Plans to suspend Portuguese from the Medieval and Modern Languages Tripos have been shelved. The Spanish and Portuguese department announced that they were no longer intending to reduce the subject to a single paper from October 2008.

The dispute escalated into a full-scale diplomatic row when it emerged that Instituto Camões, which funds one of the two University Lectureships in Portuguese on behalf of the Portuguese government, had not been informed of the decision to suspend the Tripos. Michael Minden, head of the MML faculty board, would not comment on why the Instituto Camões had not been consulted, but told Varsity that the faculty’s past relationship with the organisation had been “cripplingly difficult”.

The reversal follows widespread protest against the plan. An online petition organised by Cambridge University Portuguese Speakers Society attracted almost 10,000 signatures from across the university. “The attempt to axe Portuguese as a Tripos subject was initiated when Portuguese was flourishing,” said Dr Maria Manuela Lisboa, lecturer in Portuguese. “The department was proposing the axing of a subject on the grounds that it is too successful.”

Katy Lee

More on this subject:

Outrage as Portuguese is pulled

Too popular to escape the axe

Capoeira dancers at the Portuguese demonstration

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