Curious about studying German and Romanian - BA (Hons)at UCL (University College London)? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
UCL (University College London) - Bloomsbury Campus
Full Time
Sep 2027
4 Year
Our German and Romanian degree offers huge scope for developing in-depth, comparative and intercultural approaches to the humanities. You will be able to choose from a wide range of modules including literature, linguistic traditions, history, sociology, philosophy, art, film or other aspects of the cultures associated with the language(s) you'll be learning. In years one, two and your final year you will take language modules in your chosen languages, as well as cultural modules related to them. You may also take modules offered by the School of European Languages, Culture and Society (SELCS) and SSEES, focusing on literature, film, linguistics and history from an interdisciplinary perspective.You will spend your third year abroad, split between two countries where your chosen languages are spoken. You will achieve the same linguistic competence regardless of whether you start a language from scratch or have previous knowledge of it.
This is a Romanian language module. This is a course for students who have little or no prior knowledge of Romanian and who wish to attain a level of competence that will allow them to communicate effectively in a number of straightforward situations. Students will also be introduced to the reading of simple texts, including works of literature, in Romanian. The course provides knowledge of basic Romanian grammar and vocabulary as well as an introduction to the culture of Romania and societies where Romanian is spoken.
This is a Romanian language module. By the end of the course students should be able: to understand a wide range of authentic spoken and written Romanian from predictable topic areas; to extract required information and record it accurately and coherently in English; to manipulate spoken and written Romanian with appropriate and accurate use of lexis and grammatical structures in a variety of contexts and registers; to speak with confidence and accuracy appropriate to this level about many aspects of life and culture in Romania and societies where Romanian is spoken; to demonstrate understanding of translation by discussing problems of specific translations from and into Romanian; to successfully translate a range of texts from and into Romanian; to demonstrate knowledge and active use of more complex grammatical structures and a wide range of vocabulary in Romanian.
This is a Romanian language module. Students can choose 30 credits compulsory language courses either (when Romanian is ab initio): SEER0001 - Romanian Language Level 1 Or (when Romanian is post A Level): SEER0005 - Romanian Language Level 2a ? Comprehension; SEER0007 - Romanian Language Level 2b - Production. 15/30 credits Compulsory Culture course: SEEE0013: Literature and Memory; SEEE0009: War, Trauma and Memory in East European Cinema. Note: If their interdepartmental module is taken from the SSEES 60 credits then they can take only SEE0013. Modules in the other language 60 credits (including 15 credit Interdepartmental course if not taken from SSEES side).
This is a Romanian language module.
This is a Romanian language module.
This module belongs to German. This is a language module that develops a range of core linguistic skills, including spoken and written German, reading comprehension, and translation from German into English. The module consists of 3 components: Discussion and Essay: students write essays and give presentations on selected literary, historical and cultural themes. Translation and Reading Comprehension: this seminar introduces translation techniques, addresses linguistic differences between English and German, and develops techniques for reading and understanding German texts. German Grammar: this seminar will focus on the structure and use of the German language. Topics include word order, case, adjectival endings and verb forms.
This module belongs to German. This module is aimed at students with little or no knowledge of German. The module introduces students to various aspects of the German-speaking world as a way of enabling them to begin building communicative abilities in German in all four language modalities: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. Through diverse collaborative and individual tasks and exposure to a range of topics, text types, and different socio-cultural situations, students acquire basic strategies for reading, listening, and writing, and for participating in every-day conversations. In the process they will learn to use with some confidence major sentence patterns and grammatical features of German as well as high-frequency vocabulary of everyday life. Integration of current technology (e.g., the Internet, e-mail, video) familiarises students with the German-speaking world while at the same time enhancing language learning.
