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The Report of the Sub-Committee on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies (often referred to as the Hayter Report) was the report of a sub-committee appointed by the University Grants Commission in 1959 to review developments in the fields covered by the 1947 Report of Interdepartmental Commission of Enquiry on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies (better known as the Scarbrough Commission). Written under the chairmanship of former diplomat Sir William Hayter (1906-1995), the Sub-Committee's report had a far-reaching impact upon area studies in the UK, some of which can be felt to this day. In particular it argued for the strengthening of area studies beyond language departments, a better balance between linguistic studies and non-linguistic studies of the geographical areas covered by the report, and a greater emphasis on modern languages and studies of these areas rather than studies based on the model of Western Classics. As a result of the report, significant funding was provided for a ten-year period from 1962 until 1972, enabling the establishment of a considerable number of academic posts and some new departments.

Background
During the Second World War, Britain had extended the range of contacts it had with the countries of Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa beyond that provided by its colonial activities. It was apparent to many that Britain needed to maintain and expand these contacts, and gain a better understanding of these regions, but it was equally apparent that it was poorly equipped to do this. Therefore in 1946 the Interdepartmental Commission of Enquiry on Oriental, Slavonic, East European and African Studies was set up under the chairmanship of Roger Lumley (1896-1969), the 11th Earl of Scarbrough, with wide terms of reference covering all aspects of education, training and research relating to the regions in question. The resulting report was heavily critical of the state of teaching and research in these fields, citing lack of funding and systematic organisation, incomplete libraries, and inability to attract and retain students as major shortcomings. It suggested significant investment was needed to redress the situation. It recommended the development of strong departments concentrated at a few institutions, a shifting of the academic focus towards modern rather than classical studies, and a better balance between linguistic studies and non-linguistic studies of the regions in question. In the first five years after the publication of the Scarbrough Commission's report, considerable funding was made available, and departments of Asian studies flourished in particular. However, in 1952 most of this funding was stopped, and for much of the 1950s the fields covered by the Scarbrough report struggled, though there was some improvement towards the end of the decade. The Hayter Sub-Committee was appointed by the University Grants Committee in 1959 to review provision of Asian, Slavonic, East European and African studies in universities, and it began work in January 1960.

Membership
The Chairman of the Sub-Committee was Sir William Hayter, who as a diplomat had worked in Vienna, East Asia, Washington and the Soviet Union, culminating in his appointment as British Ambassador to Moscow in 1953. However, in 1957 he had resigned from the Diplomatic Service to take up the post of Warden at his old college, New College, Oxford. Other members of the committee included: the historian Sir William Deakin (1913-2005), who had acted as Winston Churchill's literary assistant and was an expert on the war in south-eastern Europe including Yugoslavia; Sir Lionel Lamb (1900-1992), a Chinese speaker who had held a number of diplomatic posts in China as well as Washington and Bern ; Cambridge Professor Nicholas Mansergh (1910-1991), an eminent historian of Ireland and the British Commonwealth; and another Cambridge academic, Sir Steven Runciman (1903-2000), best known for his work on the Crusades and for his ability to read several Middle Eastern languages as well as Russian and other European languages. The Secretary was Mrs Elizabeth Layton. The report contains a foreword by Sir Keith Murray (1903-1993), then Chairman of the University Grants Committee.