MFL - thoughts on

[queenrep]

Has anyone got any information/advice about MFL or similar degrees at:

UCL
KCL
QMUL
RHUL

DS has visited and spoken to them all but just wondering if anyone has any direct experience? He is particularly interested in the language side of MFL degrees as opposed to literature. Birkbeck also a possibility as they do the 2 languages he's interested in.

Yes KCL does Portuguese as does QMUL but only UCL does Italian/Portuguese combo. Unless anyone knows differently?

If it’s less about the integrated studies (lit, politics, history etc) and more about the language proficiency alone, could he look at a programme like joint language x whatever and access the non taught language via the uni’s language centre OP? He’s clearly very bright and picks up language quickly, just maybe another way of approaching it his research of London unis.

I wonder if University is the best way for your ds to learn Portuguese, German and/or Italian? How about spending time working in those countries and taking language lessons?

That's interesting ealingwestmum, I will tell him to look into that. I'm pretty sure KCL have a language centre as it came up when I was searching for places to study languages (outside of degrees) in London.

@blubells

I wonder if University is the best way for your ds to learn Portuguese, German and/or Italian? How about spending time working in those countries and taking language lessons?

This is what he's thinking about doing. Or just getting a job and doing night classes but it seems a bit of a waste to me as he's quite bright. He also doesn't know what he wants to do career-wise though ...

I agree with @blubells. I did Spanish and Portuguese (the latter ab initio), graduated in 2013. My main aim with my MFL degree was to get properly fluent in both languages, and in hindsight I'd have been better off going and living & working in relevant countries. I learnt more in my 6 months in Brazil than I did in the 3 years studying at uni, and could have done a course at a uni/ language school there for 6 months to learn the basics and then got a job, and have no debt now. Yes I'd have missed out on the university experience and it would've seemed like an incredibly daunting decision at 18, but depending on what sort of thing your son may want to do after I think there's tonnes of skills they'd learn that would make them equally employable. Doesn't answer your question but an alternative perspective.

Yes both KCL and UCL def have big language centres and you can do languages that aren't necessarily available as UG degrees. I did some Russian evening classes years ago at the KCL Lang centre for instance though UCL is the obvious place for Russian at UG I think. UCL also have strength in Hebrew and almost unique provision in Dutch. But I would say that the teaching at language centres is much more functional/practical, which could be what he wants, but is also often quite slow and the quality of teaching can be patchy in my experience.

There are many jobs which don’t require a relevant degree. It doesn’t matter whether you take MFL, history, politics … as long as it’s from a good uni.
The advantage of London unis is the access to lots of potential employers. Of course other unis also have career fairs etc but you tend to get lots more niche employers, like political risk consultancies holding networking events in London. You can’t really have one on one conversations with people on online talks!
KCL and UCL I know have good career services including coaching, CV review and interview prep.

IMO London is expensive but there are lots of part-time jobs going - including flexible ones like event staff which pay well plus let you get free food and drink. Any other uni depends on the size of the town but I remember friends at Warwick struggling to get jobs as the campus was bang in the middle of nowhere.
Sorry nothing to contribute language wise.