This module belongs to German. In this course students will explore German history from the Reformation to the present day. We will cover major events in early modern times, including the Reformation and the Enlightenment, but our main focus will be on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will engage with a variety of topics, including nationalism and nation-building, revolution and reaction, industrialization and urbanization, changing gender roles and social structures, empire at home and abroad, mass politics and culture, Germans? roles and experiences in two world wars, Nazi racism and genocide, and Cold War division and unification. The common threads running throughout will be Germans? persistent experimentation with defining ?Germany? and the consequences for those variously included and excluded according to gender, class, religion, race, politics, and other categories. Upon successful completion of the class, students will be able to discuss fundamental trends in German historiography, will be able to make effective use of secondary and primary sources to make a historical argument, and will be able to present their analysis in both written and oral form. Students will come away with a foundation for future classes as well as a basic understanding of trends that continue to shape German society today.
This module belongs to German. This course gives a taste of pre-modern literature, taking a range of works including medieval short stories, an Arthurian romance and an early German novel. All of these texts were intended to both entertain and instruct their audiences and readers. The aim is to understand how these dual functions worked and what such earlier forms of literature can tell us about the history of storytelling and poetic expression. The course is conducted through a mixture of lecture and discussion classes. Students will have plenty of opportunity to learn to read medieval texts in the original.
This module belongs to German. This module will examine a representative selection of German-language films made since 1945 by post-war directors in the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and Austrian such as Frank Beyer, Helke Sander, Michael Haneke and Maren Ade. These films pay particular attention to post-war history and society in Germany and Austria, and we will discuss as an ongoing theme the ways in which they reflect contemporary perceptions of the German-speaking world and its troubled past. The course will thus introduce students to post-war German-speaking culture more broadly, as well as to techniques of film analysis.
This module belongs to German. This module introduces students to the systematic and rigorous study of modern German literature. Some of you may have done very little literature at school; others may be used to discussing literary texts. Our introductory module is meant to speak to both the beginners and the ?old hands?. We explore a selection of relatively short texts ? drama, prose fiction and poetry ? written between the second half of the eighteenth century and the present. An average of three contact hours will be spent on each, and the module will focus on developing both analytical skills and essay-writing techniques.
This module belongs to German. The module will provide an introduction to linguistic concepts and topics which help us to understand the structure and use of the German language in contemporary times. The fields studied in the module include: phonetics and phonology; inflection and derivation; syntax; lexical structure, lexical borrowing, and sociolinguistic variation. Although the main focus of the module will be on the German language, comparisons with contemporary English will also be made where relevant. Primary material will be taken from newspapers and magazines, television and the internet where necessary. Students will be encouraged to find their own examples of linguistic phenomena from these sources. An essential part of the module will involve background reading of secondary material to consolidate understanding of guiding linguistic theories and principles.
This is a Romanian language module. By the end of the course students should be able: to understand a wide range of authentic spoken and written Romanian from predictable topic areas; to extract required information and record it accurately and coherently in English; to manipulate spoken and written Romanian with appropriate and accurate use of lexis and grammatical structures in a variety of contexts and registers; to speak with confidence and accuracy appropriate to this level about many aspects of life and culture in Romania and societies where Romanian is spoken; to demonstrate understanding of translation by discussing problems of specific translations from and into Romanian; to successfully translate a range of texts from and into Romanian; to demonstrate knowledge and active use of more complex grammatical structures and a wide range of vocabulary in Romanian.
This is a Romanian language module.
This is a Romanian language module. This is a course for students who have successfully completed Romanian Language Level 2 course, or who can demonstrate equivalent competence in Romanian. The course consists of two components, comprehension and production, each of which has the value of 0.5 of a course-unit (see Course Details above). Both components are taught in conjunction. Students who successfully complete this course should be able to function effectively and with confidence in an extensive range of academic, professional and social situations, and also to have gained a metalinguistic perspective on translation issues.
This is a Romanian language module. Students can choose 30 credits compulsory language courses either (when Romanian is ab initio): SEER0005 - Romanian Language Level 2a ? Comprehension; SEER0007 - Romanian Language Level 2b - Production Or (when Romanian is post A Level): SEER0010 - Romanian Language Level 3a - Comprehension; SEER0012 - Romanian Language Level 3b - Production. 15 credits from core Romanian Culture course: SEER0009 - Introduction to Romanian Literature. 15 credits from: SSEES Literature and Culture course: SEEE0011 - Staging Europe (Inter-departmental). 60 credits from: Courses in the other language (including 15 credits Interdepartmental course if not taken from SSEES side).
