Reference points for the design and delivery of degree programmes in Foreign Languages

The importance of languages and related studies (hereafter referred to as Languages), has been widely recognised at national and international levels. Languages as a subject area taught at university level has been the subject of numerous reviews and reports in both the Russian Federation (RF) and the European Union (EU). The result of this has been to raise the awareness of the economic value of speaking foreign languages, both for the individual and for society. The ability to use a foreign language is, by any definition, a useful personal acquisition and one held in high regard by employers. In many studies, graduates in languages have shown one of the highest employability rates of all humanities graduates.