BA English and Modern Languages
About this course
Bachelor of Arts in English and Modern Languages, a degree centred on English Literature and Modern Languages. Core topics include Statistics, Research Methods, Human Behaviour, and Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. This four-year programme incorporates a mandatory period of cultural immersion abroad during the third year. The first year covers foundational modules such as Academic Skills for Modern languages and Linguistics Students, English on the Move, and Poetic Language, alongside options in linguistics and cultural studies. The second year continues with core study including The Worlding of English Literature and Preparation for your Third Year (Abroad). The third year is spent abroad completing a Residence Abroad Portfolio of independent academic work. The final fourth year involves re-entry modules such as Seeing and Being Seen. Period Abroad Re-entry alongside optional modules spanning cinema, specialized literature, and cultural analysis.
Written by AI from the university's course page and module list. It can get details wrong, so check the official course page before you rely on it.
Entry requirements
A level: ABB IB: Pass, with 32 points overall with 16 points at Higher Level
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What students say
Based on about 7 final-year students who answered, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Teaching on my course: 98%
- Learning opportunities: 88%
- Assessment and feedback: 84%
- Academic support: 95%
- Organisation and management: 95%
- Learning resources: 93%
- Student voice: 83%
Do students stay on the course?
Based on about 10 students who started, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Continued on course: 85%
- Left higher education: 15%
What graduates do next
Based on about 13 graduates who answered, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Working: 50%
- Working and studying: 15%
- Further study: 10%
- Unemployed: 10%
Most common jobs
- Sales occupations: 15%
- Artistic, literary and media occupations: 15%
- Teaching Professionals: 15%
- Media Professionals: 10%
- Secretarial and related occupations: 5%
- Find their work meaningful: 70%
- Feel on track for their future plans: 60%
- Use what they learnt on the course: 50%
Where graduates work (5 years on)
Based on about 155 graduates, across similar courses at this university
- North West: 2%
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 1%
- East Midlands: 1%
- West Midlands: 2%
- East of England: 10%
- London: 27%
- South East: 38%
- South West: 13%
- Wales: 5%
- Scotland: 1%
- Northern Ireland: 1%
Who gets in
Based on about 10 students who started, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- A levels: 100%
Accreditation & quality ratings
TEF 2023 (whole university): Silver overall, Silver for student experience, Silver for student outcomes.
Modules
- Academic Skills for Modern languages and Linguistics Students
- English on the Move
- Introduction to French and Francophone Studies
- Introduction to German Studies
- Introduction to Spain, Latin America and the Portuguese-Speaking World
- Poetic Language
- Applications of Linguistics
- Elements of Linguistics: Sound, Structure and Meaning
- Introduction to Ethnography: Food and Culture
- Literary Transformations
- The Invention of English Literature: Medieval to Early Modern
- Theory and Criticism
- Understanding History and Society
- World Dramas
- Preparation for your Third Year (Abroad)
- The Worlding of English Literature
- Culture, Power and Resistance in the Portuguese-Speaking World
- Eve and the Angels: Love, War, and the End of Epic in Milton's Paradise Lost
- Gender, Race and Nation in Modern Latin America
- AI Utopias and the Climate Crisis
- African Freedoms and the Novel
- Brief Encounters: Writing Short Stories
- Cities of the Dead: Death, Mourning and Remembrance in Modern Britain
- Corpus Linguistics: Working with Large-scale Text Data
- Darwin and the Making of Evolutionary Thought: Myth, Memory, and Modern Society
- Data, Culture, and Justice
- Decolonising Modernity
- Desire and Decay: Literature of the Long Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
- Digital Futures of the Past: Power, Ethics, and Representation
- Discourse Analysis
- Exploring French Linguistics
- Exploring Spanish Linguistics
- Ghosts on Screen
