Modern Languages (Arabic and Italian) and Latin

Arabic, Italian, and Latin at the University of St Andrews is a four-year combination of exceptional linguistic and cultural range, bringing together a Semitic language of global significance, a major Romance language with one of the world's richest literary traditions, and the classical language that formed the intellectual foundation of Western Europe for more than a millennium. Arabic opens access to the Middle East and North Africa, to a philosophical and literary heritage that shaped medieval and early modern thought, and to one of the most geopolitically important regions of the contemporary world. Italian gives you the literature of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and the Renaissance alongside contemporary Italian culture, film, and writing.

Latin provides the key to Roman civilisation and to the learned culture of medieval and early modern Europe, as well as illuminating the structure of all the Romance languages. The programme includes a year abroad.

You will develop reading proficiency in Arabic, Italian, and Latin, learning to engage with texts in their original languages and to move between very different linguistic systems and cultural contexts. St Andrews notes that Arabic enriches almost any subject pairing it enters, and the addition of both Italian and Latin creates a programme with unusual scope for comparative literary and cultural analysis across three major traditions.

A typical entry tariff of 200 points reflects the selectivity of the programme. Graduates are well placed for careers in academia, the diplomatic service, international journalism, translation and interpreting, cultural and heritage organisations, international business, and education. Many continue to doctoral research in one or more of the languages or in comparative literature or classical studies.