The Secretary General for Greeks Abroad and Public Diplomacy, Mr John Chryssoulakis, sent a letter to Macquarie University, Australia expressing his strong support for their Modern Greek studies programme and calling for them to not discontinue it.
As previously reported by Greek City Times, the efforts to maintain the presence of Modern Greek studies at the tertiary level in Australia suffered a significant setback when Macquarie University declared its intention to discontinue Modern Greek starting next year.
Modern Greek Studies at Macquarie University has faced various challenges, with the most recent occurring three years ago when Modern Greek was downgraded from a major to a minor but was later reinstated as a major in 2022.
This latest proposal represents a more permanent change, reflecting a significant shift in the university’s approach to language studies.
The Macquarie Greek Studies Foundation’s announcement of this decision revealed that they are considering discontinuing several languages, including Modern Greek, Croatian, German, Italian, and Russian. This aligns with their plan to move away from the Languages and Cultures discipline and establish a Discipline of Global Studies.