Multilingualism in higher education: (What) do European university alliances deliver?

Abstract

Multilingualism has long been a core educational and policy commitment within the European Union. European University Alliances (Alliances) have been explicitly tasked with embodying this foundational value. After five years of operations, it is both timely and necessary to investigate how the integration of multilingualism has materialised at alliance level. This paper examines 32 of the 65 active Alliances that foreground multilingualism as a one of their core tenets, and analyses their websites alongside the documents and reports they have produced, to explore how multilingualism is framed and implemented in reported practice. Our findings indicate that, examples of innovative practice notwithstanding, the dominant focus across Alliances remains on language learning. Although undoubtedly important, this framing sidelines the sociolinguistic, political and epistemic dimensions that are involved in achieving a multilingual Higher Education (HE). As such, we sustain a restricted conception of language use that privileges certain languages over others. We draw on our analysis to introduce a framework that integrates Language Profile, Policy, Pedagogy, and Practice, showing challenges and opportunities for embedding multilingualism within HE. We close the paper by reflecting on whether/to what extent current approaches, and Alliances, can deliver change and foster truly multilingual ecosystems.