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My best information is that Thames Valley University intends to close its degree course in European studies and invite the European studies staff to accept voluntary redundancy.

If it should be the case, I, as the chair of the national association for academics engaged in European studies, feel compelled to make two comments.

First, so far as I can discover, this degree and group of staff have never brought anything but credit to TVU. I can see no grounds for suggesting that the teaching of European studies has been wanting, and the staff have attracted money from the European Union.

Second, it seems very short-sighted for a British university to disband teaching on the EU and of European languages when British economic links with the rest of Europe are growing by the year and the government is committed to making a success of this country's membership of the EU.

Stephen George Chair, University Association for Contemporary European Studies