I don't know about other countries, but in the UK theres a decay in the number of students wanting to study languages in general, Students seeing them as unlikely to pay off their student loans. Smaller indigenous language departments have been especially hard hit, frequently not having enough students to be economically viable, and so with Universties being under pressure to be financially eficient, frequently ending up closing when members of staff retire.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.

They're trying to pull something similar in Finland. We have some 20 universities, and apparently that just isn't efficient enough. Some of them are set to be jointly administered in the future, while others will merge outright. I'm feeling rather uneasy about the whole process.

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror" - Oscar Wilde