Arabic

Whilst St Andrews does not offer Arabic as a single Honours degree, you can take Arabic in combination with a wide variety of other subjects as part of a joint Honours degree. It is useful to study Arabic, by far the most commonly used language of the Middle East, alongside almost any subject as it offers the opportunity for comparative analyses between different languages, literatures, cultures, histories, politics and economics.

By choosing to study Arabic, you will learn the language of the Arabic media as well as classical and modern Arabic languages and literature. All Arabic modules prioritise building a high level of competence in language skills, and after completing the first two years of your course, you will be able to read, write and converse in basic Modern Standard Arabic.

Russian

The MA (Hons) in Russian teaches you to use Russian with sound grammatical accuracy and a high level of oral aptitude. In addition to language teaching, you will gain a deeper and more diverse understanding and appreciation of Russian-language cultures, histories and societies through modules dedicated to literature, film, cultural history, and contemporary society.

Russian at St Andrews uses a specially designed language teaching programme that caters both for students who have already studied Russian as a main subject at school and for absolute beginners. Upon completing the degree, you will have an excellent command of the Russian language and be familiar with the Russian-speaking world.

Social Anthropology

The MA (Hons) in Social Anthropology explores the fundamental question of ‘what it is to be human’. It seeks to answer this by examining the diverse ways in which human beings establish and live social lives in the contemporary world.

Social anthropology at St Andrews has a distinctive orientation that combines interpretive, experiential, philosophical and historical research that is politically engaged, reflexive and critically aware.

Although social anthropology involves studying a full variety of human contexts, at St Andrews the chief focus is on societies in Africa, the Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia.