The teaching of Italian on undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses at the University of Salford, GB, is at serious risk. At the end of March, lecturers in Italian were informed that the University's management had formulated proposals to phase Italian out over the next three years as part of attempts to reduce a financial deficit affecting the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences. Italian is taught to over 70 students on undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in languages at Salford, and nearly 80 more students take Italian as part of Salford’s University Wide Language Programme. Research in Italian at Salford is internationally recognized, with recent projects such as the AHRC-funded research networking project “A New Italian Political Cinema?” receiving over £25,000 in external funding. Italian staff members also act as peer reviewers for organizations such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The objective of this petition is to request that senior managers at the University of Salford withdraw these proposals to close Italian.

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