Classics/Social & Public Policy

Classics is the study of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds in their full complexity, encompassing literature, history, philosophy, art, material culture, and language. It is a discipline that asks fundamental questions about politics, ethics, society, and what it means to be human, questions that the Greeks and Romans posed with extraordinary sophistication and that remain relevant today. Social and public policy, meanwhile, is concerned with the design, analysis, and evaluation of policies that governments and public institutions use to address social challenges, from healthcare and education to poverty and inequality.

Bringing these two disciplines together creates a distinctive combination: the historical depth and humanistic breadth of Classics alongside the analytical and policy-oriented thinking of social science.

At the University of Glasgow, you will study this joint degree across four years, exploring both disciplines with genuine depth. In the Classics strand, you will engage with the literature, history, and thought of ancient Greece and Rome, and you have the opportunity to study Latin and Greek at any level of prior experience. In the social and public policy strand, you will examine how policies are made and evaluated, drawing on sociology, economics, and political science to understand the social forces that shape modern societies.

A year abroad is part of the programme, giving you the opportunity to study at a partner university and to develop your analytical and cultural perspectives in a different academic environment.

The combination develops rigorous critical thinking, strong written and oral communication skills, and the capacity to engage with complex material from multiple disciplinary angles.

Graduates of this combination go on to careers in public policy, government, the civil service, international organisations, NGOs, research, journalism, and law. The analytical and humanistic skills Classics provides, combined with the practical policy expertise of the social science strand, make for graduates who can think carefully about both the long view and the immediate challenge. Postgraduate study in classics, history, public policy, or related social sciences is a natural progression.