Russian Studies and English Language

Russian studies and English language is a degree that combines deep engagement with one of the world's great languages and literary cultures with the scientific study of language itself. Russian is the most widely spoken Slavic language, with a literary tradition of extraordinary richness, from Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky through Chekhov, Bulgakov, and Akhmatova to contemporary Russian writing. English language studies, as a linguistic discipline, takes English itself as an object of analysis rather than simply a medium of instruction, exploring how it is structured, how it varies, how it is acquired, and how it functions in different social and communicative contexts.

This four-year full-time programme at the University of Edinburgh allows you to develop genuine proficiency in Russian alongside a rigorous grounding in English linguistics. With a typical tariff of 152 points, the programme attracts students with strong ability in both areas and the motivation to engage seriously with two very different kinds of language study. Edinburgh's strong Russian studies and linguistics departments, and its position as one of the UK's leading research universities, provide an excellent environment for this distinctive combination.

You will develop Russian across all four skills, engaging with literature, culture, history, and contemporary Russia, while also studying the structures of English at the level of phonology, grammar, discourse, and semantics, and developing an understanding of how language acquisition works, how English varies socially and geographically, and what the properties of language in general reveal about human cognition. The combination gives you both a deep familiarity with Russian cultural life and a scientific metalanguage for thinking about language that enriches your Russian study.

Graduates move into careers in language teaching, translation, interpreting, the diplomatic and civil service, academic research, journalism, and any field where Russian language and cultural knowledge combined with linguistic analytical skill is valued. Postgraduate study in linguistics, Russian studies, or applied linguistics is a natural next step for those who want to develop either strand further.