Italian and Polish

Italian and Polish is an unusual and rewarding combination, bringing together two of Europe's richest literary and cultural traditions. Italian is one of the great romance languages, carrying with it a literary heritage that stretches from Dante and Petrarch through to the twentieth-century giants of the novel and into contemporary fiction, cinema, and design culture. Polish belongs to the Slavic family and opens access to one of Central Europe's most significant literary and intellectual traditions, including poets and novelists whose work has been shaped by the extraordinary historical pressures of the twentieth century.

Studying both languages gives you a genuinely distinctive profile in a world where competence in European languages beyond the major ones is rare and valuable.

At University College London, this four-year full-time joint honours BA divides equally between your two languages. You will develop competence in speaking, listening, reading, writing, and translation in both Italian and Polish, alongside the study of cultural topics including literature, history, film, linguistics, and politics from both traditions. The wide range of modules available allows you to tailor the degree toward your particular areas of interest.

In your third year you will spend a year abroad, divided between countries where your languages are spoken, giving you immersive linguistic experience and genuine cultural depth that extends well beyond the classroom. With a typical entry tariff of 152 UCAS points, this is a competitive programme at one of the UK's leading universities for language study.

Graduates from Italian and Polish programmes bring a distinctive combination of linguistic competence and cultural knowledge to the job market. Translation and interpreting, journalism, international organisations, the foreign office, business with European connections, publishing, education, and academic research are all well-trodden paths. Postgraduate study in translation, linguistics, European studies, or one of the individual language literatures provides a natural continuation.