Sociology and Portuguese

Sociology and Portuguese is a degree that challenges you to think about the social worlds we inhabit and how language and culture build and inform them, which is precisely how the current course description frames the combination. Sociology provides the analytical frameworks for understanding how societies are structured, how inequality is reproduced, how culture functions, and how collective life is organised through institutions and power. Portuguese opens the door to one of the world's most globally significant languages, spoken by over 250 million people across Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, and numerous other countries.

This four-year full-time programme at the University of Manchester includes a sandwich year, a year abroad, and a work placement, giving you extensive professional and international experience embedded within the degree. The year abroad in a Portuguese-speaking country is particularly significant: immersion in a different society while studying sociology gives you both linguistic development and direct sociological material to work with, as you experience first-hand how a different society is organised and how culture, class, race, and identity operate in a different national context. With a typical tariff of 152 points, the programme attracts students with strong academic foundations and genuine interest in both social analysis and the Portuguese-speaking world.

You will develop sociological theory, research methods, and specific content knowledge in areas such as inequality, globalisation, migration, and cultural change, alongside high-level Portuguese language proficiency and engagement with the literature and culture of the Lusophone world.

Graduates move into careers in research, policy, journalism, international organisations, NGOs, the civil service, international business, education, and a range of roles where social analytical skills and Portuguese language capability combine to create a distinctive and valuable professional profile.