Classical Civilisation degree

[Han23]

Hello Any university recommendations for Classical Civilisation (without languages) 2026 please. Hoping to reach AAB with hard work 🙏

DD applied for this to Brum and Warwick. Offers were AAB IIRC.

We went to a brilliant subject talk at Warwick where they said there was no requirement for specific A levels, but that most of their students took humanities or languages. But they did say someone with three sciences could still apply!

The course DD applied for required you to take Greek or Latin ab initio and needed a language at GCSE. Actually DD took MFL A level but that was not required. Would your DC be looking for a course with no language at all? Did they take MFL GCSE?

DD loved the look of the course but in the end firmed her other option. Best of luck!

Bristol and Exeter are both options at AAB (Classical Studies) and both good options.

My DD is going to Kings/KCL in a few weeks, and the requirement for Classical Studies or Classics and the Ancient World (which she is doing) is AAB? One of the best departments for the subject in the UK and the campus and library are stunning. They have an open day coming up on 3rd Sept if you wanted to book in! (My DS is visiting the physics dept…)

What would be the point with no willingness to engage with either Latin or Greek?

Undergraduate study is usually the first opportunity students have to work with original sources. Did you really mean a course where they would spend three years only looking at translations?

(I may have misunderstood!)

Not all degrees require studying Latin or Greek - at KCL it is optional (though my DD is aiming to study Latin to at least intermediate level). My DD doesn't have either language at A Level or GCSE.

Classical civilisation is not a course focused on reading and studying Latin and Greek texts in the original language: it looks at the history, architecture, the way Roman law influences contemporary law, political theory/the development of democratic structures, how the plays/texts influence contemporary drama and fiction (the hero’s journey approach to plotting novels, the three act structure to plays/film etc). You don’t need to be able to read texts in the original latin or Greek to be able to appreciate the translations or their impact on contemporary culture.

A good friend of mine took Classics at KCL and loved it. Excellent dept as mentioned by others.

That or Cambs.

If she’s looking for an insurance option (I just checked and it’s BBB), my goddaughter just graduated with a classics degree from Reading and absolutely loved it. It’s a very broad course.

No idea but it sounds a really interesting degree and something I had never heard of!

Reading was our insurance option too - it has a great course and excellent feedback from students. My Godsons both went to Reading recently (business and economics, not classics) and the pastoral care and student life was excellent - the eldest started in Covid so got stuck in halls for a year but still had a great time and chose to live in with his fellow inmates than go home. LOL

Appreciate what you’re saying, @CautiousLurker01 (and obviously I have no influence over what universities choose to teach 😂) but as a sometime historian / lawyer / dramatist (degrees and professions) I just can’t see how the story of a civilisation can be divorced from its language, when it’s language that forms a civilisation. You look at a word or a sentence structure and discover why each one of the things you listed came to exist in the way they did.

<Wanders away, muttering dejectedly.>

I think you may be muddling ‘Classics’ (which is the study of Latin and Greek texts) with Classical Studies which is an interdisciplinary degree looking at the art, history and philosophy of the era?

Nope …

She's not in the slightest muddled. It's like studying French Civilisation and not learning a word of French. The UK is becoming a nation of monoglots and that saddens me.

Intellectual snobbery aside, @Han23 my DD is starting in a few weeks at KCL and if your DD has any questions about the course/modules/her experience of KCL as a fresher please feel free to DM and I can ask her and/or feed back.

Er my classics degree, as well as both languages, included art, archaeology, history, philosophy and of course politics too, you can't escape the relevance. I didn't just sit there reading Sophocles for 3 years.

Yes. this was the experience my husband and I had, as did our daughter 30+ years later.

But doesn't that lead to a Western Gaze over focus on Greek and Roman civilisations?

Thanks for the helpful comments - those unis sounds good. Any thoughts on Leeds/Newcastle for classical civilisation too? Many thanks

Everywhere mentioned has been a sound choice, including Leeds and Newcastle.

I did classical languages at A level and had had enough at that point so did Ancient & Modern History at Oxford so I understand a reluctance to do them although it is a pity. I'd say the gold standard course without languages is Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at Oxford but the offer (if you pass the exam and interview) is AAA. Next level down - Durham, St Andrews and KCL and UCL - one of those might be an aspirational application. Edinburgh Birmingham and Manchester probably next - probably ABB offer and might accept BBB. My daughter is reading Ancient History at Nottingham and absolutely loves it - the courses are very flexible and she has taken a very wide range of options - not just straight history - and she was adamant she would not do any language options. She had an unconditional offer with A* B and D (with extenuating circumstances for the latter) so might be worth considering as an insurance. I'd say Newcastle would be similar - is considered good for Classics.

She might like to look at Ancient History courses as well.

Just to add my thoughts on the language debate – when DD (and I) went to her class civ offer day at Warwick it was combined with a classics offer day and all the people there* for that had studied Latin or Greek or often both at A level. That was a course with a very different expectation from the class civ one.

(*there were not very many of them!)

(ETA I have discovered that if you want actual asterisks or stars rather than bolding you can add them in an edit and they stay as stars)

The responses to this thread:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/education/5402199-what-has-been-the-most-important-school-subject-in-your-adult-life?reply=146818765

have been interesting …

I studied classical civilisation at Leeds around 2010. I loved it, busy course (in terms of numbers of students taking it) great options including ancient magic which was an eye opener, and ancient history in the movies which was nice and light hearted compared to hours of Catullus and his obsession with penis metaphors. Jokes aside I found it a really interesting course, with an interesting array of professors who absolutely loved their subjects matter and excellent academics supporting or leading on seminars. The social club was a bit too nerdy and geeky for me, numerous private school kids, but loved it all the same. I loved we were in the old Parkinson building, studying felt very sophisticated and academic in the big old library.

whilst I was pally with my course mates, I connected more with my hobby friends and house mates. Leeds was a wonderful time in my life and I miss it even now. I’m still very close with several friends and met my husband there. We went back recently and the campus is marvellous now.

as for careers post degree, I got a 2:1 then went on to NHS management and now am a senior nhs manager. Course mates did law conversion courses and went into Law, teaching, several got grad schemes such as KPMG etc, several in the civil service, handful went on for masters and PHD level I think.

ive found it to be a well respected and interesting course, great conversation starter and I was able to explore subject matters that interested me (for the most part). I didn’t have to take a language but there were “options” to take modules. I’d done Ancient Greek to a-level and Latin to GCSE. Or the other way round. Can’t remember. Both were only marginally helpful in the literature based modules, but the context was easily understood without knowing the language.

I think part of the issue is many state pupils don't have the option to take Latin or Greek A levels (or even GCSE), so would be disadvantaged when compared to private school candidates. Classics was my favourite and best subject at school, I wasn't allowed to take it at A level as my Latin O' level grade wasn't high enough. Still salty about that now!