Sir Tom adds his voice to language call

ACCLAIMED playwright Sir Tom Stoppard was in the Capital yesterday to add his voice to campaigns to protect the teaching of languages in Scotland.

Sir Tom presented a petition to the Scottish Parliament calling for the introduction of targeted funding for lesser-taught languages such as Russian, Czech and Polish at Scottish universities.

Members of the University and College Union are lobbying MSPs to ring-fence funding, arguing that the Scottish Funding Council must maintain a wide range of courses.