About us
Welcome to the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. We are renowned for our world-class research and teaching, our welcoming and friendly atmosphere and our exceptionally wide choice of prestigious University of London degree programmes.
Our students and our degree programmes
Our students come from around the world to develop critical and communication skills, cross-cultural understanding and foreign language/s proficiency by exploring not only the language but also the culture and history of France and the Francophone countries, Germany and Austria, Italy, Latin America and Spain. We also offer Comparative Literature and Culture (CLC), a programme covering world literature, film and visual arts which does not require foreign language skills. All our degrees are taught by academics at the cutting edge of research in their fields, and are carefully designed so that students develop their interests and skills from choices spanning literature, film, visual art, and political and cultural history from the medieval period to the twenty-first century.
What do you get from our degrees?
A Modern Languages degree sets graduates apart from other Arts and Humanities students. Our graduates all develop excellent communication, analytical and research skills, but also often achieve native or near-native spoken and written fluency in one or more major foreign languages, alongside cross-cultural awareness and understanding. These invaluable attributes equip our graduates to be high flyers in an increasingly globalised world. What is more, our Modern Languages students benefit from an integrated year working or studying abroad, a period of intense immersion typically funded by the Erasmus exchange scheme, during which they develop the kind of impressive language proficiency and intellectual maturity that is rare in UK graduates.
Studying Comparative Literature and Culture (CLC) also develops the kinds of critical, communication, and leadership skills which are particularly valuable in meeting the challenges of today’s workplaces. Our CLC programmes are distinctive in providing the opportunity to explore world literature as well as film and the visual arts from a broad cross-cultural perspective. CLC students are not required to have studied, or to study a foreign language (although those with foreign language skills can of course study the original versions of works covered, or take a language as a joint honours degree with CLC).
We are extremely proud of our international research reputation and the vibrant intellectual culture that infuses our teaching. We have an exceptional range of expertise encompassing literature, film, painting, sculpture, philosophy, music and fashion from the twelfth to the twenty-first centuries. As well as teaching and publishing world-class books and articles in prestigious journals, we help curate art exhibitions, regularly win coveted research funding bids and prizes, advise governments and the media, judge translation prizes and contribute to radio and television programmes in the UK and beyond.
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, approximately half the research produced within the School was rated 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' in terms of 'originality, significance and rigour'. German was in the top five departments, while Hispanic Studies achieved the highest score in the country for its 4* (the highest possible category), 'world-leading' research publications.
Together with our specialist language teachers, we are proud to have been awarded an exceptional number of teaching prizes for innovation and for excellence. We are all passionately committed to sharing our professional expertise with our students. We very much look forward to welcoming you into the thriving and friendly community that is the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
Dr Jon Hughes, Head of School