The future of Durham University's Russian language department, named after chancellor Sir Peter Ustinov, is under threat. Teaching staff are scheduled to be halved when its head retires and a lecturer takes maternity leave, and the senate is to consider a proposal not to admit students from next October.
The Ustinov Institute has about 50 full-time students and others studying the language as part of their degree courses. Three hundred students have taken part in a demonstration to oppose the closure.