- UCAS course code
- R700
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA Russian Studies
Duration: 4 years
Year of entry: 2025
UCAS course code: R700 / Institution code: M20
- Key features:
Study abroad
Study with a language
- Typical A-level offer: ABB
- Typical contextual A-level offer: BBC
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: BBC
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 34 points overall with 6,5,5 at HL
Course description
Our BA Russian Studies course will give you a grounding in writing, speaking and understanding the Russian language.
Language study offers much more than just language fluency. You'll explore diverse aspects of the culture, society, history, politics and literature of Russia, 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 institutions in Russian-speaking countries, a compulsory third year abroad gives our undergraduate students unforgettable and invaluable personal and professional experience.
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;
- Manchester China Institute - promoting mutual understanding in UK-China relations through research, teaching, and activities;
- Alliance Francaise - home of French language and culture.
Societies
The University is home to over 30 international and language-related student societies offering a breadth of cultural activities and experiences.
JoinTheUniversity of Manchester Russian Society and enjoy a variety of social events, such as Russian evenings, cookery, pub crawls, quizzes, film nights and more.
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 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 course units 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.
Topics and themes introduced in first-year units are explored in depth in optional course units in the second and final years.
As a result, these units also help you to make informed choices for subsequent years of study based on your own interests.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 Years of Revolution: from Lenin's Soviet Union to Putin's Russia | RUSS10242 | 20 | Optional |
| The Making of Modern Russia: 1552-1917 | RUSS10251 | 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 |
| LEAP Polish 1 (A1) | ULPL51010 | 20 | Optional |
Course content for year 2
You will continue your intensive study of Russian language.
You will also choose from optional course units in a range of areas, such as Russian culture and thought, literature, translation studies, 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.
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 |
| LEAP Polish 1 (A1) | ULPL51010 | 20 | Optional |
| LEAP Polish 2 (A2) | ULPL51020 | 20 | Optional |
Course content for year 3
Your third year of study is spent abroad under approved conditions.
Course content for year 4
Your compulsory studies comprise an advanced Russian language course unit - which focuses on oral proficiency, translation from and into Russian and composition in Russian - and a dissertation, which is supervised by an appropriate member of staff within Russian and East European Studies.
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 course units, but this is not obligatory.
Optional course units in subjects 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| LEAP Polish 2 (A2) | ULPL51020 | 20 | Optional |
| LEAP Polish 3 (A2/B1) | ULPL51030 | 20 | Optional |
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.