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Do any universities offer 3 languages?

Every university only seems to offer 2 languages to degree level. Are there any that would allow 3 languages to be studied to degree level?

Reply 1

kellywood_5

17

If I remember correctly, Durham and Nottingham both offer 3 languages, but for the latter, you need 2 at A-level. I think Sheffield do as well, but one of them can only be a minor subject. I seem to remember Hull doing something similar, but I'm not sure about that. So there are a few unis that offer 3 languages, but not many. Just did a quick UCAS course search, using French, German and Spanish as an example, and Bangor, Birmingham, St. Andrews and Ulster came up as well, so there may be more choice than I thought :smile:

Reply 2

Winnipeg

Benzene

Every university only seems to offer 2 languages to degree level. Are there any that would allow 3 languages to be studied to degree level?

Yep! I'm aware of a few unis that allow three languages to be studied to degree level:

Durham
Nottingham
Bangor
Aston
Liverpool
Nottingham Trent
Salford
Plymouth
Sheffield
Southampton
St Andrews
Aberystwyth

There may be the possibility to study a third language at other unis, for example, Catalan/Portuguese if you are studying Spanish/Portuguese (or sometimes French), Serbian/Croatian if you are studying Russian and probably many more...

Reply 3

Jenii

15

My cousin is doing 3 at Glasgow I think, although she may have to drop one in her final year or somerthing. As far as I'm aware though, you study 3+ subjects in atleast your first year at most Stottish unis, Edinburgh at least, so you could look there.

Reply 4

anna2

1

Royal Holloway, University of London, offers degrees with 3 languages.

Reply 5

Altruism And Me

OP

10

Thanks to everyone for the very helpful responses so far! It seems I have more choice than I previously thought :smile:

Reply 6

oxymoronic

19

Any of the ancient Scottish ones. You apply for joint or single honours, and then you have to choose a 3rd subject on arrival which you do for 2 years. This can be anything from the prospectus, as long as it fits your timetable, so you can quite easily study 3 languages. All of the languages offered at Edinburgh can be taken from beginners level, so you don't need an A2 in them. You only need A levels in the language(s) for which you initially apply.

Reply 7

Happiness

1

Newcastle also let you split a language degree 3 ways, they have quite a nice course if I remember correctly :smile:

Reply 8

lucho22

13

The main problem with choosing 3 languages is that you'll only be able to take the core obligatory modules in each language leaving you with rather a somewhat paltry breadth of knowledge in each one. It is generally regarded that 2 languages is the ideal number. As people have said here you could apply for joint honours at any of the ancient scottish universities and study a third language at sub-honours level for the first two years. This would allow you to determine which of the three you most liked to take on to honours.

Reply 9

Lloyd Anthony

I'm in the same boat.
I would like to study 3 languages at Birmingham, probably French, Spanish and Italian.

By the end of year 13 I will have:
A Level Spanish
AS Level French
GCSE Italian

Can anyone see any problems there?

Reply 10

NickEM

UCL claims to be able to offer 3 languages, but when I questioned this they said it would not be possible.

Reply 11

paddy

14

NickEM

UCL claims to be able to offer 3 languages, but when I questioned this they said it would not be possible.

Not once have I seen it written anywhere on the UCL website (nor heard about) that it was possible to study 3 languages simoultaneously at UCL. However, you can do 3 languages within the Language and Culture (not sure on the exact name) degree, but it would involve a maximum of two languages at a time with a major in one language. Ask dismal_laundry, I believe she´s studying this particular degree at UCL.

Reply 12

kellywood_5

17

Lloyd Anthony

I'm in the same boat.
I would like to study 3 languages at Birmingham, probably French, Spanish and Italian.

By the end of year 13 I will have:
A Level Spanish
AS Level French
GCSE Italian

Can anyone see any problems there?

