Modern Languages (Arabic and French) and Ancient History

Combining Arabic, French, and ancient history in a single degree brings together three distinct windows onto the deep past and the living present. Arabic and French are two of the world's most widely spoken and geopolitically significant languages, each carrying vast literary, philosophical, and cultural traditions. French opens access to one of Europe's great intellectual and artistic heritages, while Arabic connects you to the language of Islam, of classical Abbasid scholarship, and of hundreds of millions of speakers across the Middle East and North Africa.

Ancient history, as a discipline, reconstructs the civilisations of Greece and Rome and the wider ancient world, engaging with primary sources across multiple languages and developing skills in historical analysis, epigraphy, and cultural interpretation. Taken together, these three strands offer a remarkable depth of comparative historical and linguistic learning.

At the University of St Andrews, this four-year full-time programme develops genuine competence across all three areas. You will receive rigorous language training in both Arabic and French, building reading, writing, and communicative proficiency alongside engagement with the literatures and cultures of those linguistic worlds. In ancient history, you will study the political, social, religious, and intellectual life of Greece, Rome, and their contemporaries, using a wide range of primary sources and secondary scholarship.

A year abroad is embedded in the programme, giving you the opportunity to study in another country and to develop your language skills through sustained immersion.

The unusual breadth and depth of this combination opens a wide range of career possibilities. Language competence in Arabic and French, combined with historical expertise, is particularly valued in diplomatic and foreign service roles, international journalism, cultural heritage organisations, academia, translation, and international organisations including the United Nations, UNESCO, and the European Union. Many graduates pursue postgraduate research in ancient history, classical studies, Arabic and Islamic studies, or French and Francophone studies, taking advantage of the strong linguistic and analytical foundations the degree has built.

Roles in education, museum curation, publishing, and cultural diplomacy are also natural destinations.