Modern Languages (Italian and Spanish) and English

Italian, Spanish, and English is a combination that gives you linguistic competence and cultural knowledge in three of the world's most widely spoken and culturally rich languages. Italian opens access to one of the great artistic, literary, and intellectual traditions of European civilisation, from Dante and Boccaccio through the Renaissance and the Risorgimento to the modern novelists and filmmakers who have shaped world culture. Spanish provides entry to a living language of the Americas as well as Europe, a vast and diverse cultural world with its own literary traditions, political histories, and contemporary cultural vitality.

English rounds out the combination with access to one of the most internationally influential bodies of writing in any language.

At the University of St Andrews, this four-year full-time MA (Hons) programme includes a year abroad, giving you the opportunity to live and study in Italian-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries as part of your degree. This direct immersive experience is essential for developing the high-level language proficiency the programme aims to achieve. In your Italian studies, you will develop language and communication skills to a high level of proficiency alongside engagement with a range of specialist topics in Italian literature, culture, history, politics, and film, as the current description reflects.

Your Spanish studies run in parallel, developing similar depth in the Iberian and Latin American contexts. The English strand adds the critical and analytical methods of literary study in the English tradition, creating a programme of considerable intellectual range.

St Andrews' reputation for languages, its close-knit academic community, and the quality of its tutorial-based teaching create an excellent environment for developing the deep linguistic and cultural knowledge this combination requires.

Graduates with proficiency in Italian, Spanish, and English pursue careers in translation and interpreting, international business, diplomacy, journalism, publishing, cultural organisations, education, law, and international organisations. Postgraduate study in modern languages, translation studies, comparative literature, or area studies is a natural progression for those with academic ambitions.