BA in Italian Language and Culture to continue
Leiden University will continue to offer its BA in Italian Language and Culture. The Board of the Faculty of Humanities has reversed its decision to stop admitting new students as of the 2026/2027 academic year.
The Faculty Board reached this conclusion having consulted the programme and carefully evaluated the plan it submitted to make the programme more efficient and future oriented.
Considerations
Over the past few weeks, staff from the Italian Language and Culture programme have worked intensively on a supplementary plan to future-proof the programme. This contains various measures, such as streamlining the programme, and has given the Faculty Board every confidence that the expertise in the Italian language, culture and history can be embedded for the future in the faculty’s range of programmes.
The financial projection for the revised and optimised programme shows that the financial deficit will not be as large as previously expected once the suggested measures have been implemented. In view of these new insights, the Faculty Board has concluded that closing the BA in Italian Language and Culture would be too sweeping a measure at the present.
‘I’m relieved and delighted by this news. It’s fantastic that Italian can continue within Leiden’s distinctive tradition of languages and cultures. We’re bursting with energy to start working on an updated programme and attractive curriculum for the Italian specialists of the future’, said Director of Italian Studies, Carmen Van den Bergh.
Task for the degree programme
‘As the Faculty Board’, said Dean Mark Rutgers, ‘we appreciate that this will be a relief for students and staff from the Italian Language and Culture programme and are glad to be able to share this news with them. And we have seen a great deal of solidarity with this programme within the faculty and beyond.
‘But we’re not there yet. the faculty is still in a predicament. As with various other programmes, Italian will therefore be given an additional task, which will be fleshed out over the next few weeks. The student intake numbers also remain a point of concern. We will continue to closely monitor the developments within all our degree programmes, so we can take prompt action should this prove necessary.’
Next steps
‘We realise this announcement is not the answer to all our questions. Tough decisions need to be made to turn the faculty’s situation around. That hasn’t changed’, said Interim Dean Henk te Velde, who will take over from Mark Rutgers as of 1 March.
‘As the new Faculty Board with our new and serving members, we will continue to face this challenge in the period ahead. We will keep talking to all involved and greatly value everyone’s input and dedication.’