Italian and Turkish
Few language combinations at undergraduate level are as intellectually stimulating as Italian and Turkish. Italian carries you into the literary, artistic, and intellectual traditions of the Mediterranean world, from the medieval poetry of Dante to the cinema of the postwar decades and the vibrant contemporary fiction that continues to attract international readers. Turkish, one of the major languages of Eurasia with over 80 million speakers, opens a very different linguistic and cultural world: an Altaic language with a rich classical literature in the Ottoman tradition and a modern literary culture that has produced writers of significant international standing.
At Oxford, this four-year programme trains you in both languages to a high level of accuracy and fluency, while also developing your ability to read and analyse literary and cultural texts with analytical rigour. The linguistic contrast between Italian, a Romance language with familiar European roots, and Turkish, with its agglutinative grammar and entirely different structural logic, is itself intellectually rewarding, deepening your understanding of how language works. You will encounter a wide range of literary and cultural material across both traditions, and the critical and linguistic skills you develop are transferable across many fields.
Entry is highly competitive, typically requiring a tariff of around 184 points.
Graduates of Oxford's modern languages programmes are sought after for their intellectual precision, cultural breadth, and capacity for careful argument. Career paths include diplomacy, international relations, journalism, publishing, the law, finance, education, and roles in European and Middle Eastern business and policy. The combination of Italian and Turkish is particularly distinctive for anyone interested in Mediterranean and Eurasian affairs.
Many graduates continue to postgraduate study, moving into translation, area studies, literary or linguistic research, or professional training in law or public policy.