Russian and Serbian/Croatian

Russian and Serbian/Croatian together open access to two of the major language groups of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet world, covering an enormous swathe of history, literature, politics, and culture. Russian is one of the world's great literary languages, home to a tradition that includes Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Akhmatova, and it is also the language of one of the most significant political entities of the modern era. Serbian and Croatian are closely related South Slavic languages with shared grammatical structures but distinct cultural and political identities, spoken across the western Balkans in countries whose twentieth-century history has been among the most turbulent and significant in Europe.

At University College London, this four-year full-time programme provides rigorous linguistic and cultural training in both language traditions. UCL's School of Slavonic and East European Studies is the leading centre for the study of Eastern Europe and Russia in the UK, with research expertise spanning literature, history, politics, economics, and society across the region. You will develop high-level proficiency in Russian alongside reading and communicative competence in Serbian and Croatian, engaging with the literary, historical, and cultural traditions of both.

The four-year structure allows for the depth of study that two languages of this complexity require, and you will develop not just linguistic skill but genuine intellectual engagement with the societies, histories, and ideas that these languages carry.

Graduates from this programme are sought after in diplomacy, the foreign office, international organisations, journalism, broadcasting, NGOs working in the region, academic research, translation and interpreting, business, and security and intelligence. Knowledge of Russian combined with another Slavic language is a genuinely rare and valued skill set, particularly given the geopolitical significance of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet space in contemporary international affairs. Postgraduate study in Slavonic studies, area studies, international relations, or translation is also a common direction.