- UCAS course code
- QR63
- UCAS institution code
- M20
Early clearing information
This course is unavailable through clearing
This course is now full for our 2025 entry.
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA Latin and Italian
Duration: 4 years
Year of entry: 2025
UCAS course code: QR63 / 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 Latin and Italian will enable you to develop your linguistic skills while learning about the literature and culture of both societies.
You can learn Latin either as a beginner or from A-level standard. Once you've reached the appropriate level, your learning will allow you to study literary and historical texts in their original language.
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 your chosen languages are - or were - 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 Italy, a compulsory third year abroad gives our undergraduate students unforgettable and invaluable personal and professional experience. Where possible, this includes enrolment on classical courses at an Italian university.
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
Your year abroad gives you the chance to experience life in an Italian-speaking country, further developing your language skills.
Learn from language experts
Modern language courses are mainly taught by native speakers of the language, giving you a richer learning experience.
Access outstanding resources
Explore the exclusive resources of Manchester Museum and the Special Collections of The John Rylands Library - home to papyri, medieval manuscripts and early printed books, including very early copies of the Homeric poems.
Teaching and learning
You'll learn through a variety of methods. Lectures will help broaden your understanding of subjects, while small group tutorials and seminars will help you to deep-dive into these topics.
Language classes are taught intensively, with group size capped to encourage participation.
You are encouraged to involve yourself, under guidance, in independent study and original research.
Coursework and assessment
Assessment practices vary between course units, but our aim overall is to achieve a good balance between formal examinations, continuous assessment and project work.
Written examinations are held at the end of most course units. The Year 3 dissertation is a major piece of original work, accounting for 22% of the final overall mark.
Course content for year 1
Core units will give you a grounding in the historical and cultural contexts of life in first century Rome via ancient poetry and the study of Latin language. Optional units allow you start exploring key themes and making links between your fields of study.
Italian
In Year 1 Italian language instruction is divided between beginners ('ab initio') and post-A-level groups (with most students being beginners).
'Ab initio' students have 4 contact hours per week with their nominated Italian teacher as part of a course specifically designed to build confidence in comprehension, writing, speaking and listening skills. Post-A-level students have three hours consolidating and building competency on specific language points. All first year students also have an additional linguistics hour, introducing them to the history and structures of the Italian language.
Culture units cover topics from the filmic and literary to the historic and linguistic. Year 1 is specifically designed to begin furnishing candidates with the tools to enable them to read cultural products with confidence, be they texts, pictures, buildings or linguistic constructions.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virgil's Aeneid | CAHE10422 | 20 | Mandatory |
| Italian Cultural Studies | ITAL10300 | 20 | Mandatory |
| Constructing Archaic Greek History | CAHE10011 | 20 | Optional |
| From Republic to Empire: Introduction to Roman History, Society & Culture 218-31BC | CAHE10022 | 20 | Optional |
| The Odyssey | CAHE10101 | 20 | Optional |
| The Story of Britain: one million years of humanity | CAHE10142 | 20 | Optional |
| Cities and Citizens | CAHE10232 | 20 | Optional |
| Introduction to the History and Culture of Pharaonic Egypt | CAHE10651 | 20 | Optional |
| Intensive Greek 1 | CAHE20151 | 20 | Optional |
| Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs | CAHE20162 | 20 | Optional |
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Course content for year 2
Latin
With just one compulsory course unit in Latin language, you'll have the flexibility to focus your studies on key areas of interest across both subject areas, selecting from a breadth of historical, literary, cultural and societal themes.
Italian
In Year 2, the core language component builds on the grammar topics covered in Year 1, in order to prepare you for the year abroad. Both the post-beginners and post-A-level language modules have three contact hours per week in addition to working on set assignments and undertaking private study.
Your course units in second year are more specialised than in first year, allowing you to explore a diverse range of subjects and approaches. Current options include the Italian Renaissance and Italian Fascism.
All our Italian culture units have three contact hours per week and are augmented by materials and content placed in the unit's Blackboard virtual learning environment.
