Few younger Greek Australians realise that Melbourne was once one of the world’s leading centres of Modern Greek studies outside Greece. This was no coincidence. Home to one of the world’s largest Greek diaspora communities and widely regarded as a capital of global Hellenism, Melbourne possessed the social, cultural and educational foundations that enabled Modern Greek studies to flourish. During the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, Modern Greek was taught at several Victorian universities, while around fifteen Australian tertiary institutions offered Greek language programs.

The University of Melbourne established its program in 1974, followed by La Trobe, Monash, and RMIT universities. La Trobe’s affinity with Greek culture extended well beyond its Modern Greek program. Its central meeting place was named the Agora, while campus precincts such as Peribolos East and Peribolos West reflected an institutional identity consciously inspired by the language and symbolism of classical Greece. As John Hajek, Nick Nicholas and George Psaromatis have documented, this represented one of the most successful periods of language expansion in Australian higher education.

This growth reflected the convergence of three forces: post-war Greek migration, multiculturalism as national policy, and the introduction of free university education by the Whitlam Government in 1974. Together they generated sustained social demand for Greek language and culture, encouraging universities to invest in academic staff, research and degree programs.

Universities rarely generate sustained demand for language programs themselves. Rather, they respond to the student demand created by a broader social ecosystem of families, schools, communities and public policy. It is this ecosystem that ultimately shapes the enrolments on which university investment depends.

Joseph Lo Bianco’s  Pharos: The Vitality and Presence of Modern Greek in Contemporary Australia explains why this ecosystem proved so resilient. Language vitality, he argues, depends upon an interconnected ecosystem of families, schools, community organisations, universities, media and public policy. During the 1970s and 1980s these institutions reinforced one another, creating the conditions in which Greek language education flourished.

Why the Momentum Changed

Today the landscape is very different. Many university programs have disappeared or been substantially reduced. La Trobe University is the only university in Victoria offering a dedicated Modern Greek program. While its continued commitment is notable, the program also faces the same enrolment, funding and strategic pressures affecting language disciplines across Australian higher education. More recently, Xavier College announced the closure of its 147-year Classical Greek program, while the future of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Classical Greek has become increasingly uncertain after only three students enrolled statewide in Year 12. Although Modern Greek and Classical Greek occupy different places within the curriculum, both developments point to a weakening educational pipeline that begins well before students reach university.

These developments raise a fundamental question: did universities abandon Greek Studies, or did they respond to changing demand?

The evidence points overwhelmingly to the latter.

When Demand Creates Supply

Economic theory provides a useful framework for explaining this transformation.

Jean-Baptiste Say argued that “supply creates its own demand.” John Maynard Keynes challenged that proposition by demonstrating that investment ultimately depends upon effective demand.  No organisation invests indefinitely in activities for which sustained demand no longer exists. When demand grows, investment follows; when demand weakens, investment contracts.

Universities operate according to the same principle. They establish departments, appoint academics and develop programs when sufficient numbers of students choose to enrol. The growth of Modern Greek during the 1970s and 1980s was therefore not driven by nostalgia. Universities invested because student demand justified long-term academic commitment.

The HECS Era and Changing Choices

The subsequent decline of Greek Studies reflected institutional, demographic and economic changes. The introduction of the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) in 1989, which introduced student contributions toward the cost of university education, reinforced a broader shift towards more market-oriented educational choices.  At the same time, Australian universities became increasingly internationalised, with fee-paying international students reshaping institutional priorities. Together these developments accelerated the transformation of Australian universities into increasingly demand-driven institutions, where enrolment patterns and financial sustainability played a growing role in academic investment decisions.

Subsequent research suggests these changes formed part of a broader restructuring of language education across Australian universities. Declining enrolments, program rationalisation and changing institutional priorities have affected many language disciplines, indicating that the experience of Modern Greek reflects wider trends rather than an isolated case.

As students assumed a greater share of the cost of higher education, degrees increasingly came to be viewed as investments rather than simply educational opportunities. Employment prospects, career pathways and the perceived return on that investment became increasingly important in course selection.

Modern Greek was not alone. Many humanities disciplines and European languages experienced similar pressures. Recent research on Australian universities shows that modern language education remains significant overall, but universities increasingly concentrate their offerings around a relatively small group of high-demand languages. In that environment, languages perceived to offer greater economic or strategic value—including Mandarin, Japanese, Korean and, more recently, Hindi—have generally attracted greater institutional investment.

From Community Language to Heritage Language

Economic incentives tell only part of the story. For the post-war migrant generation, Greek was the language of everyday family life and community institutions. By the third and fourth generations, English had become dominant in education and professional life. Greek remained an important marker of identity but increasingly as a heritage language rather than a language of daily communication.

This demographic transition weakened the educational pipeline that had previously sustained university enrolments. Modern Greek is best understood as a case study of a broader transformation in Australian language education rather than an exceptional case. Many language programs have experienced similar pressures, although universities continue to support modern language education overall. What has changed is the concentration of resources in a smaller number of languages with stronger enrolment demand. Greek nevertheless illustrates how weakening social foundations ultimately reduces university investment. In a competitive higher education environment, universities allocate resources where demand is strongest.

Rebuilding Demand

The central policy challenge is therefore not simply preserving university courses, but rebuilding demand.

That requires repositioning Greek for the twenty-first century—not merely as a heritage language, but as a gateway to philosophy, democracy, archaeology, Byzantine civilisation, Mediterranean geopolitics, European affairs and one of the world’s richest intellectual traditions.

Yet a compelling curriculum alone is not enough. As Lo Bianco argues, language vitality depends upon an interconnected ecosystem. Such ecosystems do not sustain themselves automatically; they require institutional architecture linking families, schools, community organisations, universities, media and public policy around a shared strategy.

The challenge for global Hellenism is therefore not only preserving cultural attachment, but transforming it into coordinated educational, social and economic investment. A sustainable future for Greek language education requires institutions capable of converting community commitment into sustained educational participation and opportunity.

Conclusion

The history of Modern Greek in Australia is about much more than the fate of a single language. It reflects broader changes in Australian higher education, language policy and university funding, illustrating how social ecosystems, public policy and educational institutions interact to shape educational opportunity. Keynes reminds us that investment follows effective demand; Lo Bianco reminds us that demand is cultivated through families, schools, communities and public institutions.

The post-war generation created the social conditions that allowed Greek Studies to flourish. The challenge for the next generation is to rebuild that ecosystem by demonstrating that Greek is not merely a language of heritage, but a gateway to philosophy, democracy, Europe, the Mediterranean and one of humanity’s richest intellectual traditions.

If that ecosystem can be renewed, it will once again generate the sustained demand that encourages universities to invest. The lesson extends well beyond Modern Greek. Universities do not preserve disciplines through sentiment alone. They sustain them when society continues to demonstrate their value. In higher education, sustainable academic provision ultimately follows sustained social demand.

*Dr Steve Bakalis is a specialist in international education and higher education administration, with extensive experience in Australia and across the Asia-Pacific region and the Arab Gulf States. He has held senior leadership roles responsible for the strategic planning and management of student recruitment, admissions, selection, and enrolment.