Community leaders and academics want to safeguard Modern Greek studies amidst discontinuations, emphasising cultural legacy and educational investment
Modern Greek at the tertiary level has suffered another setback, with Macquarie University announcing its intention to discontinue Modern Greek in 2024.D
This marks a departure in the university’s policy as a whole list of languages is slated for discontinuation – Modern Greek, Croatian, German, Italian and Russian in a move away from Languages and Cultures to a Discipline of Global Studies.
Foundation President Theophilus Premetis said that the university had not made any concrete decision but that it was “a big concern”.
“We have been working for nearly 40 years and have done very well in promoting Greek and gaining enrolments… we’re now trying to reverse this decision,” Premetis told Neos Kosmos.
He said they had 57 enrolments off the back of dealing with the COVID-19 issue and, “we cannot forget three years ago when they tried to downgrade us to a minor instead of a diploma and a major, which was later overturned”.
“We are deeply concerned about the future of Modern Greek Studies at Macquarie University and will explore all options to maintain its presence there,” Premetis said.
In Melbourne, as reported in Neos Kosmos in 2022, Latrobe University partnered with the Greek Community, the Greek Archdiocese of Australia and the Victorian government to support the modern Greek language program.
The actions saw a significant increase in the number of students studying modern Greek at the university, “since 2020, enrolments in modern Greek have increased by more than 20 per cent, and because of that, we are delighted to announce that we will be continuing with the Modern Greek programme,” Professor John Dewar, La Trobe University’s Vice Chancellor told Neos Kosmos in 2022.
According to the former director of the Centre for Hellenic Research and Studies at Latrobe University, Professor Anastasios Tamis, there needed to be more leadership in communities.
“At a tertiary level, when it came to Greek studies, we build the roof without paying due attention to the foundations,” Prof. Tamis told Neos Kosmos.
According to the professor, the absence of a sizeable middle-class cohort of migrants in the post-war mass migration, then the focus on the professional ascent and mainstream for the second generation, undermined Greek studies at a tertiary level.
“This first generation of Greek immigrants, mainly working class and with barely a primary school education, sacrificed much to provide an education to their children.
“Then, for the second generation, their prime aim was not to retain the Greek language or identity but to excel and be consolidated within the Australian mainstream community.
Prof. Tamis said the second generation’s “main purpose is to succeed, professionally, economically and socially, within the dominant society”.
He pointed to a need for more concern about preschool, primary and secondary level Greek studies by community leadership.
“Greek community leaders never directed our community to focus on primary school education or preschool education, where we can establish bilingual schools,” Prof. Tamis said.
Greek communities should have built primary schools and pre-preschool centres “totally in Greek to introduce language immersion classes teaching Greek from a young age,” Prof. Tamis said.
He added that 60 per cent of the students at weekend and after-hour Greek schools “have never heard Greek at home,” and two of the three houses of Greek ancestry don’t speak Greek.
“To sustain Greek at the tertiary level, we need to increase the frequency of teaching and the duration of instruction to learn a language like Greek.
“You need 2600 contact teaching hours, but we currently offer only around 600 hours and we teach Greek between 45 minutes to one hour and a half once a week, so you cannot learn a language in this frequency,” Prof. Tamis told Neos Kosmos.
Neos Kosmos reported this week that a community effort is planned to support the Modern Greek Department at the University of Sydney, “putting extra focus on the attempt to help the study of Modern Greek at the tertiary level.”
This comes at a crucial time, as the fate of Modern Greek Studies at Macquarie University puts the topic of preserving these departments at the tertiary level back in the limelight.
Professor Anthony Dracopoulos, the acting Chair of the Modern Greek and Byzantine Studies Department, told Neos Kosmos that Modern Greek “needs financial support, not only in Sydney but across Australia”.
He said Modern Greek at the tertiary level achieve two things: they make students qualified to teach the language at the high school level and add to the research of Modern Greek culture.
“Modern Greece participates in the cultural production of the West in the here and now.
“We have great poets, great musicians, great cinema.
“We need to study that at the high level to enhance our understanding of what it is to participate in Greek culture,” he said.
Dr Dracopoulos said that the question should not be about why we should have Modern Greek at universities but how to preserve them.
The academic cited the recent situation at Macquarie University as evidence of the risk against Modern Greek at the tertiary level.
For him, Modern Greek needs to engage more overseas students who bring in more significant revenue for the universities.
Greek Departments at Harvard University, King’s College in London and the University of Michigan financed by the institutions.
He added that small departments can sometimes be more beneficial in terms of offering a better service to students as they have more time to give them.
Πηγή: ΝΚ/
Dimitri Kalos and Fotis Kapetopoulos
