CHARLES CLARKE sought to shore up key university subjects yesterday by publishing a list of courses considered to be of “national strategic importance”.

The Education Secretary asked the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) to report on whether intervention was needed to prevent universities abandoning subjects such as chemistry and Arabic.

But he ruled out additional government funding to protect departments threatened by closure. Mr Clarke said that he had consulted Cabinet colleagues before compiling the list of courses considered vital to the national interest.

Arabic and Turkish language studies and courses on the former Soviet Union regions of the Caucasus and Central Asia were included for “strategic security and inter-cultural awareness reasons”.

Japanese, Mandarin Chinese and other Asian languages and area studies were listed “for business and trade purposes”. Durham University decided last year to close its Department of East Asian Studies.

Mr Clarke placed science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses on the protected list, saying that they were necessary to protect Britain’s productivity.

Several universities have announced plans to end the study of chemistry. The latest, Exeter, declared last week that closure of its department, along with at least one other, was necessary to cut losses of £3 million.

It last night approved a proposal by Professor Steve Smith, the vice-chancellor, to wind down the music department over the next three years. The university is still discussing the fate of the Italian department, which is also under threat. Meanwhile, about 1,000 students protested on Monday against Cambridge University’s plans to close its architecture department. Mr Clarke said vocational courses of interest to employers in areas that were of growing importance to the economy, such as the creative industries, should also be covered, with degrees relating to the new member countries of the European Union.

Mr Clarke asked David Young, the chairman of Hefce, to advise on how best to retain degree courses in these subjects. But he said that universities remained independent bodies, free to make their own decisions, and he was “not looking for a new set of possible initiatives, nor a bid for extra funds”.

Mr Clarke said: “Any sensible government needs to take a long-term view of what our students are studying and whether we have enough graduates in the subjects needed to help our economy and society thrive.”

He said these subjects had been highlighted because there were “particular concerns that on current trends we may not be able to produce enough graduates in these fields.”

A Department for Education and Skills spokesman said that the initiative had been planned for several months and was not a response to Exeter’s announcement.

The plan to close Exeter’s chemistry department has already prompted Sir Harry Kroto, who received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996 for discovering a new form of carbon, to return an honorary degree in protest.

The Association of University Teachers said that Mr Clarke had done too little too late to prevent a growing crisis.

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