Classical Studies with Foundation Year

Classical studies is a richly diverse and stimulating discipline that allows you to explore the culture, history, archaeology, philosophy, and literature of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, as Birkbeck describes it. The ancient world is not a fixed or monolithic subject: it encompasses Athenian democracy and Roman imperialism, Homeric epic and Ovidian elegy, Platonic philosophy and Stoic ethics, Greek tragedy and Roman comedy, ancient science and religious transformation. Classical studies approaches all of this with a combination of historical rigour and contemporary relevance, asking how studying the ancient world with all its attractive and disturbing features can radically transform debates about contemporary issues.

Birkbeck College's four-year full-time Classical Studies with Foundation Year degree has a typical entry tariff of 88 points. The foundation year is designed to give you the academic skills, subject knowledge, and intellectual confidence needed to engage successfully with degree-level classical material, making the programme accessible to students from a range of educational backgrounds. You will develop expertise in constructing and communicating arguments based on the complex and diverse remains of the ancient world, understanding the limits of our knowledge while also learning how to push them further.

The combination of literary, historical, archaeological, and philosophical approaches gives classical studies its breadth and depth.

Classical studies graduates work in education, heritage and museums, journalism, the civil service, law, publishing, and research. The close reading and argumentation skills the discipline develops are highly transferable, and the cultural breadth of classics is genuinely valued in professions that require engagement with ideas across time and tradition. Postgraduate study in classics, ancient history, archaeology, or related humanities fields is a well-trodden path for those wishing to develop specialist expertise or pursue academic careers.