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PLEASE HELP: language degree without doing a language at a level?

I'm currently in year 12 studying AS levels and always intended to do an English degree. However today after speaking to English students i've decided that I wish to do a more respected degree and keep English as a hobby.

I've been researching degrees and International Relations really appeals to me, and i would love to do this combined with a language, especially Russian.

I know that I do have a certain aptitude in that I did not work remotely hard all throughout GCSE French until the final 2 weeks and still came out with a high A grade.

As i don't do a language at A level, will any good russell group uni accept me to study a combined degree with a language, I would be willing to do French.

If not, is there a cheap course or something i could take first?

Thanks so much.
Hi, I'm in a similar position to you (I didnt really find my 'thing' in high school so never really knew what I was doing with a-levels/uni and have jumped between chemistry to history to art, and started learning russian a couple of months back and i adore it and would love to study it only apart from an A in gcse german, i have no language qualifications). With Russian, you're fortunate that it isn't a common language to learn in schools so very few courses require russian and alot come with an ab initio option (manchester and I think bath off the top of my head). If you apply to a language as a single honour then you are at a disadvantage for not having the alevel, especially if it's something common like French however with a combined honours, most would ask for 'evidence of language learning ability', which your A in gcse french shows. I think with languages (and humanities), unis are really looking for passion and enthusiasm over amazing grades. If you go for a combined degree with russian (or another less common language) i think you stand a chance of being accepted.

As for courses, you could try local colleges where you can do fast track A-levels (I don't know where you're from but in Manchester, the manchester college has alot of options where you can do all sorts of courses). I think the best thing to do is contact the universities you're interested in and ask them if they'd consider you.

Best of luck!
Original post by simbasdragon
I'm currently in year 12 studying AS levels and always intended to do an English degree. However today after speaking to English students i've decided that I wish to do a more respected degree and keep English as a hobby.

I've been researching degrees and International Relations really appeals to me, and i would love to do this combined with a language, especially Russian.

I know that I do have a certain aptitude in that I did not work remotely hard all throughout GCSE French until the final 2 weeks and still came out with a high A grade.

As i don't do a language at A level, will any good russell group uni accept me to study a combined degree with a language, I would be willing to do French.

If not, is there a cheap course or something i could take first?

Thanks so much.


As the poster above has said, many obscure languages - Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian etc. - do not require an A Level in the language and having a good GCSE grade in French would show your aptitude.

Some places will also offer beginner's European languages to students doing combined courses.

For example, the Combined Honours course at Newcastle University would let you do beginner's French, German, Portuguese or Spanish with a range of options like Politics, Media & Communication etc.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/combined/current/modules.htm

Good luck searching :smile:
Original post by Nadnight258
Hi, I'm in a similar position to you (I didnt really find my 'thing' in high school so never really knew what I was doing with a-levels/uni and have jumped between chemistry to history to art, and started learning russian a couple of months back and i adore it and would love to study it only apart from an A in gcse german, i have no language qualifications). With Russian, you're fortunate that it isn't a common language to learn in schools so very few courses require russian and alot come with an ab initio option (manchester and I think bath off the top of my head). If you apply to a language as a single honour then you are at a disadvantage for not having the alevel, especially if it's something common like French however with a combined honours, most would ask for 'evidence of language learning ability', which your A in gcse french shows. I think with languages (and humanities), unis are really looking for passion and enthusiasm over amazing grades. If you go for a combined degree with russian (or another less common language) i think you stand a chance of being accepted.

As for courses, you could try local colleges where you can do fast track A-levels (I don't know where you're from but in Manchester, the manchester college has alot of options where you can do all sorts of courses). I think the best thing to do is contact the universities you're interested in and ask them if they'd consider you.

Best of luck!


Thanks so much! This is really reassuring, i'll look into it further.
Original post by sophia5892
As the poster above has said, many obscure languages - Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Russian etc. - do not require an A Level in the language and having a good GCSE grade in French would show your aptitude.

Some places will also offer beginner's European languages to students doing combined courses.

For example, the Combined Honours course at Newcastle University would let you do beginner's French, German, Portuguese or Spanish with a range of options like Politics, Media & Communication etc.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/combined/current/modules.htm

Good luck searching :smile:


My concern is that for the obscure languages they require you to take another unrelated language at A level to prove aptitude. Thankyou for the advice :smile:
Original post by simbasdragon
My concern is that for the obscure languages they require you to take another unrelated language at A level to prove aptitude. Thankyou for the advice :smile:


Sometimes that's true. But there are courses that only require a GCSE in a language. Like Newcastle for Chinese or Japanese. I'm afraid I don't know for Russian as I've not looked, but hopefully there'll be other unis that don't either.

And sometimes it can be even more relaxed for combined students. For example, my flatmate did a vocational music course at college. Then he redid college and did graphics. He applied to Newcastle for Japanese but was told he didn't have the academic background for it - so he was offered a place to study Music and Japanese instead.
It is possible to take pretty much any language ab initio these days (even French). It is just a question of finding the university, there's bound to be at least one.
The majority of Russell Group universities won't let you study French without an A level. Some are the same with German too, but it's less common. I know because I am going to uni this year to study modern languages. I do German already but I wanted to pick up French but couldn't as I don't have it post a level so I chose to do Italian instead.

Most universities offer languages for all though which allows you to have lessons extra curricular in a language for free. That's how I plan to pick up French as I can do it from complete beginners level. The courses are on your degree transcript too, but are none credit bearing :smile:


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Original post by Leanne1455
The majority of Russell Group universities won't let you study French without an A level. Some are the same with German too, but it's less common. I know because I am going to uni this year to study modern languages. I do German already but I wanted to pick up French but couldn't as I don't have it post a level so I chose to do Italian instead.

Most universities offer languages for all though which allows you to have lessons extra curricular in a language for free. That's how I plan to pick up French as I can do it from complete beginners level. The courses are on your degree transcript too, but are none credit bearing :smile:


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Some do. I know for a fact that Glasgow and Nottingham do beginners French.
Original post by Snufkin
Some do. I know for a fact that Glasgow and Nottingham do beginners French.


and I've already pointed out Newcastle do.

Leeds also have what they call discovery modules.

So the OP could do their BA in International Relations and do beginner's language modules as part of that. They offer French, Arabic, Persian, Polish, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Thai, German, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin, Czech, Catalan, Portuguese and, more importantly for the OP, Russian all at beginner's level. << Seems like a great system!
Pretty much what everyone else has said, but plenty of uni's do allow it.

I know Bath have a languages course - I think it's their politics with a language one - where you need a "high GCSE grade" but A level is not required.
Bangor isn't Russell group, but they offer a really flexible language degree and Nottingham do too!


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