skip to content

Undergraduate Study

 

History and Modern Languages at Cambridge is a joint degree that gives you the opportunity to combine the study of languages, culture and history.

Language options include German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian. As part of the course, you’ll spend a year abroad perfecting and practicing your language while you study, teach or work.

Container

Overview

Number 1 in the UK for History (The Complete University Guide 2025)

History and Modern Languages at Cambridge

This course gives you an insight into the cultures of other countries. You'll also develop an understanding of the past and present in global contexts.

This 4-year course includes intensive study in:

  • language
  • culture
  • film
  • the history of political thought
  • a wide variety of modern British, European, American and world history

Like other language students, you’ll spend your third year abroad. Studying or working in another country, you'll be able to immerse yourself in the language, culture and history around you. 

Languages you can study alongside History 

If you have no experience of a language, you’ll study it from the very beginning.

If you do have an A level or IB Higher Level in the language, it will not be new to you so you can carry on studying it at a more advanced level.

If you have no experience of the language or an A level/IB Higher Level in the language, you can study:

  • History and German
  • History and Italian
  • History and Portuguese
  • History and Russian
  • History and Spanish

You can also study:

  • History and French, if you have A level or IB Higher Level in the language

You can say which language you’re interested in when you complete My Cambridge Application.

Teaching and facilities

Teaching

The staff in History and Modern Languages are internationally renowned for their excellence in research and teaching. 

Facilities

You'll have access to both the Faculty of History and Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics facilities. They include:  

  • the Faculty of History’s Seeley collection, with 95,000 books, periodicals, theses and an audio-visual collection 
  • the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics library, with 118,000 books and 3,500 videos, and audio recordings on literature, film, history and thought of key language areas, from the Middle Ages to the present day 
  • the Computer Assisted Language Learning centre, which includes a Media Centre, and phonetics lab 
  • a dedicated Year Abroad Office 
  • College libraries across the University, with excellent collections and online resources  

You'll also have access to the Cambridge University Library, one of the world’s oldest university libraries.

Course costs

When you go to university, you’ll need to consider two main costs – your tuition fees and your living costs (sometimes referred to as maintenance costs).

Your living costs will include costs related to your studies that are not covered by your tuition fees. There are some general study costs that will apply for all students.

Find out more about general study costs.

Other additional course costs for History and Modern Languages are detailed below. If you have any queries about these costs, please contact the Faculty.

Books and set texts

All required reading is held in University and College libraries or available online, but you may choose to buy some books, such as language text books or literary texts for close study. The costs for these books will vary but will typically be up to £50 per year.

Printing and photocopying

You may need to do some printing and photocopying. The use of the printers in the Faculty costs 5p per A4 sheet in black and white, and 20p per A4 sheet in colour.

Field trips and study abroad

  • Year abroad in Year 3: you will be expected to cover daily living costs and any travel costs associated with the year abroad, at a level that would have been incurred whilst studying in Cambridge. Visit our tuition fees page to find out more about tuition fees on your year abroad. For most UK/EU students and most Year Abroad activities, the normal student loans are available to cover maintenance costs and fees. Find out more about year abroad costs on the Faculty website.
  • If you choose to write an optional dissertation in a historical field in the fourth year of your degree, you may have additional costs in researching the dissertation, for example for travelling to archives. Some departmental and College funding may be available to cover these costs.

Careers and graduate options

When you graduate you’ll have advanced language skills and experience of living abroad. You'll also have other transferable skills that many employers value such as reading critically, speaking and writing with clarity, dealing with information, and working independently and with others.

Recent graduates have progressed to careers in:

  • media
  • PR
  • law
  • public administration
  • consultancy
  • teaching
  • charity sector

This course also provides good preparation for further study in either history or modern languages.

Course outline

Teaching

Teaching is provided through a mixture of lectures, intensive language classes, seminars and small-group supervisions. 

You'll usually have 14 hours of teaching each week.  

You’ll also complete translation and essay assignments and supervision essays which you’ll discuss with a subject specialist.  

Assessment

Assessment is through written exams and coursework, plus an oral examination in your chosen language. You can complete a dissertation instead of an exam, in the fourth year. 

You will not usually be able to resit any of your exams. 

Year 1 (Part IA)  

You receive intensive language training, in grammar, translation and conversation.  

You also take 2 papers: 

  • one introductory paper about the literature, history, film and philosophy of the country where your language is spoken 
  • one History Outline paper on a selection of topics ranging from ancient and medieval societies to the twentieth-century world

You'll take the Introduction to Historical Thinking paper in your College.  

Year 2 (Part IB) 

You continue to improve your language skills and take 3 further papers: 

  • one paper related to your language, such as literature, history, linguistics, film, art or thought 
  • one history paper, with a European or global focus
  • one further paper from either Modern Languages or History

You can choose to do a research project instead of sitting the exam for one of these papers. 

