- UCAS course code
- RR74
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Early clearing information
This course is available through clearing for home and international applicants
If you already have your exam results, meet the entry requirements, and are not holding an offer from a university or college, then you may be able to apply to this course.
Contact the admissions team
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA Russian and Spanish
Gain specialist language and culture skills with a focus on Russia, Spain and Latin America.
Duration: 4 years
Year of entry: 2025
UCAS course code: RR74 / Institution code: M20
- Key features:
Study abroad
Study with a language
- Typical A-level offer: ABB including specific subjects
- Typical contextual A-level offer: BBC including specific subjects
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: BBC including specific subjects
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 34 points overall with 6,5,5 at HL including specific subjects
Course description
Our BA Russian and Spanish joint honours degree will give you a grounding in writing, speaking and understanding the Russian and Spanish languages.
Language study offers much more than just language fluency. You'll explore diverse aspects of the culture, society, history, politics and literature of the countries in which Russian and Spanish are spoken, helping you to develop intercultural awareness and communication skills - both highly valued by employers.
You'll benefit from excellent teaching, student support and cutting-edge study facilities, as well as from the vibrancy and cultural diversity of Manchester itself, Western Europe's most multilingual city.
With placement options available at partner universities and in professional environments in Russian-speaking and Spanish-speaking countries, a compulsory third year abroad gives our undergraduate students unforgettable and invaluable personal and professional experience.
The course unit details listed below are those you may choose to study as part of this programme and are referred to as optional units. These are subject to change and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this programme.
Although language units may show here as optional, they are a mandatory part of your modern languages degree and you will take the units relevant to your level of language in each year of study.
It is compulsory to study language at all levels of your modern languages degree.
Special features
Residence abroad
You can study and/or work for up to a year in a country or countries relevant to your chosen language(s) to improve your communicative language skills in a native-speaker environment.
Collaborations and partnerships
The University has links with language and cultural institutions across the city, including:
- Instituto Cervantes - a centre for Spanish culture;
- HOME - international and contemporary art, theatre and film.
Societies
The University is home to over 30 international and language-related student societies offering a breadth of cultural activities and experiences, including the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies Student Society and the Russian Society.
Teaching and learning
You will learn through a mixture of formal lectures, seminars and tutorials, spending approximately 12 hours a week in formal study sessions.
For every hour of university study, you will be expected to complete a further 2-3 hours of independent study.
You will also need to study during the holiday periods.
The individual study component could be spent reading, producing written work, revising for examinations or working in the University's Language Centre .
Coursework and assessment
You will be assessed in various ways, including:
- written and oral examinations;
- presentations;
- coursework (which may include library research, linguistic fieldwork and data collection, or web-based research);
- in your final year, a dissertation based on a research topic of your choice.
Assessment methods vary from course unit to course unit - see individual course unit listings for more information.
Course content for year 1
You will study 60 credits from each discipline.
Topics and themes introduced in first-year content courses are explored in depth in optional content courses in the second and final years.
As a result, these courses also help you to make informed choices for subsequent years of study based on your own interests.
Russian
- During the first year of study, you develop crucial Russian language skills through dedicated grammar classes, oral practice with native-speaker lectors, language laboratory work, and a range of independent learning activities. Separate language pathways are offered for beginners, post A-level and more advanced students.
- Our first-year content courses provide a solid base for your further studies, helping you to acquire and improve on important study skills and giving you a thorough grounding in concepts and debates crucial to an understanding of Russian society and culture.
Spanish
- In the first year of your course, you are trained in the modern spoken and written Spanish language through compulsory core courses. You will also be provided with an introduction to the cultural and historical development of the Hispanic world and develop the skills required to be successful in your further study of Spain and Latin America.
You will take only the language units relevant to your level of language in each year of study.
Course units for year 1
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
| Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Making of Modern Russia: 1552-1917 | RUSS10251 | 20 | Mandatory |
| Cultures of the Hispanic World | SPLA10410 | 20 | Mandatory |
| 100 Years of Revolution: from Lenin's Soviet Union to Putin's Russia | RUSS10242 | 20 | Optional |
| Russian Language 1 | RUSS51011 | 20 | Optional |
| Russian Language 2 | RUSS51022 | 20 | Optional |
| Russian Language 3 | RUSS51030 | 20 | Optional |
| Russian Language 4 | RUSS51040 | 20 | Optional |
| Cultures of the Hispanic World | SPLA10410 | 20 | Optional |
| Themes in Spanish and Latin American Studies | SPLA10420 | 20 | Optional |
| Spanish Language 1 | SPLA51011 | 20 | Optional |
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Course content for year 2
You may choose to study up to two thirds from either discipline or maintain equal weighting.
