Hungarian and East European Studies

Hungarian and East European Studies at UCL is one of the most distinctive area studies programmes in the UK, combining the study of Hungarian language, which is one of Europe's most linguistically unusual and challenging languages, with a broad engagement with the history, cultures, politics, and societies of Eastern and Central Europe more generally. The region covered by East European studies includes countries that have experienced some of the twentieth century's most dramatic transformations: the collapse of empires, the imposition and eventual fall of communist regimes, the wars of Yugoslav succession, and the complex processes of European integration that have reshaped the region since 1989.

At UCL, this four-year programme develops your Hungarian language skills alongside study of the broader East European context, drawing on the department's strengths in languages, literatures, history, and contemporary politics across the region. You will engage with Hungarian literature and culture alongside the history and politics of countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia. The programme develops skills in language learning, textual analysis, historical interpretation, and critical writing, giving you a genuinely multidisciplinary understanding of a region that is often misunderstood or overlooked in Anglophone education.

UCL's School of Slavonic and East European Studies is one of the world's leading centres for the study of this region, with exceptional library resources, a distinguished faculty, and strong connections to institutions across Central and Eastern Europe.

Graduates work in diplomacy and international organisations, journalism, business with Central and Eastern European connections, cultural and heritage organisations, academic research, and translation. The expertise in Hungarian and East European studies that this programme provides is genuinely rare and opens doors in areas where such expertise is highly valued.