As many as 40% of university language departments are likely to close within a decade, the former government adviser charged with bolstering foreign language uptake in higher education has warned, delivering a huge blow to the UK's diplomatic and economic hopes. Amid a deepening crisis in a language learning—which is 1causing alarm at highest levels of government—the number of 2universities offering degrees in modern languages have already 3plunged from 105 in 2000 to 62 at the start of this academic year. The rate of attrition is expected to continue into the nextdecade. A further 20 departments will be vulnerable to close in the 4next 10 years, and there is growing concern that the pace of decline 5is set to quicken, according to Professor Mike Kelly, a former adviser on the Department for Education's steering group on languages and now head of the government-funded Routes into Languages programme co-ordinating attempts to increase the uptake of language degrees in England. Huge areas of the country are being left without any degree-level language courses, which in turn is decreasing the number of 6language teachers in schools, compounding the crisis. Last week itemerged that A-level candidates for French and German fell to50% 7between 1996 and 2012. The Foreign Office has become increasingly concerning about 8the future of its diplomatic corps, with senior figures privatelyvoicing urgent concerns about the standard of their graduate 9recruits. It has built its own languages school and is spending ￡ 1 ma year to bring the civil service upon to scratch. 10