Course summary

Birmingham’s fusion of language and culture places employability at its heart, preparing you to live and work as an engaged citizen of the world. Studying a modern language from beginner or advanced level (French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish or Portuguese), alongside English is highly complementary and an exciting way to contextualise your knowledge in each discipline. At Birmingham, undergraduate language is taught through the lens of the target culture's literature, history, politics and society, and through total immersion on the Year Abroad. Please note that not all combinations are available due to timetable restrictions. Find out more about your chosen combination. By studying Modern Languages as a Joint Honours degree with English Literature, the programme allows you to study the ways in which literary culture has engaged with and shaped society and how it continues to do so today. You will also have the opportunity to take our specialist second-year undergraduate Shakespeare module and the possibility of participating in our residential trip in Stratford-upon-Avon. Why study this course? More than fluent – Choose vocational modules in areas such as Translation, Language Teaching, Legal Culture, Business and more! Talk the talk into a long list of career prospects with the help of our Careers and Employability team. Practice as a professional – Develop your skills with our state-of-the-art translation suite, Televic interpreting suites and sound proof booths to the same professional standard at the United Nations. Multicultural city – Learn and Live in a vibrant city that is culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse. Join a number of language and culture-based societies at the University of Birmingham to further enhance your skills. Do more than read books – Take advantage of the wide ranging expertise within our academic community and delve into the study of social media, marketing, textual production, video games, comics, film and TV, music and art. A city that values literature as much as you do – Did you know that inspiration for parts of The Lord of the Rings came from our very own campus (our clock tower Old Joe is thought to be the black tower of Isengard)! Explore Birmingham’s literary scene and get involved with the numerous on-campus writers groups, including our very own newspaper, radio and TV stations. Delve into the various city-wide literature festivals and take advantage of our exceptional resources, including our special collections and archives in the Cadbury Research Library and the Library of Birmingham, Europe’s largest regional library. Top 100 for Modern Languages in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2022 Top 30 for English in the QS World University Subject Rankings 2022 100% of our graduates are in work or further study with 15 months (Graduate Outcome Survey 2022)