Polyglots go free

While I wholeheartedly agree with Tony Chafer's views on the decline of language degrees ("Mind our languages", 16 February), he has missed one relevant fact: students who go abroad on the Erasmus programme for a full year do not, in fact, pay tuition fees either to their home university or to their host university. Indeed, the European Union also makes a substantial (and non-repayable) contribution to their maintenance. (For details, see www.britishcouncil.org/erasmus-funding.htm.)

David Hartley, Walsall