Language faculty awarded pilot project to explore inclusive education

A new pilot project in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) will explore ways to enhance inclusive education, with a focus on teaching and assessment in the Modern and Medieval Languages (MML) tripos.

The pilot is part of Pathways to Inclusive Practice, a 3-year programme pulling together related recommendations from the University’s Review of Teaching, and the Review of the Approach to Provision for Disabled Students. It also incorporates commitments made within the Access & Participation Plan 2025-29.

The project relating to the MML tripos is one of several pilots across the University, and these incubators will drive progress and change across the collegiate University beyond the lifespan of the programme. 

The 2-year MML pilot is led by professors Charles Forsdick and Silke Mentchen, in collaboration with colleagues from the Accessibility & Disability Resources Centre, Blended Learning Services, and the Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning.

The ambitious project takes a whole-system approach, with a focus on designing, delivering and documenting inclusive teaching and assessment across the MML tripos. 

“We hope to explore inclusive teaching in a variety of ways,” said Mentchen, professor of German Studies. “The core of the pilot is to establish a baseline of inclusive practice for teaching and assessment, and we will look at language teaching at all levels of the tripos.”

“We are undertaking this work in the context of an ongoing tripos review,” added Forsdick, professor of French and co-chair of the faculty. “The project team will draw on their breadth of experience to explore ways of achieving inclusivity, including in relation to teaching content and assessment, and we hope that this will have a wider impact on how the University thinks about the curriculum.”

Ensuring ideas and the development of new material are accessible to the whole community involved in tripos teaching and learning (University teaching staff, College teaching officers, librarians, supervisors, and, of course, students) is another way to apply concepts of inclusivity.

The pilot will:

• map and evaluate current practice to define a baseline of inclusive provision
• develop accessible teaching materials, guidance and training for staff
• establish shared competence standards and learning outcomes across language and content teaching
• explore the use of technology (including AI and VR) to support inclusive learning
• build a sustainable evidence base, with outputs shared across the University

The pilot programme aims to finish in September 2028. Learn more about the programme and pilot areas.