The LAGB Education Committee think it's time to revisit the possibility of launching an A-level exam in Linguistics. 

Their session at the Linguistics Association of Great Britain Annual Meeting 2013 will be devoted to this subject.

Since their last discussion of this issue in 2005, a lot has happened - A-levels are under review, the exam in English Language has continued to thrive, foreign languages have continued to decline, new A-levels have been launched in comparable subjects (Creative Writing and Anthropology) and, most important of all, the UK Linguistics Olympiad has revealed an enormous untapped enthusiasm in our schools for analysis of language structure, with over 6,000 entries in 2013. This olympiad joins the established competitions in STEM subjects such as Maths and Physics, but, uniquely, our subject is not yet part of the school curriculum. Is the world ready for an A-level in linguistics? If so, what steps do we need to take to introduce it? And what would it consist of? These are some of the questions that face us.

Planned speakers include Willem Hollmann (Lancaster). The chair will be Graeme Trousdale (Edinburgh). Further details will be available on the LAGB Education Committee website: www.lagb.org.uk/education