Adding Value To Your Degree: Washington University French Medical Track

Hi, my name is Vincent Jouane, I am a Senior Lecturer of French at Washington University in St. Louis.

Welcome to my session entitled: “How to add value to a college degree? Explore the example of the new "French for Medical Professionals" track. During this presentation, I am going to talk about what the French Department at Washington University has implemented to increase student enrollment in our courses. In
2023, an MLA study showed that enrollment in Foreign Language classes in American Universities had decreased by almost 30% between 2009 and 2021. Aware of that decline, our French section made several changes to try to reverse that trend in the Fall of 2021. These changes included a reorganization of our course sequence for Minors and Majors, a diversification of courses offered, as well as the implementation of a French for Medical Professionals track to attract new students.

Since these modifications have been made, we have managed to increase the number of students enrolled in our sections by almost 13% in the last three years. We strongly believe that the changes we provided, have been instrumental.