Oxford German Network

Outreach and the Think German Networks

Read our recent report on university outreach activities, literary outreach and the Think German networks.

OGN Annual Report 2013-14

Please click here to read our annual report for the academic year 2013-14.

OGN Annual Report 2012-13

Oxford German Network is 1 year old! You can read our Annual Report for the year 2012-13 here.

Think German Locally! - Oxford German Network 'best practice model'

The successful Think German campaign launched in 2010 involving the German, Austrian and Swiss Embassies, German Academic Exchange Service, Goethe Institut, German Departments across the UK and others has now come to an end.

A new initiative has developed out of it: Think German locally. The Oxford German Network – the first university-led cultural network of its kind – is recommended as a best practice model. Please get in touch if you are interested in developing a local German hub: ogn@mod-langs.ox.ac.uk

European Day of Languages

26 September is European Day of Languages, a day to celebrate linguistic diversity across the European Union and to encourage language-learning.

The Oxford German Network chose the European Day of Languages as its launch date. Committed to promoting language learning in younger age groups and providing incentives to take learning beyond the framework of exams, it facilitates personal contact between individuals and opens up pleasurable opportunities for communicating with others in their language.

UK-German Connection: German Scholarship Programme & German Pupil Courses

You can read more about these opportunities for learners of German here.

OGN in the News

Oxford German Network has been in the news, commenting on the state of modern language learning in the UK. Click the links below to read more!

Read a letter by OGN Director, Professor Katrin Kohl, and other UK modern languages professors to The Guardian.

Read OGN Director Professor Katrin Kohl's arguments for the usefulness of German in a post-Brexit world.

Read about key findings of the Living Languages report commissioned by The Guardian and the British Academy, and responses by (among others) OGN Director, Professor Katrin Kohl.

European language degree courses abandoned by many UK universities
The Guardian, 08/10/2013, pp.1-2, Anna Bawden
More than a third of UK universities have given up offering specialist modern European language degrees over the past 15 years, according to a Guardian survey, with leading academics arguing that harsh marking at A-level is putting teenagers off studying the subject at school. Since 1998, the number of universities offering French, German, Italian and Spanish as single honours degrees or jointly with another language has plunged by 40% and the rate of decline has increased in recent years. The number of universities offering degrees in the worst affected subject, German, has halved over the past 15 years.

Language grades translate into poor results
The Guardian, 08/10/2013, p.37
Professor Katrin Kohl, vice-chair of modern languages at Oxford University, and nearly 80 signatories have published a letter criticising the ‘unfair grading’ of school language exams: ‘It is well-known that the UK is losing out culturally and economically because of inadequate foreign language skills among English native speakers. This problem has been significantly exacerbated by the fact that pupils choosing modern languages have not been rewarded adequately for excellent performance ... ’

...Take a look at this interactive map of universities offering language courses!

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