English and Latin

English and Latin is a pairing that reaches across one of the most important cultural divides in Western intellectual history, the transition from the classical world to the vernacular literary traditions that grew from it. Latin is the language in which the Roman world expressed its law, philosophy and poetry, and it remained the language of scholarship, religion and intellectual exchange across Europe for centuries after Rome's fall. English, meanwhile, is a language whose literature has been shaped at every stage by encounters with Latin texts, forms and ideas.

Studying them together at the University of St Andrews allows you to understand both traditions in depth and to trace the connections between them.

This four-year MA (Hons) programme develops your English literary skills across a broad range of genres and historical periods, training you to read closely, to interpret complex texts, and to place literature in its historical and cultural context. Your Latin studies develop linguistic competence alongside critical engagement with major classical authors, moving through grammar and translation towards independent reading of texts in their original form. The year abroad gives you the opportunity to spend time at a partner institution in another country, deepening your intellectual and personal development in ways that no campus alone can provide.

Graduates of English and Latin programmes develop a distinctive intellectual profile characterised by linguistic precision, close reading, and a wide cultural frame of reference. Careers include publishing, journalism, teaching, the civil service, law, archiving, heritage and cultural institutions, and the creative industries. Many graduates go on to postgraduate study in English literature, classical studies, medieval studies or linguistics, and some pursue academic careers.

The combination of close analytical reading and sensitivity to language is valued across a very wide range of professional contexts.