Our modules are assessed by a variety of different coursework assessment types, including essays and commentaries, book reviews, reports, presentations, and innovative digital projects such as group curated exhibitions.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Roads: Journeys in Latin Literature | CAHE20192 | 20 | Mandatory |
| The World of Late Antiquity: Europe and the Med from the Severan Dynasty to the Rise of Islam | CAHE20022 | 20 | Optional |
| The Conquering Hero: The Life, Times and Legacy of Alexander The Great | CAHE20042 | 20 | Optional |
| The Roman Empire 31BC - AD313 Rome's Golden Age | CAHE20052 | 20 | Optional |
| Politics and Society in Classical Greece | CAHE20061 | 20 | Optional |
| Social Life in Ancient Egypt | CAHE20072 | 20 | Optional |
| Ancient Egyptian Literature | CAHE20091 | 20 | Optional |
| From Cloud Cuckoo Land to Atlantis: Utopian thinking in the Ancient World | CAHE20141 | 20 | Optional |
| Intensive Greek 1 | CAHE20151 | 20 | Optional |
| Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs | CAHE20162 | 20 | Optional |
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Course content for year 3
Course content for year 4
Latin
Continue to shape your understanding according to specific interests, with interdisciplinary and advanced course unit options, in addition to your Advanced Latin language unit.
Italian
In Year 4, you build on the linguistic authenticity acquired abroad in the core language unit, and can choose from a range of specialized content course units. The final year language course develops your core skills to an advanced level, including translation into English, writing different kinds of target-language texts, and oral work including discussion of texts, debates, and presentations. The language component of the course comprises three contact hours per week, in addition to working on set assignments and undertaking private study.
Course units available in final year are closely related to the research interests of individual members of staff, in areas such as romance linguistics, Renaissance Florence, Italy and the Grand Tour, book history, and the political and cultural history of Italy.
You will also be able to undertake a research-orientated dissertation (often using the primary sources held in the Rylands Library, which has outstanding Italian holdings) and participate in the Italian department's mentoring and outreach work.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roman Roads: Journeys in Latin Literature | CAHE30192 | 20 | Mandatory |
| Italian Language 6 | ITAL51060 | 20 | Mandatory |
| Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphs | CAHE20162 | 20 | Optional |
| Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology Dissertation | CAHE30000 | 40 | Optional |
| The World of Late Antiquity: Europe and the Med from the Severan Dynasty to the Rise of Islam | CAHE30022 | 20 | Optional |
| Social Life in Ancient Egypt | CAHE30072 | 20 | Optional |
| Ancient Egyptian Literature | CAHE30091 | 20 | Optional |
| From Cloud Cuckoo Land to Atlantis: Utopian thinking in the Ancient World | CAHE30141 | 20 | Optional |
| Advanced Latin Language 2 | CAHE30211 | 20 | Optional |
| Advanced Latin Language 3 | CAHE30311 | 20 | Optional |
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Facilities
The John Rylands Library
At The John Rylands Library , you'll have exclusive access to our internationally significant collections, including papyri, medieval manuscripts and early printed books such as very early copies of the Homeric poems.
Manchester Museum
The UK's leading university museum has more than four million objects spanning millennia, including one of the largest collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts in the UK. Go behind-the-scenes to handle, analyse and interpret rare artefacts, including exclusive material specific to ancient history.
The University Language Centre
Home to language resources, including a new interpreting suite, purpose-built recording rooms and resources for over 70 languages, the Centre also offers multilingual word processing, language learning software, off-air recording and AV duplication, multilingual terrestrial and satellite TV and support and advice.
Societies
The University is home to over 30 international and language related student societies offering a breadth of cultural activities and experiences. Learn more about colloquialisms in language through native speakers and take part in discussion groups and socials. Some of our societies also coordinate trips abroad to language-specific destinations.
Find out more on the Facilities pages for Classics and Ancient History and Modern Languages and Cultures .