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The university in Leipzig may remain without a Russian language department, Rossiyskaya Gazeta informs. Head of the Institute of Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies Oliver Czulo said that teaching of Russian as a main language stops because of a decrease in funding from the authorities of Saxony. A few years ago, the austerity measures undertaken by previous government led to a reduction of number of teachers, and since then it has not been fully restored.
Students who are preparing to become a translator of Russian language at the Institute appealed to the leadership of the University of Leipzig with a request to keep the department. Over 2000 people have already signed up the petition posted on the Internet.
Authors of the appeal are convinced that closure of the department will prevent the development of mutual understanding of peoples. This will lead to negative consequences, which is especially bad today, when the situation on the world stage and in the economy is not the best. Now it is already clear that there is no need to rely solely on the West, the petition says.
The Minister of Science of Saxony Eva-Maria Stange answered the appeal of the students. She assured that the decision to withdraw Russian language from the curriculum was not taken. Nevertheless, according to her, the question of restructuring the school is actual. The Minister laid the responsibility for solving this problem on the leadership of the university.
The university explained that over the past few years, lack of funds has led to a reduction in teachers by more than 100 full-time units. The problem of Russian language is going to be discussed at the meeting of the Faculty of Philology in May.
Russkiy Mir
