Russian Studies and Social Policy

Russian Studies and Social Policy is an unusual and intellectually rewarding combination that brings together the study of one of the world's most significant languages and cultural traditions with the analytical examination of how welfare states, social institutions, and public policies shape people's lives. Russian Studies develops linguistic proficiency in Russian alongside engagement with Russian and Soviet history, literature, and contemporary politics and culture. Social Policy provides the frameworks for understanding how governments and societies address poverty, inequality, health, housing, and education, and for evaluating the effectiveness and equity of different policy approaches.

At the University of Edinburgh, this four-year full-time programme reflects Edinburgh's strength in both Slavonic studies and social science. You will develop high-level proficiency in Russian, reading literature and contemporary texts in the original, and studying the history and culture of Russia and the former Soviet space. In the social policy component, you will examine welfare systems, social inequality, comparative social policy across different national contexts, and the political and economic forces that shape how policy is made and implemented.

The combination is particularly rich given Russia's distinctive social policy history and the ongoing transformation of welfare systems across the former Soviet bloc, which provides a set of real-world cases that illuminate broader theoretical debates in social policy. The four-year Honours structure allows for genuine depth in both disciplines.

Graduates from this combination are well placed for careers in international organisations, government, NGOs working in Eastern Europe or the former Soviet Union, policy research, journalism, diplomacy, the foreign service, academic research, and development organisations. The combination of language competence and policy analysis is genuinely distinctive and valued in any professional context requiring understanding of Russia, Eastern Europe, or comparative social systems. Some graduates continue to postgraduate study in Russian studies, social policy, international relations, or area studies.