This is a Romanian language module.
This is a Romanian language module.
This module belongs to German. This is a language module that develops a range of core linguistic skills, including spoken and written German, reading comprehension, and translation from German into English. The module consists of 3 components: Discussion and Essay: students write essays and give presentations on selected literary, historical and cultural themes. Translation and Reading Comprehension: this seminar introduces translation techniques, addresses linguistic differences between English and German, and develops techniques for reading and understanding German texts. German Grammar: this seminar will focus on the structure and use of the German language. Topics include word order, case, adjectival endings and verb forms.
This module belongs to German. This module will examine a representative selection of German films made, mostly before 1989, by prominent post-war directors in the Federal Republic of Germany, such as Herzog, Wenders, Fassbinder and Tykwer. These films pay particular attention to German history and society and we will discuss as an ongoing theme the ways in which they reflect contemporary perceptions of Germany and its troubled past. The course will thus introduce students to post-war German culture more broadly, as well as to techniques of film analysis.
This module belongs to German. The module will provide an introduction to linguistic concepts and topics which help us to understand the structure and use of the German language in contemporary times. The fields studied in the module include: phonetics and phonology; inflection and derivation; syntax; lexical structure, lexical borrowing, and sociolinguistic variation. Although the main focus of the module will be on the German language, comparisons with contemporary English will also be made where relevant. Primary material will be taken from newspapers and magazines, television and the internet where necessary. Students will be encouraged to find their own examples of linguistic phenomena from these sources. An essential part of the module will involve background reading of secondary material to consolidate understanding of guiding linguistic theories and principles.
This module belongs to German. This module builds on work completed in the first year, using translation and comprehension exercises to enhance fluency in reading, writing and understanding contemporary German, as well as continuing to explore its relation to English. Passages for translation and comprehension will include contemporary literary, historical and journalistic texts.
This module belongs to German. In this class, students will grapple with the significance of the Weimar and Nazi eras for modern German history. Topics will include the characteristic features of Weimar culture and politics, the origins of the National Socialist movement and its rise to power, the National Socialists? utopian vision and their various efforts to implement it, and the relationship between state and society. Students will also consider the nature of everyday life, the persecution of Jews and other minorities, the uses of terror, the horrific culmination of the Nazi regime?s ideological goals in the Second World War and the Holocaust, and, finally, the memorialization of the period.
This module belongs to German. This module will cover major narrative and lyric texts from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. Consideration will be given to both predominant themes (courtliness and heroism; conflicting demands of love and society; transgression) and broader literary theoretical questions (alterity; developments in medieval narrative technique; textual in/stability).
This module belongs to German. This module will examine a representative selection of German literature from the Enlightenment to the late 19th century, focusing on the question how important literary epochs, from the Enlightenment itself to Poetic Realism, have engaged with and 'debated' the concept of Enlightenment. The module introduces students to texts by the century's most acknowledged authors, including Kant, Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Eichendorff, Heine, Kleist, Bchner, and Keller. The module thus offers a broad overview over and explicitly links the century's most important literary and intellectual movements, while at the same time complementing the core modules GERM0013- Love, Violence and Laughter: Medieval and Early Modern German Literature and Culture up to 1740 and GERM0015- The Challenge of Modernity: Literature and Culture from 1870 to the Present.
This module belongs to German. This course explores some of the most exciting - and disturbing - ideas and artworks of the fast-moving modern age. It reflects the ways in which, from the late nineteenth-century onwards, the German-speaking world seemed to be turned upside-down by shocking historical events, radical ideas and new cultural forms. The works studied in this course show how these developments could be experienced as exhilarating, disturbing, liberating, traumatic - or all of these at once. The module begins with writing from the German Empire after 1871, and then considers classic texts of early modernism, to the Weimar years and the rise of Nazism, to the Third Reich. Finally, it looks at important currents in cultural and socio-political life of the post-1945 period.
