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Our department was the first to offer Italian Studies in the UK and is the only one to have a writer-in-residence on the staff.
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Staff include experts in all periods of Italian literature, as well as historians, cultural historians and linguists.
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Exceptional resources for Italian studies are available in the UCL
Library, including five special collections on Italian studies, and a substantial video library of Italian films.
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Together with the UCL Centre for Italian Studies, the department regularly welcomes distinguished visitors, including academics, critics, writers and actors.
Language study is compulsory throughout the programme and is designed to cater for those either with or without prior knowledge of the language. You will also take courses each year in areas such as literature, history, linguistics, culture, film and art, covering a large historical timespan. Your third year is spent in Italy, either at a university or on a teaching or work placement.
You may also take School of European Languages, Culture & Society
(ELCS) courses, which allow students to study literature, film, art and culture from outside their subject area(s), focusing on broad cultural movements, issues and approaches from an interdisciplinary perspective and drawing on the full range of specialisms within the school.
The final year is spent at UCL.
Italian language beginners are taught separately in the first year, and language classes remain streamed in the second year. Cultural courses in the first two years are taught mainly by lectures and tutorials.
Final-year topics, which reflect staff research specialisms, use seminar classes and student presentations to encourage participation and discussion.
You will be examined through continuous assessment, take-home essays, presentations and oral and unseen examinations. For some courses, you may choose between an extended essay and a formal examination. During your year abroad, you will follow courses at your chosen university and will take the associated examinations.
By the final year, we aim to equip you with spoken and written language skills similar to those of an educated Italian. The language and transferable skills developed throughout the degree can be applied in a wide variety of professions both in the UK and abroad.
Our graduates find employment in numerous areas, including teaching, media, journalism and other arts-related fields as well as in the commercial and industrial sectors. It is also open to students of the department with a good first degree to continue their studies in Italian at graduate level by way of taught MA programmes and by research leading to the degree of MPhil or PhD.
First career destinations of recent graduates (2010-2013) of this programme include:
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Trainee Interior Designer, Percy Bass Ltd.
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Senior Auditor, Deloitte
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Writer and Researcher, Chambers & Partners
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Marketing Assistant, Italian Chamber of Commerce
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Special Events Assistant, Royal Horticultural Society

In each year of your degree you will take a number of individual courses, normally valued at 0.5 or 1.0 credits, adding up to a total of 4.0 credits for the year. Courses are assessed in the academic year in which they are taken. The balance of compulsory and optional courses varies from programme to programme and year to year. A 1.0 credit is considered equivalent to 15 credits in the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
Compulsory courses
Italian Language 1
Optional courses
You will select 3.0 credits from a wide range of optional courses. Options may include:
Background to Dante and Inferno
Introduction to Linguistics and Syntactic Theory
Italian Culture under Fascism
Italy, the First 150 years
Realism and Neo-Realism
Renaissance History and Art
Risorgimento Histories
ELCS Intermediate Level courses
Compulsory course
Italian Language 2
Optional courses
You will select 3.0 credits from a wide range of optional courses. Options may include:
Dante: Purgatorio
Docudrama in Contemporary Italian Cinema
Issues in Italian Syntax
Italian Literature 1865-1925
Italian Romanticism
Italy Since 1915: The Short Twentieth Century
Renaissance Authors: Machiavelli and Castiglione
The Italian Novel 1900-1950
ELCS Intermediate Level courses
Year abroad
Students currently complete a 4,000-word Year Abroad Project in the target language, and:
Any assessment required by a host university (if participating in a university exchange), or:
A British Council Assistantship or work placement abroad.
Compulsory course
Italian Language 3
Optional courses
You will select 3.0 credits from a wide range of options. Options may include:
Cultures of Tradition and Modernity in Postwar Italy
Dante: Divina Commedia
From Futurism to Arte Povera: Art and Design in Twentieth Century Italy
Italian Twentieth Century Literature: The Short Story
Medieval Italian Lyric
Memory and History in Twentieth Century Italy
Michaelangelo: Painter, Sculptor and Poet
Nation, Culture and Society in Italy 1860-1915
Poesia Italian tra Otto e Novecento
The Contemporary Italian Novel
The Syntax of Information Structure
ELCS Advanced Level courses

A level grades
A level subjects
AS levels
GCSE
AAB
Foreign language preferred.
For UK-based students a pass in a further subject at AS level or equivalent is required.
English Language at grade B, plus Mathematics at grade C. For UK-based students, a grade C or equivalent in a foreign language (other than
Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew or Latin) is required. UCL provides opportunities to meet the foreign language requirement following enrolment, further details at: www.ucl.ac.uk/ug-reqs
IB points
Subjects
36
A score of 17 points in three higher level subjects, preferably including a foreign language, with no score lower than 5.
Full lists of all degree programmes and other entry requirements can be found on our website at: www.ucl.ac.uk/otherquals
UCL's Undergraduate Preparatory Certificates (UPCs) are intensive one-year foundation courses for international students of high academic potential, who are aiming to gain access to undergraduate degree programmes at UCL and other top UK universities.
For more information see our website: www.ucl.ac.uk/upc
Application for admission should be made through UCAS (the
Universities and Colleges Admissions Service). Applicants currently at school or college will be provided with advice on the process; however, applicants who have left school or who are based outside the United
Kingdom may obtain information directly from UCAS.
We welcome students with prior knowledge of Italian and also beginners: about half of the first-year intake begins studying Italian without previous experience. When considering your application, we look for evidence of an interest in Italian literature, culture or language structure, and enthusiasm for learning a modern language.
If your application demonstrates that your academic ability and motivation make you well-suited to our degree and you receive an offer, then we shall invite you to a post-offer Open Day, where you can experience the sort of teaching which we offer and life in SELCS.
UK/EU fee
Overseas fee
Notes
£9,000 (2016/17)
£16,130 (2016/17)
Details about financial support are available at: www.ucl.ac.uk/study/ug-finance
Contact
Email
Telephone
Prospectus entry
REF
Department
Faculty
Mrs Jo Wolff
Admissions Officer selcs.admissions@ucl.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7679 3096 www.ucl.ac.uk/prospectus/elcs
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PDF Updated: February 19, 2016
Information correct at time of going to press. See website (www.ucl.ac.uk/prospectus/elcs) for latest information