Undergraduate study | Arabic

• You’ll complete a four-year Master of Arts (MA) honours degree. You can take Arabic with Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies as a single honours degree, or study Arabic jointly with one of a range of other subjects, including other languages.
• It doesn't matter whether you’re starting from scratch, or have some existing knowledge of Arabic. Over the course of your four years, ​​​alongside the written and spoken language, you'll acquire an in-depth understanding of the culture, politics and society of the Arab world, and the wider region of the Middle East, including Turkey and Iran.

Years 1 & 2

• Our programmes are very flexible. In your first two years, alongside language learning, you'll study a range of courses giving you a broad knowledge base and transferable skills. This may enable you to change the focus of your degree going into your final two (honours) years, which is when you start to specialise.

Years 3 & 4

• Your third year will typically be spent abroad, turning classroom learning into living engagement with other cultures. Our graduates have told us how much the Year Abroad has benefitted their broader life experience and skills, as well as their understanding of Arabic, including dialects.
• If Arabic is the only language you are studying, your Year Abroad will be in a country where Arabic is spoken. If you’re doing a joint degree with another language, you’ll divide your time and travel plans between your two languages.
• You will learn how to undertake your own research to the level of completing a dissertation in your final year. This is your chance to focus on a topic, period or discipline that’s of particular interest to you. We have an extensive range of honours courses to choose from, spanning the Islamic world and the Middle East.
• In your final year, you will also take advanced courses in translation, and in reading, listening to, writing and speaking Arabic.

Location

• You’ll be based at the heart of the University of Edinburgh, in the city’s historic centre. Our Georgian building has its own library and the Main University Library is just across the square from us, housing over 23,000 IMES resources, including the Serjeant and Watt Collections.

Teaching and learning

• Our approach to learning and teaching is active, inclusive and question driven to help you gain skills for life after university.
• Across your courses, you’ll typically be taught in a combination of lectures, tutorials (including language classes) and seminars. On some courses, you will have seminars instead of lectures, especially in your honours years.
• You will also be expected to study independently and in small groups, and to read widely.

Assessment and support

• You’ll be assessed through a combination of coursework and exams. 
• Coursework may take a range of forms to give you the opportunity to practice different skills. 

• Exams will include oral exams to test your spoken language skills.

• Depending on where you go and what you do on your Year Abroad, Year 3 may include being assessed, in part, by a host university.
• As well as the teaching and other staff you will meet day-to-day, there are lots of ways to get help with your learning, including through the University’s Institute for Academic Development and Edinburgh University Students' Association.

In the 2023 to 2024 academic year, you can take Arabic with Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies ​​​​as a single honours degree, or study any of the following joint honours degree combinations...

Applications for 2023 entry are now closed. If you have applied for one of our degrees or are holding an offer to start studying with us in September 2023, check out our applicant and offer holder website for Arabic and other degree programmes in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (IMES).

Visit the IMES applicant and offer holder website

Keen to get a head start for 2024?

There’s lots of information about our undergraduate Arabic programmes on the University of Edinburgh Degree Finder. For example, you can find out about entrance requirements, English language requirements, fees, and funding opportunities.  

Find out what programmes we are running in the 2024 to 2025 academic year on Degree Finder

If you’d like to study on any of our undergraduate programmes, you must apply through UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

Go to the University of Edinburgh web page on how to apply for undergraduate study

Skills and experience

Studying one or more languages to degree level demonstrates that you're a good communicator, and someone open to other cultures and new ideas – what employers value as Intercultural Competence.

Beyond the language skills you will develop on our programmes, and the nuanced understanding you will gain of diverse cultures and societies, graduating with a four-year Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh shows intellectual maturity, resilience, and flexibility.

The skills you will be able to demonstrate to employers when you graduate include the ability to understand, analyse and articulate complex concepts, and to manage your time to meet deadlines on different types of project, both independently and as part of a group.

Opportunities at home and away

More than 350 million people are native speakers of Arabic, the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. It is the lingua franca of the 22 countries in the Arab League, and one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

With increasing migration in response to changing global dynamics, there is high demand for Arabic-speaking graduates both at home and abroad. You do not have to be based in an Arabic-speaking country to have a career in which the ability to understand and communicate in the language will make you stand out.

An understanding of the Arabic language, and the cultures to which it opens doors, is an excellent primer for a range of careers. Within the private, public, not-for-profit, and for-benefit sectors, previous graduates have gone on to work in:

• Business, finance and commerce
• Communications, marketing, advertising and public relations
• Education, outreach, advocacy and training
• Journalism, broadcasting and media
• Leisure, tourism and travel
• Politics, policy work, diplomacy, civil service and law
• Publishing, culture, heritage and the arts
• Research, development and venture acceleration
• Translating and interpreting

Further study

The enhanced research skills you will develop on a four-year programme, particularly in your honours years, are a valuable asset if you wish to continue studying at postgraduate level. At the University of Edinburgh, for example, you can take a taught or research-led Masters in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, an MSc in The Globalised Muslim World, or an interdisciplinary taught Masters programme such as Comparative Literature, Intermediality, or Translation Studies.

Studying Arabic and French has helped me hugely in my career so far. Not only do I use the languages every day at work to find sources and interview people, but the research and communication skills I learnt during my degree have also helped me develop as a journalist.

Read our interview with Emily Lewis

Find out more about LLC alumni and futures