Russian
- During the second year, you continue with your intensive study of Russian language.
- You also choose from optional courses in a range of areas (such as Russian culture and thought, literature, Central European and Balkan history and culture, and Polish language).
- In addition, you begin to prepare for the compulsory year abroad, through meetings and consultations with our Residence Abroad Tutor and with final-year students who have recently returned from the year abroad.
Spanish
- You follow a compulsory Spanish language course unit and take optional units in the cultures and histories of the Spanish-speaking world. The list which includes options such as the study of Latin American History, writing women in the Spanish Golden Age, the Cold War in Latin America, and visual cultures in Modern Spain.
Course units for year 2
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
| Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russophone Literature and Society, 1800-2000s | RUSS20700 | 20 | Mandatory |
| 100 Years of Revolution: from Lenin's Soviet Union to Putin's Russia | RUSS20242 | 20 | Optional |
| The Revolutions of 1989 and their Aftermaths: Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia | RUSS20472 | 20 | Optional |
| Between East and West: Culture, Empire and Nation in Russia | RUSS20841 | 20 | Optional |
| Russian Language 3 | RUSS51030 | 20 | Optional |
| Russian Language 4 | RUSS51040 | 20 | Optional |
| Russian Language 5 | RUSS51050 | 20 | Optional |
| Visual Culture in Modern Spain: Film, Painting and Photography | SPLA20062 | 20 | Optional |
| Writing Women in the Spanish Golden Age | SPLA20161 | 20 | Optional |
| History of Latin America | SPLA20362 | 20 | Optional |
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Course content for year 3
Your third year of study is spent abroad under approved conditions.
Course content for year 4
You may choose to study up to two thirds from either discipline or maintain equal weighting.
Russian
- The compulsory element of your studies consists of an advanced Russian language course, which focuses on oral proficiency, translation from Russian and composition in Russian.
- Optional courses such as Business Russian, translation studies, Soviet and post-Soviet popular culture and cinema, and politics and society in Russia, the Soviet Union and post-Soviet countries round out your studies.
Spanish
- Continue your studies of the Spanish language and perfect your writing and oral skills.
- Choose from a wide range of options, including the study of the supernatural in Latin American literature and film, the multi-ethnic condition of Latin American societies, and visual culture from the early modern Hispanic world.
- You may also choose to complete a dissertation, which is supervised by an appropriate member of staff. In researching and writing your dissertation, you explore in depth a subject of particular interest to you. The topic of your dissertation may be related to one of the final-year optional courses, but this is not obligatory.
Course units for year 4
The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.
| Title | Code | Credit rating | Mandatory/optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish Language 6 | SPLA51060 | 20 | Mandatory |
| Introduction to Interpreting: Context, Skills and Modes | ELAN30241 | 20 | Optional |
| Introduction to Professional Translation | ELAN31182 | 20 | Optional |
| War, Memory and Politics of Commemoration in Eastern Europe | HIST31842 | 20 | Optional |
| Dissertation in Modern Languages and Cultures | LALC30000 | 40 | Optional |
| Russian Translation: Theory and practice | RUSS30442 | 20 | Optional |
| Culture, Media and Politics in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia | RUSS30601 | 20 | Optional |
| Russian Language 5 | RUSS51050 | 20 | Optional |
| Imagining the Amazon: Culture and Environment | SPLA30801 | 20 | Optional |
| Modern Spanish Music: A Cultural History | SPLA31081 | 20 | Optional |
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Facilities
The University Language Centre is home to language resources, including a new interpreting suite, purpose-built recording rooms, and resources for more than 70 languages.
The Centre also offers multilingual word processing, language learning software, off-air recording and AV duplication, multilingual terrestrial and satellite TV, and extensive support and advice for learners.
Learn more on our Facilities page.