Birmingham’s fusion of language and culture places employability at its heart, preparing students to live and work as an engaged citizen of the world.

The study of one or two Modern Languages (French, Italian, Russian, Spanish and/or Portuguese) alongside History of Art is highly complementary and an exciting opportunity to contextualise students' knowledge in each discipline. Each student's linguistic fluency is strengthened with a simultaneous understanding and appreciation of the student's target culture's literature, history, politics and society, and one language can be learnt from scratch. Travel opportunities in the degree course such as the Year Abroad and the History of Art European study trip will enrich each student's skillset as both a linguist and art historian. 

Students will have access to original works, a dedicated fine art library and collection of resources in the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, the acclaimed public gallery at the Univeristy. Here students will find a great collection of European art and works by famous artists such as Botticelli, Van Gogh, Monet, Magritte, Degas, Gwen John, Vigée LeBrun and Rodin. For undergraduate Modern Languages, the university prides itself on competitive contact hours of 6 hours per week for advanced language study and 8 hours per week for beginner language study in each student's core target-language module/s.