According to their website, you can only study 3 languages if you have full A-levels in 2 of them and French can only be studied from full A-level, which is true of most unis. So I think your only option would be a joint honours in Spanish and Italian.

Reply 13

kellywood_5

17

lucho22

The main problem with choosing 3 languages is that you'll only be able to take the core obligatory modules in each language leaving you with rather a somewhat paltry breadth of knowledge in each one.

Surely it depends what you're interested in though. If you love languages but don't particularly want to study literature/history/film/linguistics/philosophy/whatever, that sounds perfect.

Reply 14

lucho22

13

I can understand this, but this sort of level of education in my opinion doesn't constitute a very good degree program - it's spreading it too thin. A degree is all about depth of knowledge, and with three equally distributed concentrations, this isn't going to be possible is it...

Reply 15

kellywood_5

17

lucho22

I can understand this, but this sort of level of education in my opinion doesn't constitute a very good degree program - it's spreading it too thin. A degree is all about depth of knowledge, and with three equally distributed concentrations, this isn't going to be possible is it...

Yeah, I agree. I think one of the best things about a languages degree is that you can basically study bits of most Arts/Humanities subjects within one course with the added bonus of being fluent in 1-2 languages at the end of it. But there are so many people who assume a languages degree will be just the same as learning a language at school and end up hating the course and dropping out when they realise it's not, so if you were one of those people and you had a really languages focused job like translation in mind, a 3 languages degree would probably be your best option.

Reply 16

paddy

14

kellywood_5

Yeah, I agree. I think one of the best things about a languages degree is that you can basically study bits of most Arts/Humanities subjects within one course with the added bonus of being fluent in 1-2 languages at the end of it. But there are so many people who assume a languages degree will be just the same as learning a language at school and end up hating the course and dropping out when they realise it's not, so if you were one of those people and you had a really languages focused job like translation in mind, a 3 languages degree would probably be your best option.

Not necessarily, to go into translating you normally need a focus (at least as far as I'm aware), for instance scientific translating, literary translating etc etc.

Reply 17

Lloyd Anthony

kellywood_5

According to their website, you can only study 3 languages if you have full A-levels in 2 of them and French can only be studied from full A-level, which is true of most unis. So I think your only option would be a joint honours in Spanish and Italian.

Oh dear

Well, I'm going to the open day next month, see what they say then.
If it's bad news I'll try and do Spanish and Portuguese :smile:

Reply 18

ange de la nuit

11

ooh i remember searching for places where i could do three languages last year! i'll have a little look at what i found...hmm i can't find the proper list and i think these have all been mentioned but anyway, i applied to:

Nottingham
Durham
Newcastle
Birmingham
Salford
Southampton

There's also Bangor
Hull
Liverpool
Uhh some other places? Surrey?
Scottish places for some of the degree

Some places you can do a diploma alongside your degree e.g. Cambridge but only in certain circumstances I think.
Also, as someone said you can do subsid languages (I've heard that someone at Nottingham ended up doing 6 languages e.g. German lead to Dutch etc, which is going way too far in my opinion but oh well lol!)

I was determined to do 3 not 2 because I would either have to do French and German, which, no offence, I thought was too ordinary, or drop French and start up a new language but I didn't want to drop French! The main problem I found was finding places where I could do languages other than Italian or Spanish, because I really wanted something different. Ended up applying for F, G, Italian at some places, Russian at Durham and Birmingham and Slovenian at Nottingham! Woo!

You do get to study other things, like modules in history and stuff, just not so much as the others. I think I'm gunna get 1 module in language for every module i get on something else...if I remember correctly.

Anyway, I've said enough! Good luck!

Reply 19

kellywood_5

17

ange de la nuit

I think I'm gunna get 1 module in language for every module i get on something else...if I remember correctly.

Yeah, that sounds right. Usually you do 6 modules per year and 1 module per language is the actual language itself, so if you're doing 3 languages, you'll be doing half language and half other things.

Do any universities offer 3 languages?

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