Teaching excellence

We believe that the best learning experiences happen when all of us are actively engaged in working together.

In the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC), we see the relationship between students and staff as one of partnership.

For us, this means students working alongside staff in the classroom, in the world-leading research that underpins our teaching, in the development of learning and teaching policy, and ultimately in building and maintaining a thriving academic community.

Our aim is to foster independent learning, personal development and, ultimately, a transformational student experience.

Your teachers

The teachers you’ll meet at LLC are also highly research-active, passing on the same passion and world-class expertise that gained us excellent results in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF).

You’ll see many of them giving public lectures, talks and workshops throughout the year, particularly during the Edinburgh summer festivals, publishing articles and books, and commenting or being interviewed in the media.

Many of our highly-skilled language teaching staff are native speakers, with lived experience of the cultures we teach in the classroom and which our languages students enjoy on the year aboard.

We have an excellent track record in the Students’ Association Teaching Awards, the University’s annual celebration of excellence in teaching, research supervision, tutoring and support, nominated and judged by current students.

Your input

To achieve our partnership goals, we rely on an active, empowered student body and a sound system of student representation.

Student input is an important factor in all our quality control procedures, and there are a number of ways in which you, as a student, can make your voice heard and help us further improve the quality of our courses and services.

Please do consider helping us through questionnaires, participation in staff-student liaison committees, and representation on School committees, such as our Board of Studies and Quality Assurance committee.

You can find out more about student representation on the LLC Student Information Hub. You will need your student log in to access the site.

Take me to more information about student representation

Teaching Matters

We are proud to work with the University's Institute for Academic Development (IAD). Read our contributions to IAD’s Teaching Matters website and blog.

Lifting the veil on poetry

Patrick Errington talks about his Emerging Writers Award win and helping his students find their voice and community.

Languages in the community - welcoming Ukrainian families to Edinburgh

We hear from Ekaterina Popova and students about helping Ukrainian refugees adjust to life in Edinburgh.

Breathing new life into fascinating archival footage of Scotland's lifeboats on our wild seas

Shona Thomson tells us how the making of her FOCAL Award-shortlisted film is being used on our Film, Exhibition and Curation programme to help students explore working with archives.

Related links

The Institute for Academic Development