- Globalisation: Culture, Language and the Nation State
- Health, Culture, and Discrimination
- High, Popular, Mass Culture: Cultural Hybridity and Globalization in Latin America and Spain
- Jews in Germany before the Holocaust
- Language and Society in the German-Speaking World
- Language, Power and Institutions: How Linguistic Practices Can Shape Our Lives
- Learning about Culture: Introduction to Ethnography
- Mind, Matter, Machine: Writing and Technological Change
- Multilingualism
- Pirates, Princesses and the Politics of Romance
- Post-War French Thought and Culture
- Psycholinguistics
- Queens, Devils and Players in Early Modern England
- Queering the Digital
- Retail Therapy: A Journey Through the Cultural History of Shopping
- Romantics and Victorians
- Scriptwriting
- Sound and Voice
- Speech Acts
- Syntax: Studying Language Structure
- Teaching English as a Foreign Language
- The EU and European Identity
- Variation and Change in English
- Vienna and Berlin: Society, Politics and Culture from 1890 to the Present
- Women, Writing and the Canon, 1770-1900
- Residence Abroad Portfolio
- Seeing and Being Seen. Period Abroad Re-entry
- Burning Worlds, Drowning Worlds: Oil Cultures, Climate Crisis, and Traumatic Desires in World Literatures
- English as a Global Language
- Exiles, Migrants and Citizens: Narrating and Documenting Displacement in Contemporary Spain
- AI Utopias and the Climate Crisis
- American Cinema Since 1965
- American Gothic
- Audiovisual Translation
- Cities of the Dead: Death, Mourning and Remembrance in Modern Britain
- Creative Writing in Schools
- Darwin and the Making of Evolutionary Thought: Myth, Memory, and Modern Society
- Data, Culture, and Justice
- Digital Futures of the Past: Power, Ethics, and Representation
- Digital Life: Myths, Social Media, and Artificial Intelligence
- Encounters with Bodies in Lusophone Cultural Narrative
- English Dissertation
- Environmental Cinema and Media
- Eve and the Angels: Love, War, and the End of Epic in Milton's Paradise Lost
- Fantasy Film and Fiction
- Fragmented France: Cultures and Identities in Transition
- Framing the Past:Stardom, History and Heritage in the Cinema
- French Sociolinguistics: Challenges to Francophonie
- German-Jewish Writing Across the Twentieth Century
- Historical Memory in Modern Latin America
- Holocaust Literature
- Language and Speech Disorders
- Language and the City
- Languages, Cultures and Linguistics Dissertation
- Minorities and Migrants: Exploring Multicultural Germany
- Money and Meaning in American Fiction
- Pirates, Princesses and the Politics of Romance
- Public Service Interpreting
- Queering the Digital
- Scriptwriting
- Second Language Acquisition
- Sex, Gender and Desire
- Sex, Soap Operas and Female Dissidents: Representations of Women in the Hispanic World
- Shakespeare Then and Now
- Sociophonetic Project Module
- Streaming, Social Media, and Stans: Music Culture in the Platform Era
- Telling True Stories: Narrative Non-Fiction
- The Origins of Climate Crisis: Ecology in Victorian Literature
- Utopias and Dystopias in Literature and Culture
Questions about this course
How much do graduates of BA English and Modern Languages at University of Southampton earn?
The median salary is £29,000 after 15 months, £26,000 after 3 years, £32,000 after 5 years. After five years the middle half of graduates earn between £26,000 and £38,500. The £32,000 median after five years is £4,000 more than the UK median for Literature in English.
What do graduates of BA English and Modern Languages at University of Southampton do next?
75% were in work or further study 15 months after finishing (Graduate Outcomes 2023-24).
Are students happy with the teaching on BA English and Modern Languages at University of Southampton?
98% of final-year students were positive about the teaching in the National Student Survey 2025-26.
What grades do I need for BA English and Modern Languages at University of Southampton?
The typical offer is ABB at A level, or 32 points in the IB. The average entrant had 131 UCAS points.
Does BA English and Modern Languages at University of Southampton include a placement year or year abroad?
The course has a compulsory year abroad.
How many students continue on BA English and Modern Languages at University of Southampton?
85% of students continued into their second year, and 15% left higher education.