By Dr Daniel McAuley and Hannah Murphy, School of Arts, English and Languages.
Home, Heritage and Community Languages (HHCLs) are languages which are usually used and learned at home, within the community or in faith settings (e.g. Arabic, Polish, Urdu) and not through instruction in mainstream educational settings.
University admissions practices with regard to A Level qualifications are varied and inconsistent. In some cases, the qualifications are discounted from offers on the nbasis that they are assumed to reflect significant prior exposure or ‘native’ language competence rather than academic achievement and the rigour of the qualifications is called into question.
Such inconsistency risks inequitable access to higher education for linguistically skilled applicants, since it suggests a perceived hierarchy of value within language A Levels and A Level qualifications more generally.
This policy paper argues that such assumptions are not supported by the design of A Level qualifications.
You can read the full policy paper by clicking on Home Heritage and Community Languages Policy paper 14.
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