History with Modern Languages

History and modern languages at Cambridge is a joint degree that combines close historical analysis with deep engagement with another culture's language and literature. History is the discipline of understanding the past through evidence: reading sources critically, constructing arguments about causation and change, and situating events in their broader social, political, and cultural context. Modern languages extends that work across national and linguistic boundaries, requiring you to engage with a country's own intellectual and literary traditions and to develop genuine linguistic proficiency alongside your historical training.

This four-year full-time programme at the University of Cambridge places you within one of the world's leading centres for both history and modern language study. You will combine the Cambridge tradition of close reading and evidence-based argument with the linguistic and cultural richness of modern language study. A sandwich year is built into the programme, offering the opportunity to work in a relevant professional setting before your final year.

Work placement is also part of the degree. Cambridge's supervision system means you receive intensive individual intellectual attention alongside the breadth of a large university's resources, libraries, and academic community.

You will develop skills in archival research, historical argument, textual analysis, and oral and written communication in your chosen language. The ability to think historically, to read in more than one language, and to move between different national intellectual traditions is a genuinely rare combination.

Graduates from this combination go on to careers in diplomacy, the civil service, journalism, law, finance, publishing, academia, and international business. The combination of analytical rigour and linguistic reach is valued across a wide range of sectors. Postgraduate study in history, modern languages, international relations, or related fields is a common continuation.