BA Arabic and French in Manchester United Kingdom | The University of Manchester

The BA in Arabic and French is a four-year program featuring a year abroad split between a Middle Eastern nation and a French-speaking country. This dual-language course includes mandatory language components taught by native speakers, with optional specializations in business language, translation, and interpretation.

Additionally, you'll explore the culture, politics, history, literature, media, linguistics, and religion of these regions.

Arabic

This program enables you to develop near-fluency in modern Arabic while examining the language within its cultural and historical framework.
You'll explore Arab culture and literature spanning from medieval times to contemporary works, while gaining insights into social and cultural developments across the Arab world.
The curriculum offers diverse cultural studies throughout all years, covering Arab history, politics, literature, and visual arts, taught by experts in these disciplines.
The structured program allows gradual progression, with modern Arabic serving as a gateway to classical Arabic literature—both religious and secular—and providing a foundation for learning regional dialects.

French

More than 70% of our faculty are native French speakers, conducting both language and most cultural studies in French.
Weekly sessions include three hours of grammar and conversation training to achieve advanced fluency and accuracy, complemented by elective courses on Francophone history, politics, literature, media, and linguistics from the Renaissance to modern times.
Our longstanding partnership with Manchester's Alliance Française offers cultural activities year-round, including film screenings, lectures, theater performances, concerts, exhibitions, and intensive language workshops.
Collaboration with the Institut de Touraine in France's Loire Valley provides Easter and summer language courses suitable for all proficiency levels, from beginners to advanced students.

Our comprehensive curriculum consistently receives praise from external reviewers, with three faculty members honored with University Teaching Excellence Awards.

• Perfect your expertise in two languages and extend your knowledge of a wide range of countries and cultures.
• This is a 4-year degree course with an integrated Residence Abroad year. Usually, students on this course divide their time between two countries - one that is Arabic-speaking and one that is French-speaking. In 2025/26 there were opportunities for students to live in Jordan, Morocco, France, Belgium, Switzerland or Canada.
• Ranked a UK top-5 for African and Middle Eastern Studies by Complete University Guide 2025. In addition, the University of Manchester is a world-leading institution, ranked in the top-50 globally across all of Arts and Humanities by Times Higher Education 2025 .