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

It’s pretty isn’t it? But so small… I’m pretty sure your dd is better off in e’burgh!

Finally got a Leeds offer - ABB. still waiting for Edinburgh yawn…

Edinburgh are really stringing it out, aren’t they @Delphigirl! Is your DD regretting applying for 5 courses or is she chilled about it? Mine (thinking ahead to an application for 2026 entry) is thinking she may as well just apply in the first instance for her favourite two courses, and only add more at Christmas if those haven’t come through with the expected very achievable ABB type offers.

She’s pretty chilled, it is me that is bored of waiting! I don’t think she regrets applying for five, really… there are so few to apply to for Arabic you might as well just apply to all those you would be happy to go to. In her case though she has always had such a strong preference for Exeter I guess she could have applied just there and then an insurance, but it is possible that she might have changed her mind over the year. For example I can see the Scottish unis make a lot of sense for ab initio languages as it is very easy to change subjects if you decide you have made a horrible mistake. But dd has done a 18mths of Arabic on the side so that is fairly de-risked for her.

Finally! Edinburgh offer is through - ABB which is better than their standard offer and the same as Exeter. She is going to firm Exeter and insure Edinburgh. Phew!!!

That’s brilliant Delphi, now she can breathe and focus on her exams. Best of luck to her.

Thanks Ealing! She’s working really hard 💕

@marisquita I thought this was rather a nice glimpse into Arabic at Exeter , from 2 fourth years
https://x.com/ExeterIAIS/status/1800228192768446971

It has also revamped its website
http://arabislamicstudies.exeter.ac.uk/

That’s brilliant - thanks @Delphigirl. The 4th years are very good ambassadors and DD can’t wait to apply! Hope exam season is going well in your house.

almost over thanks Marisquita - one exam left and no disasters yet. Hope GCSEs are going well for your dd!

Nearly at the end of the GCSE marathon - two to go, and so far so good 🤞

Loved Exeter on the open day too but DD not keen on a campus uni so off to Leeds next weekend as well..

@Soundofshuna be sure to ask at Leeds how much contact time there is. I had an interesting conversation with a recent Leeds graduate on this - don’t want to pass on hearsay but you may well find that it varies very significantly between institutions.

Hope all has gone to plan for your DD, @Delphigirl. All good here with GCSEs.

I have a question, if I may, for @criminallyvulgar: which was the overseas language school which your DD would have attended, had the pandemic not rudely intervened? It’s not clear from the Manchester Uni website where their Arabists go.

Hi @marisquita! Delighted about your DD’s GCSEs. Yes DD did v well in her a levels and so Exeter is go next Sept. She is off to Peru and Bolivia in a few weeks until Xmas, with the hope of coming back fluent in Spanish - and will plan the rest of her year afterwards. I will miss her!

As someone who works in one of the departments discussed in this thread (Exeter), I wanted to say how heartened I've been to read of students and parents looking at Arabic/Middle East Studies degrees in the UK.

I'd say that all of us who work in such areas are proud to do so and passionate about our roles as educators and researchers. I'd also like to reiterate just how great such degrees are in combining fascinating areas of study with terrific employment opportunities. In the past I taught on less niche degree programmes and I'm now really struck by the range of specialist careers which people forge following on from their studies in Arabic, Persian or Middle East Studies. To add to some of the discussion upthread, we've had students who have gone on to work with the UN and other international organisations, in specialist journalism and publishing in/on the Middle East, for the military, GCHQ, NGOs, in the art world in the Gulf, and across a great range of roles in business and finance. What's more, we are invariably deeply proud of the cosmopolitan, humane and nuanced outlooks which our graduates develop in their evaluations of politics and society in both the UK and the Arab-Islamic world.

I'd also stress, as others have, how useful it can be for applicants and their families to visit our departments for open days. We are well aware that some decision-making is made on the basis of the character of a city or a wider university, but on degree programmes where students will have a lot of contact hours and become part of a tight-knit community, it can be really important to get a feel for the distinctiveness of each place. While we would all like to attract the best students, we work in small fields where we have the utmost respect for scholars elsewehere and degree programmes across the country.