Year 3 and 4 (Part II) 

In the third year you: 

  • go abroad to study, teach or work as an intern in a country where your chosen language is spoken 
  • research and write an 8,000-word year abroad project, normally on a topic related to the history of the country you’re staying in

In the fourth year you: 

  • continue with advanced language work 
  • take 3 specialised papers in Modern Languages and History, from a range of topics, areas and periods  

You can write a dissertation on a historical or cultural topic instead of taking an exam in one of the specialised papers. 

For further information about this course and the papers you can take see the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics website.

Changing course

It’s really important to think carefully about which course you want to study before you apply. 

In rare cases, it may be possible to change course once you’ve joined the University. You will usually have to get agreement from your College and the relevant departments. It’s not guaranteed that your course change will be approved.

You might also have to:

  • take part in an interview
  • complete an admissions test
  • produce some written work
  • achieve a particular grade in your current studies
  • do some catch-up work
  • start your new course from the beginning 

For more information visit the Faculty website.

You can also apply to change to:

You can't apply to this course until you're at Cambridge. You would usually apply when you have completed one year or more of your original Cambridge course.

You should contact your College’s Admissions Office if you’re thinking of changing your course. They will be able to give you advice and explain how changing courses works.

Entry requirements
The listed entry requirements relate to entry in 2026 or deferred entry in 2027.

Minimum offer level

A level: A*AA
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept.

To apply to any of our Colleges for History and Modern Languages, you will need A level/IB Higher Level (or the equivalent) in: 

  • History 
  • the language you want to study (if you will not be studying it from scratch) 

If you’re not taking History but are able to demonstrate that you have developed other, equivalent skills by taking other relevant subjects, or through independent subject exploration, you should contact the admissions office of your shortlisted Colleges for advice. 

If you’re not taking a modern language at A Level or IB Higher Level, you can apply for all options except French. You will study your chosen language ‘ab initio’ (from scratch).

College entry requirements

The following Colleges usually set offers at the minimum offer level. They may sometimes ask for higher grades or an A* in a particular subject:

  • Clare
  • Downing
  • Emmanuel
  • Fitzwilliam
  • Girton
  • Homerton
  • Hughes Hall
  • Jesus
  • Magdalene
  • Newnham
  • Peterhouse
  • Robinson
  • Sidney Sussex
  • St Catharine's
  • St Edmund's
  • St John’s
  • Trinity
  • Trinity Hall
  • Wolfson

The following Colleges have extra subject requirements and/or set additional conditions. For example, they may make a higher offer or specify an A* in a particular subject. For more information check the College websites:

Colleges set additional offer requirements for a range of reasons. If you'd like to find out more about why we do this, check the information about offers above the minimum requirement on the entry requirements page.

IB offers

Some Colleges usually make offers above the minimum offer level. Find out more on our qualifications page.

Admission assessment

There is an admission assessment at all Colleges for this course. You do not need to register in advance.

Check the College admission assessments page for more information. 

Submitted work

You will need to submit 2 pieces of written work.

These should be recent examples of writing completed for school. If you are applying for a post A level language, 1 piece of written work should be in the language you intend to study.

What History and Modern Languages students have studied

Most History and Modern Languages students (who had studied A levels and started at Cambridge in 2018, 2019 and 2023) achieved at least A*A*A (83% of entrants).

All of these students took History and most took a language.

Other common subjects included:

  • English (Language, Language & Literature, or Literature)
  • Mathematics

This information shows some of the common subjects our applicants have studied. Although these are common subject combinations, this doesn't mean they're favoured. 

When you're choosing your post-16 subjects, it's most important to check whether any subjects are required for your course. You can also check our guidance on choosing your high school subjects for more information.

All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries.

Next steps

Discover your department or faculty

Explore our Colleges

Visit us on an open day

Find out how to apply

Discover Uni

Discover Uni data

Contextual information

Discover Uni allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions.  This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.

However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.

We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.

You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Discover Uni.

  1. Discover Uni relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.

    Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Discover Uni comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Discover Uni data.

  2. Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes.  When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Discover Uni offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://discoveruni.gov.uk/about-our-data/.

  3. Discover Uni draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data.  Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Discover Uni is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.

The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Discover Uni data.

Key information

Minimum offer level 
A level: A*AA
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
UCAS code 
VR18
Course length 
BA (Hons) 4 years full-time, including a year abroad
Start date 
October 2026
Study at 

All Colleges

Applicant numbers 
2024 cycle:
Application per place: 3
Accepted: 31
Contact email 
hml@mmll.cam.ac.uk
Contact telephone 
01223 335000