Faroese language belongs on Danish uni curriculum

Faroese language will not feature as an optional subject at Copenhagen University this year.

New guidelines for the university’s Faculty of Humanities state that a minimum of 30 students must be enrolled on a course for it to remain on the curriculum.

Since 2014, an average of five students per year have selected Faroese as an optional subject, according to Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science. However, the Faroese Ministry of Culture argues that this figure has been ranging from six to 19 in recent years, with students coming from all over the world.

Rigmor Dam, the Minister of Culture, on Monday sent the Danish Minister of Higher Education and Science a request to bring back Faroese language courses into the curriculum at Copenhagen University.

Dam argued that there have been students who picked Denmark as their country of study specifically because Faroese language courses were available there.

“It saddens me to see that the University of Copenhagen – the only university outside of the Faroe Islands offering Faroese language courses – is now discarding this subject as a cost-saving measure,” she said.

The culture minister is not convinced by the university’s explanation about its 30+ students requirement.

“Other subjects in the same faculty remain on the curriculum even though the student number is well below 30,” she argued in her letter to the Danish Minister of Higher Education and Science.

Translated by prosa.fo.