Arabic (de novo) undergraduate degrees - some questions

[Casparina]

Just looking for some insight in this area beyond what we can see on the various websites. (Looking at Arabic as part of a UK first degree for 2026 entry). Can anyone with experience help with these queries?

• Which unis actively teach dialects in addition to Modern Standard Arabic, rather than leaving them to be picked up in the year abroad? For those that do, can the student choose the dialect?
• If your DC has studied one of these degrees recently, what (roughly) was the size of the Arabic cohort at their uni?
• Does any of the universities have a typical student profile for these degrees - e.g. one student rep at a careers fair referred to “lots of Dubai expats” at his institution. This isn’t a critical point but it would be good to understand if there is a particular vibe anywhere.

Thanks in advance for any insights.

Hello OP, this thread was started a while back by @Delphigirl but has some useful info still relevant to today’s prospects. Hope it helps.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/4744524-arabic-middle-eastern-studies?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

Thank you @ealingwestmum - will have a look.

Hi @Casparina
my dd is starting at Exeter for Arabic in a few weeks. I will come back and answer those questions after she starts!

Thanks @Delphigirl, and best of luck to your DD! From what we can see through interrogating the websites, Exeter stands out as rare (in a good way) for teaching dialect systematically before the year abroad.

I understood they did but am not certain. Year abroad is also year 2 so I would understand if they focussed on msa and left dialect to Jordan and then consolidated that in y3 (and yr4 they intern abroad for a period).
also the Sheiks scholarships enable them to travel in the holidays to use their Arabic and hone dialects locally

I’m very interested to see how big the cohort is as that info isn’t easy to find and will certainly update

@Casparina - elder DD is studying Arabic from scratch at Edinburgh. All the students learn MSA and then in the second year they additionally learn the dialect relevant to the country in which they will be spending their third year. At Edinburgh, I think the possibilities were Egyptian, Jordanian and Moroccan Arabic as these were all possible 3rd year destinations. Perhaps one other. And perhaps it varies depending on available teachers and placements.

Not sure of numbers but i have the sense it’s a really nice number: enough people for there to be a buzz about it but also a small enough cohort that they can really get to know each other and have quite intensive teaching. DD is loving it and I get the impression her classmates really enjoy it also. Good luck to your DD.

Hi @casparina! I can’t answer all your questions yet but here is a bit more info out of Exeter. Bear in mind it is the first teaching week. DD says that there are about 15 or so people studying Arabic in her cohort (either as the Masters in Arabic or joint honours with politics, other languages or history), who will be going to Jordan for year abroad next year. There are others doing ME and Islamic studies without Arabic. She has about 11hrs of Arabic language study a week (2hrs 40m a day 4 days a week) and she has chosen another regional language as an optional module so has I think 5.5 hrs a week in that (1hr 50m 3x week). You can do Persian or Turkish or another European language or non-language options. She then has her non-language compulsory modules on top which is about another 4 hrs a week so it is pretty full on.

I don’t know when and to what extent dialect teaching starts, nor does she yet.

She is really enjoying what little she has seen of her cohort so far, thinks they are all really nice, but hasn’t worked out everyone’s back story yet. She does say she doesn’t think hardly anybody can read Arabic except her so I doubt there is a big Dubai cohort.

Hope that helps, I’ll post more as I learn more. She isn’t the most forthcoming!!

That’s brilliant information @Delphigirl- thank you so much. Definitely a busy schedule with lots of contact time. Sounds as though your DD is off to a great start!

@Dery My apologies for having overlooked your post, which is very helpful and encouraging on the Edinburgh front. DD is really looking forward to their open day in late October.

From another thread I think you have a DD starting an Arabic combined honours at Durham too? I’d be really interested to hear what she thinks when she’s got going with it there. One concern we had was that they (technically?) need to apply at some point to be put onto the year-abroad track (for the Arabic and Pol/IR combo DD would be under the Combined Honours in Social Sciences rubric which is officially only a 3-year course). Do you know whether all students with Arabic in their combined honours get accepted for the year abroad?

@Casparina - that’s on my mind also.

I don’t know the answer but i’m hoping they do all get accepted on the year abroad.

DD is on the Liberal Arts rubric which is 3 or 4 years. She has various briefings this week so hopefully it will be clearer soon and i will let you know. DD is very independent-minded and not particularly communicative so i’m not sure when i’ll know the answer - feel free to chase if i’ve not updated in the next week or so!

In case it’s relevant, DD’s other subject is philosophy and Durham is one of only 3 unis (not including Edinburgh) where she could combine that with Arabic and hopefully have a year abroad in an Arabic-speaking country (she couldn’t achieve that at Exeter because the Flexible Combined Honours rubric only allows for a third year abroad but Arabic students go in the second year).

Thanks so much, @Dery