This module belongs to German. This is an integrated language-culture module for second-year students. It is taught entirely in German and designed as preparation for university-level study or work experience during the Year Abroad. As such, it functions on two levels: Content: This module aims to provide students with the literary, cultural and political history of the two capitals of Germany and Austria. The module will teach analytical skills in German using several texts, from literary genres (poetry, drama, prose) to non-literary genres (newspaper articles, political speeches, editorials). Language acquisition: All work for this module (reading, writing, speaking) must be done in German.
This module belongs to German. The New German Cinema is associated with some of the biggest names in twentieth-century film-making and beyond, like Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders. While the works of the New German Cinema are extremely diverse, they share a drive to set themselves apart from the art and storytelling of the past, in terms of both themes and style. Its key themes include German histories of violence; the Nazi past; the family, its secrets and the stories it tells about itself; the so-called Economic Miracle; outsiders and society; revolt and protest; and gender, ethnicity and identity.
Year Abroad
Your third year is spent abroad. This will not only bring the language and culture you are studying to life, but also strengthen your resourcefulness and self-reliance. You will normally spend this year studying at a university in your chosen country (or countries if you are studying two languages), but alternatives, such as work placements, may be possible.
This is a Romanian language module. By the end of the course students should be able: to understand authentic spoken and written Romanian from unpredictable topic areas; to extract required information and record it accurately and coherently in English; to manipulate spoken and written Romanian in any situation with appropriate, accurate and elaborate use of lexis and grammatical structures in a wide variety of contexts and registers; to seek, provide and refine opinions and information in sustained spoken and written interchanges in Romanian; to speak and write confidently and accurately about key issues relating to life and culture in Romania and societies where Romanian is spoken; to demonstrate knowledge and active use of more complex grammatical structures and a wide range of vocabulary, register and styles in Romanian.
This is a Romanian language module.
This is a Romanian language module. Students can choose 30 credit compulsory language course: SEER0010 - Romanian Language Level 3a - Comprehension; SEER0012 - Romanian Language Level 3b - Production OR SEZZ4901 Free Standing Dissertation. 30 credits from: SEER0014 - Romanian Literature. 60 credits from: Courses in the other language (including 15 credits Interdepartmental course if not taken from SSEES side).
This is a Romanian language module.
This is a German module. This is an advanced final year / MA German language module which combines intensive language work (reading, writing, listening, speaking) with the discussion of complex topics ranging from "Erinnerung" to "Identit?. The module focuses on German essay writing on an academic level as well as the oral discussion and presentation of the topics dealt with in class.
This is a German module. The module will focus on the medieval German text of Parzival in its entirety. We will refer to Wolfram?s treatment of his French source (of which passages may be read in English translation) and will set him in his historical context - literary, political, social and religious. Topics to be covered will include narrative strategies, codes and techniques; history and fictionality; ideologies of chivalry and nobility; gender; courtly culture; religious belief.
This is a German module. In Austria the period between approximately 1890 and 1938 was not only one of enormous political upheavals (the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, the founding of the First Austrian Republic, and its subsequent annexation to Nazi Germany), it was also a time of intense cultural and intellectual ferment. Focusing on key works of the fin de si?e and of the interwar period, this course will explore some of the distinctive preoccupations of Viennese modernism ? sexuality and the gendered self, aestheticism, and Sprachkrise ? as well as examining literary responses to questions of national identity and cultural tradition.
This is a German module. The module will examine the complex relationship between language, power, and ideology in Germany society, and will trace how language has been employed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries by individuals, groups, organisations, and institutions to exercise power and to communicate a particular ideology or world-view. During this module, we will address a variety of linguistic topics and issues, including political discourse, defining 'propaganda' or 'ideological language'; the ?misuse? of language; the nature of linguistic groups; language planning. The analysis of primary texts will draw upon aspects of linguistic theory, including sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, and semantics.
