In the hands of a good teacher, grammar can be a popular subject at primary level. It remains to be seen how things develop through secondary schools, but if they are equally successful, universities might find it a hard act to follow. The new curriculum has caused a revolution in schools which many teachers have found painful. There is no reason to think that the effect on universities will be any less radical, painful or exciting. Now is the time to start preparing, and one of the first steps must surely be to engage in serious research on how best to teach it in various degree programmes.
Research needs institutional support and networks.
The Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies has been created at the right moment to support it, but there also needs to be much more concrete support from individual universities, colleges, research councils and maybe even from the research assessment exercise. Richard Hudson is a grammarian. He is professor of linguistics at University College London. To improve morals - sometimes advocated by Tory politicians but generally considered a bad reason.