I'm wary of saying any more as I don't want to impinge on the existing discussions, but if any parents or prospective students do have any questions about studying in these areas in the UK, I'm happy to answer questions here or by direct message.

Hi William, that’s a lovely post and thank you for contributing to the thread! Great to hear about the varied careers that your students go on to do. My daughter is looking forward to joining you next year. She spent a year doing a 3hr/week Arabic club at school and is now thinking of taking a few weeks to refresh her memory at the end of her current gap year - maybe at ta marbouta in Tunis. Do you think that is a good idea, or should she just come to Exeter rusty, safe in the knowledge that some of the cohort won’t have studied any Arabic at all?

Hi Delphigirl,
We will look forward to working with your daughter.
With regard to whether it would be a good idea to brush up on her Arabic, I think this an entirely personal decision. As you say, many of our students will never have encountered Arabic at all before they begin their studies, so no one should ever feel that they need to undertake pre-learning unless this is something that they really want (and are able) to do. I would also add that lots of our students do spend some time in Tunis across their degrees, accessing the travel scholarships which we - like many other UK universities - offer to encourage informal language and cultural learning.

Thank you very much, v helpful.

Tagging @marisquita whose dd is very interested in Exeter for Arabic and French …

@Delphigirl Thank you for the tag 😀And thank you to @ExeterWilliam for joining the thread.

DD is now likely to be applying for Arabic and Politics (2026 entry), though she’d like the opportunity to keep her French up as well post A Level. She’s learned the Arabic alphabet and is taking weekly online lessons in Levantine dialect, which she started as soon as she could - I think it was one day after her last GCSE paper. She’s not trying to gain an advantage over others but is just highly motivated.

Exeter is her favourite at the moment, and she is hoping to spend a year in Jordan. @ExeterWilliam, subject of course to the vicissitudes of geopolitics, can they choose where to spend the year abroad out of the places you have links with? I think I mentioned upthread that DD had a very worthwhile visit to Exeter in Y11 (not as part of an open day) and we were hugely grateful to your colleague who took time out of her day to inform and inspire DD.

The Tunis opportunity sounds wonderful!

Hi @marisquita
It's great to hear about all the efforts which your daughter is making to learn some Arabic even before beginning her studies. I should have said earlier that of course we are super happy to meet students who are that motivated to learn, which maybe wasn't quite clear in my remarks about there being no need to undertake preparatory study.

With regard to the year abroad, I think I'm right in saying that most UK universities wouldn't offer a choice as to where to go, in the main because departments have close relationships with language academies in countries such as Jordan, where we have a clear understanding of their programmes of study, concern for student welfare and so on. The "vicissitudes" you mention are part of the equation here too and, having played a small part in the rapid return of our students from their year abroad in 2020, it is definitely more manageable to have a cohort together in one place.

All this said, it is good for prospective students and parents to look at where (and when) years abroad take place in evaluating different courses. It may also be the case that as well as the year abroad, there are additional formal requirements or informal options to study in the Arab world across the degree (by way of example, we expect final-year students to undertake work experience and additional language learning in the region).

I’ve seen that there is that expectation @ExeterWilliam - is that 4th year work experience something students are expected to organise themselves, or is there assistance from the university?

Lovely to see this niche area of study still going @Delphigirl nearly 2 years later, with such useful input from student/parent experiences, And now a direct tap to Exeter faculty which is fabulous for our prospect YP out there wondering if this is an option for them.

A resounding yes here. Mine is on her YA (3rd yr), split between Cairo and Granada, ME studies/arabic learning in uni setting. She is receiving 8 hours alone on Arabic (split between colloquial and Modern Standard) and is loving the other multi disciplinary modules, has a good international mix cohort from all over. Jordan sounds fab, but wasn’t an option from her uni. Other options were, until students repatriated last Oct, Lebanon. Rabat still on list, cohort split depending on their other language of study across both.

I re-read the thread, clearly lots of positive stories which I hope, gives prospect students and parents some confidence in its value as an area of study.