Satisfying French Language Student Needs in a Climate of Rapid Change: The UNE Experience

Abstract

The last decade has seen many changes in the university sector and European languages have been particularly hard hit as they are costly to deliver. At the University of New England in Australia, where the situation has been exacerbated by internal financial problems, strategies have had to be devised so that French students continue to receive quality courses. The solution lies in using multimedia, although this may have a limited lifespan for some groups of students. Online delivery is also seen to be a compensating factor where there are limited resources, but it is important that expertise in this area be acquired rapidly if its full impact is to be felt. Online delivery per se does not necessarily lead to improved quality.