation of diplomats’, noting that the subject was ‘hugely important to invest in at this time’ as part of a commitment in international diplomacy to being ‘fit for purpose for today, not for yesterday or decades ago’.

A number of important policy reports about the role of languages in business, diplomacy and security are now dated, and I would like to see these refreshed. This work will constitute important steps towards a national languages strategy, which was called for by a number of speakers in the House of Lords debate on language learning in schools and universities, moved by Baroness Coussins in January this year. In my view, such a strategy across the four jurisdictions of the UK is essential if we are to stop the decline in language learning in our schools and universities.

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