Spanish and Beginners' Russian

Studying Spanish to an advanced level and Russian from scratch at the University of Oxford is one of the most intellectually demanding language combinations available in UK higher education. Spanish is one of the world's most widely spoken languages, with a literary and cultural tradition of extraordinary richness spanning Europe and the Americas. Russian is one of the great languages of world literature, science and geopolitics, and approaching it from the beginning as part of an Oxford degree means developing it with the rigour and intensity that the tutorial system makes possible.

This four-year full-time programme will take your Spanish to the highest academic level, developing your reading, writing, speaking and listening skills through close engagement with literature, film and culture, and it will bring your Russian from beginner to an advanced standard. You will read authors in both languages in the original, engage with the history and culture of the Spanish-speaking world and the Russian-speaking world, and develop the analytical and linguistic skills to work with complex texts across both traditions. Oxford's tutorial system means you will work in close intellectual dialogue with specialists in both languages and their literatures.

Graduates from Oxford language degrees are among the most sought after in the UK. The combination of Spanish and Russian opens career opportunities in diplomacy, the foreign office, international organisations, journalism, business, translation and interpreting, intelligence and security, academia and a wide range of other fields where expertise in major world languages is valued. The rarity of serious Russian language ability in the UK graduate market makes this combination particularly distinctive.

Many graduates also proceed to postgraduate study in Slavonic studies, Hispanic studies, linguistics or translation, and the Oxford degree provides an excellent foundation for advanced academic work.