Arabic +\- Middle Eastern Studies

[Delphigirl]

Hi does anyone know anything about undergraduate Arabic/MES? My daughter (currently Y12/L6) is thinking about this for uni. She is doing Spanish Geog and economics at A level but also an Arabic club (3hrs/week) so she can read and is learning to write and speak Modern Standard Arabic for beginners level. She loves it.

So I would love to know anything about various uni departments at the moment. She doesn’t want to be in zlondon so SOAS is out. She doesn’t think she wants oxbridge. She has been to Edinburgh and St Andrews for a look and liked both, she is going to look at Exeter and maybe Manchester, also McGill in Canada.
She wants to get a high level of language acquisition, not keen on much literature analysis, likes the social science aspects of MES, not really interested in Islam as a religion. She would like the possibility of a choice of dialects, and perhaps of some Farsi teaching on the side. She has 8s and 9s at gcse and will get predicted all As and Astars. What are the best departments currently, and why?
Thanks

Wow! So exciting 🍾

Fabulous, well done her!

Thank you thank you ladies! 😘

@Delphigirl I hope your DD is enjoying being in possession of her excellent offers!

We are thinking of visiting the Exeter campus during Feb half term (as we’ll be in the city for separate reasons anyway). When you visited the department was it as part of an open day? We are wondering whether if we let them know we’re coming we might be shown around the departmental building, but I am not sure how it works. DD still v keen indeed (for Arabic & Politics), though still only Y11. I know it’s early to visit but she really wants to if possible. If you have any tips on whom we might speak to that would be amazing. Otherwise no doubt she can send an email and see what happens 🙂

Hi! We just went on an open day. In fact there was a national rail strike so it was much quieter than normal and the Arabic dept was super quiet, so all the staff we saw were totally thrilled to see us. I’m afraid I don’t have any names and contacts. I would think if you sent an email asking to drop in they would be very welcoming… but give it a try and see! It would be v nice to see the department on a normal uni day. Let me know what you think!

Thanks @Delphigirl - will report back!

She could look at the University of Manchester BA in Middle Eastern Studies.

www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/2024/07729/ba-middle-eastern-studies/course-details/#course-profile

Univ of Manchester

@mathanxiety Thanks - yes, we know friends’ DC who are very happy at Manchester. No doubt we’ll think about some more visits in Y12, but I’m only allowing one as a distraction before GCSEs!

With the more challenging and unusual languages such as Arabic, a couple of friends have questioned dc's choice and said "but wouldn't employers just get a bilingual native speaker who is British but has Arabic family heritage so grew up speaking it so what's the point of your dd learning it?"

I stand by that it's still great to learn Arabic as it makes you out as intelligent and willing to be persistent.

What are everyone's views on this?

@Middleaugust My father (who is English) read Arabic and Persian at Cambridge and is now in his 90s. He’s had a fascinating international career, and through him we’ve known many other British Arabists who have been diplomats, broadcasters, political commentators, interpreters, translators, authors, professors - you name it. I don’t buy this idea (which can be said about any foreign language) that it’s pointless to learn it from scratch because others will speak it as a first language. Arabic is something like the 5th most spoken language in the world and the Middle East is hugely important geopolitically. We can’t afford not to have our young people engage with it (perhaps even more so post-Brexit).

Also, Arabic is so varied as to dialect that if a young person acquires excellent (e.g.) Levantine Arabic then they really do have something special to offer a relevant employer. We don’t have large swathes of our population growing up speaking it as a mother tongue I don’t think.

I think it’s still valuable in and of itself. I guess during your grandfather’s career access to native speakers was less of a thing, though still possible. I think many language grads don’t end up using it for work, but that can be true of many degrees and doesn’t negate their worth. A languages degree is as good as any for any of the graduate/milk round type roles, but I would argue the value of a languages degree, in particular a non- European language is the access to culture and society which is something very special. I could holiday in Spain all my life or read Tolstoy 75 times but if I have no Spanish or Russian I will always have gaps.

DD1 in her 1st year of Arabic and Politics at Edinburgh. She's really enjoying it. She says there are quite a few students who are - like her - people who have grown up with it around them but haven't learnt it properly.

We did go to Oxford on an open day but she didn't really feel it. Leeds was her second choice.

Lovely to hear that she’s enjoying herself, @mizu!

Can she remember when she got her offer from Edinburgh? DD still hasn’t heard from Edinburgh (or Leeds, or St A…)

Oh gosh it was really late, may well have been February or later.

Have just text and asked her, she thinks later than February.

You are kind to do that @mizu - thank you!

Hi everyone - just to let you know DD got an offer from St Andrews for Arabic and Persian today - AAB. Almost certainly not her first choice and the highest so far so no good as an insurance either. But easily achievable so she needs to consider it.

Still waiting for Edinburgh and Leeds…

I have personal experience of this from the other side. In both UK and ME your dd will have white/British privilege (assuming she's white/British?!) so her being non native will be to her advantage. It's a great language to have and she will love the degree.

Nice to hear @madderthanahatter

@marisquita did you visit Exeter in half term as you thought you might?

@Delphigirl DD1 visited St Andrews with uni pals last weekend - bus of course as they are free for under 25s in Scotland - and sent some pics. It is a beautiful place.

@Delphigirl we did (thank you for remembering!) and loved it. DD had a meeting with a very helpful and inspiring lecturer, as well as a student-led campus tour. She’s now completely set on applying to Exeter for 2026 and will need to be pulled back to the reality of GCSEs coming up rapidly ahead!

How is your DD doing - congrats on St Andrews! Is she going to wait for the more sluggish unis to respond, or bin them off? I suppose as she plans a gap year there’s no time pressure on her to start bidding for accommodation etc.

I meant to ask, @Delphigirl, whether Edinburgh and St Andrews would be 5-year courses (the usual Scottish 4 plus a year abroad)?

Oh I’m so glad she liked Exeter @marisquita! Sounds like she was given a good welcome.
Edinburgh is 4 years with a year abroad in the 3rd year, so like English unis (although most English ones are sending arabists abroad in the second year of four. Not all though). St Andrews seems to be a four year course where they send abroad for a semester in year 3, or there is an option to go abroad for a year but (a) that is competitive and not many places and (b) it turns it into a 5 year course. So that is why DD isn’t keen.

I imagine those who don’t want 5 years would go abroad independently in the long summer, run that into the semester abroad, come back for the second semester in St Andrews and then head off abroad independently for the second long summer, but it doesn’t give much of a break. The language study abroad is meant to be incredibly intense. And it would require considerably more expense I guess.