Classical Studies

Classical studies opens one of the deepest and most richly documented windows onto human experience that any discipline offers. It encompasses the literature, history, philosophy, religion, art and archaeology of ancient Greece and Rome, civilisations whose influence on western and global culture has been pervasive and lasting. To study the classical world is to engage with texts that have been read, debated and argued over for more than two millennia, and to ask what they still have to say to us now.

At the University of St Andrews this four-year full-time programme is a degree of remarkable range and depth. You will explore Greek and Roman literature across its genres, encountering the power of tragic drama, the wit of comedy, the argumentative brilliance of oratory and the imaginative scope of epic poetry. You will engage with classical philosophy, asking why questions raised by Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics remain live today.

You will study the social and cultural history of the ancient world alongside its art and religion, and you will examine how ancient culture has been received, reinterpreted and reimagined in later centuries and in the present. A year abroad gives you the opportunity to study in a different academic environment, broadening your perspective on classical reception and the contemporary relevance of antiquity.

Classical studies develops analytical precision, the ability to read closely and critically, facility with complex argument, and the capacity to move between close textual detail and broad historical and cultural questions. These are valuable capacities across a wide range of careers.

Graduates typically move into law, the civil service, journalism, publishing, heritage and museum work, education, broadcasting and the arts. Many continue to postgraduate study in classics, ancient history, classical archaeology, philosophy or related fields, and the discipline's combination of breadth and rigour makes it excellent preparation for research careers.