Modern Languages (French and Persian) and Latin

Modern languages with French, Persian, and Latin is one of the most ambitious and intellectually distinctive combinations available in British higher education, spanning a major modern European language, a major Asian language of historical depth and contemporary importance, and the foundational language of Western classical and medieval scholarship. French gives access to the rich Francophone world across Europe, Africa, and beyond. Persian, the literary language of Iran, Afghanistan, and much of Central Asia, opens a civilisation with a literary tradition of extraordinary beauty and range.

Latin remains the key to medieval and Renaissance thought, to legal and scientific vocabulary, and to the classical roots of the European intellectual tradition. Together, they form a programme of remarkable linguistic and cultural breadth.

At the University of St Andrews, you will develop high-level proficiency in French through the study of French and Francophone language, literature, and culture, engaging with texts and traditions that have shaped European intellectual and artistic life. The Persian strand develops your ability to work in one of the great literary languages of the world, accessing a tradition too often overlooked in Western curricula. Latin equips you with the skills to read classical and medieval texts in the original, completing a trilingual profile that few graduates anywhere possess.

The programme runs over four years and includes a year abroad, giving you direct experience of living and studying in linguistic and cultural environments connected to the languages you are developing.

Graduates from trilingual programmes of this kind are genuinely rare and genuinely valuable. Careers in translation, diplomacy, international organisations, journalism, academic research, heritage and archives, and education all benefit from this combination of skills. Postgraduate study in classical or modern languages, comparative literature, translation, or area studies is a natural route.