Modern Languages and Cultures
Start any language from beginners
Chinese (Mandarin); French; German; Italian; Portuguese; Russian; Spanish
Top 150 in QS World University Subject Rankings 2024
Year abroad spent studying at a partner university or in employment
All languages ranked top 10 in the Complete University Guide 2025
Degrees at Streatham Campus, Exeter
Modern Languages and Cultures at Exeter is one of the leading centres for modern languages research, teaching and learning in the UK. Our department comprises seven major language areas: Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, and through optional modules you can also expand your study into other languages and cultures.
Our degrees offer a high level of choice, allowing you to focus on a main language and its culture, combine two or three languages (BA Modern Languages only), or study a language alongside another subject. You can tailor your degree to your strengths by taking up additional languages or specialising in a particular language area during your time here. You can also choose to focus your study on discovering the societies and cultures where these languages are spoken, or on studying languages and linguistics.
We place considerable emphasis on student support, especially for your year abroad. This includes preparation, information, support while abroad, and a range of modules tailored to the year abroad experience. We also involve our students in helping us to improve our programmes via Student- Staff Liaison Committees and the Student Engagement Scheme.
This combination of seven diverse language areas with shared aims and structures gives you the greatest opportunity to get what you want out of a Modern Languages degree; studying Russian or Chinese will open quite different doors from studying Italian or Spanish, but whichever language or languages you study, you will leave Exeter as a trained linguist, proficient in learning languages in context and engaging with other cultures.
The Modern Languages course at Exeter offers a variety of options, ranging from Literature to Film Studies to Linguistics and many more in between.
For me, this academic diversity was incredibly important and I have really appreciated the freedom that this has given me to create a course structure that was personal to me.
Of course, the fantastic opportunities on offer for my year abroad were another draw to Exeter. Last year I was lucky enough to spend 6 months studying at La Sorbonne in Paris before undertaking an internship for 6 months at Giorgio Armani in Italy. I am so grateful for this amazing and invaluable experience of living abroad that studying at Exeter made possible for me. I gained management skills and I would really like to work as a fashion buyer and I am now applying for graduate schemes.
Rachel
BA Modern Languages (French and Italian)