This module looks at three major twentieth-century novels in detail. All three books explore the problem of interpretation and raise questions about how reality can be understood and represented. In each novel the narrative technique is a crucial tool for undermining the reader's expectations, both in relation to specific historical events and in relation to the process of textual interpretation itself. The books challenge our desire for clarity and explanation in an era when the category of truth has been profoundly relativized.
This is a German module. This module examines the interaction between psychology and German literature in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We will analyse a selection of literary texts that have either been inspired by psychological findings or have been the subject of psychological interpretations. This will not only give an insight in the psychological theories of literature, but also help to understand the formation of psychology as a science in the second half of the nineteenth century and the crucial role literature played for the development of psychoanalysis around 1900. At the same time, the module will investigate some of the ways in which psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic theories influenced the work of major writers such as Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig and Hermann Hesse.
This is a German module. This module examines the development of an African diaspora in the German lands from the Middle Ages to the present-day, with emphasis on the dramatic shifts in regimes of the past 200 years. Along with surveying contexts in which Africans and their descendants came to German-speaking lands, we will consider the diverse ways in which they have shaped and been shaped by a society that variously tolerated, rejected, or accepted them on specific terms. By paying due attention to transnational contexts, the module will complicate ideas of a single black experience as well as a monolithic and consistent idea of ?Germanness?.
This is a German module. In this module we will explore the problem and the promise of surveillance in German-language culture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Students will encounter crucial and often opposing theories of the forms surveillance can take, and test the applicability of these theories to the changing representations of surveillance in literary texts and films made in the German-speaking context. The theoretical approaches and primary texts handled in the module will give students a grounding in the contributions that German-language culture has made to discussions of how surveillance shapes behaviour, and the narratives and forms that literature and film in German create for living with and responding to surveillance.
This is a German module. This module focuses on key films of the Weimar and Nazi eras. Weimar-era films have had a lasting impact on world cinema. They range from documentary to horror to sci-fi, and their often spectacular, startling or challenging themes, to be explored here, include automata, madness, the modern metropolis, technology, new images of women in modernity, sexuality, performance and gender politics. The module then goes on to explore the varied ways in which film production in the Nazi era which followed reflected and interacted with the regime?s (cultural) policy.
This is a German module. This is an enhanced module in translation from and into English. The material used is taken from literary works and journalistic texts, reflecting different styles of writing, old and modern, and varying linguistic registers. All material can be accessed via Moodle.
This is an advanced final year / MA language module in translation from and into German. It enhances understanding of idiom, style and register, and develops advanced language mediation skills.
This is a German module. This is an enhanced module in translation from and into English. The material used is taken from literary works and journalistic texts, reflecting different styles of writing, old and modern, and varying linguistic registers. All material can be accessed via Moodle.
The expatriate German writer W.G. Sebald (1944-2001) is considered one of the great world writers of recent decades. His writing addresses questions which are central to the modern condition as he saw it. These issues include nature and its destruction, crime, mental disturbance, decay, social outsiderdom, art, violence and history. Sebald?s writing is also about beauty, travel, art, friendship and quirky, utopian refuges from the struggles of the world. It is fascinating too for its highly unusual style, such as the enigmatic use of images, photographs and documentary material and curious narrators. Sebald was born and brought up in (West) Germany, and wrote his literary texts in German. However, he is of special interest to readers of literature in London, for he lived and worked throughout almost all his adult life in England, and his work demonstrates profound engagement with a wide range of modern European literature and history. This module explores his major works.
The cultural representation of deviant, particularly criminal, women reveals much about what a society considers the norm for acceptable female behaviour. During Germany?s eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women?s role in society was debated more ardently than ever before. ?Erudite? women (weibliche Gelehrte) were admired in the eighteenth century and vilified in the nineteenth; Schiller?s ?demure housewife? (zchtige Hausfrau) was the laughing stock of educated readers of the early nineteenth century and the expected norm twenty years later. Much of the age?s fluctuating definition of femininity was developed on the back of a specific type: the female criminal.
Undergraduate student in UCL self-catered halls £304 Per week