• NEWS!
• About
• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate
• Staff
• Contact Us
• Events
• Alumni

Quand on lit trop vite ou trop doucement on n'entend rien.
(Blaise Pascal, Pensées)

French and Francophone Studies at Aberdeen

French has long been regarded as one of the centres of excellence in both research and teaching at the University of Aberdeen.  In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, French was once again ranked the no.1 department in Scotland, and  equal 4th in the UK along with Cambridge in terms of the proportion of publications, and the quality of the research environment and esteem indicators that have been classified as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. We are the only French department in the UK outside of Oxford and Cambridge to have maintained its high-ranking position in two successive RAE rounds.

We offer undergraduate language courses at all levels from beginners to final year, and a range of option courses covering film, contemporary civilization and culture, Francophone and post-colonial studies, philosophy, history, sociology, autobiography, linguistics, theatre, and most genres and periods of literature from the Middle Ages to the present day.  One of the strengths of the undergraduate degree programme is its flexibility, and the possibility it offers of combining French and Francophone studies with almost any other discipline, so you can tailor your degree to suit your own particular needs and interests.

As an integral part of an honours degree in French, you will spend a half-year or a full year in a French-speaking country, either working as a language assistant, or as a visiting student at one of the Erasmus and other institutions with whom we have exchange agreements (these include Lyon, Rennes, Grenoble, Réunion, Brussels, Geneva, Lausanne), or possibly on a work placement (several of our students each year go to work in the Paris and Pau offices of the oil company, Total).

French and Francophone studies are part of a thriving postgraduate and research culture. Members of staff enjoy international reputations, and the department has particular research strengths in the areas of twentieth-century literary theory, cultural studies, comparative literature, Francophone studies, Early Modern literature, eighteenth, language-teaching methodology, and medieval studies.  Staff take a leading role in a number of interdisciplinary taught master’s degrees and research centres, including the Centre for Early Modern Studies, Film and Visual Culture, and Comparative Literature.