For partners 
An unusual educational experiment took place in the United Kingdom once again, bringing together politics, universities, and a love of languages. The initiative was organized by Duolingo in partnership with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages, where participants competed in learning foreign languages through the app. This year, members of parliament and university leaders joined the project. Together they studied 43 languages. The format is simple: whoever earns the most XP in the app wins!
The choice of languages turned out to be very diverse: some studied French, Spanish and German, while others chose less common directions — Welsh, Ukrainian, Hebrew and Arabic.
- In the MPs category, first place went to the MP for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard, Sarah Mayer, who was studying French. Second place went to Caroline Johnson, who was studying Italian, and third — to Mike Wood, who chose Arabic.
- For the first time in 2026, representatives of higher education joined the experiment — and the competition there was no less fierce! Among university leaders, first place went to Vanessa Lemm, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and staff member at University of Greenwich. Second place went to Karen Holford from Cranfield University, and third — to Jenny Marie, representing the University of Greenwich.
- The overall university ranking is also worth noting: the leader was Cardiff Metropolitan University, which managed to claim several positions in the top 10. It is followed by University of Aberdeen and University of Bradford.
Brief note: the Duolingo Language Challenge project launched in 2024 and has already received support from 250+ MPs. Today it is gradually transforming from a simple competition into a platform that promotes language learning and makes it part of modern educational culture.
