Department of German

Excellent in Teaching Quality Assessment

RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) 2008: ranked 1st in Scotland, 2nd equal in the UK

Ranked Second in the UK in The Complete University Guide 2010

The Department of German is a flourishing and active community with an intake of around 80 undergraduates a year and a growing postgraduate presence. With seven members of staff, a mixture of young and established scholars, a proven track record of teaching excellence and cutting-edge research in a number of disciplines, St Andrews is one of the few institutions in the UK able to offer such an imaginative, challenging, modern and diverse approach to the study of German.

At the heart of our undergraduate curriculum is a specially designed language teaching programme that caters for students who have already studied German as a main subject at school and for students who have done little or no German before they come to university. But in addition students at St Andrews have scope to follow their own particular interests by choosing from a broad range of course options that reflect and explore the enormously rich cultural heritage of the German-speaking lands, including: medieval studies, literature & society from the eighteenth century to the present day, linguistics, film and intellectual history.

Germany today is the political, economic, artistic and intellectual powerhouse of the European Union. Yet German is spoken not only in the Federal Republic, but in Austria, Switzerland and by minorities in several other countries as well. Knowledge of the mother tongue of 100 million people has never been more important for governments, businesses and private citizens, and students of German are therefore consistently amongst the most sought-after graduates for major employers.

• A wide variety of degree schemes lets students combine two or three languages, or link German with subjects as diverse as International Relations, Theology, or Management.
• German can be studied from scratch with no previous experience of the language. We offer language courses to our students at 6 levels (A1 - C2), which correspond to the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
• A four-year degree structure allows breadth of study across the range of German as a university subject and coverage in depth of language skills and cultural interests.
• A range of new language courses in all four years, tailored to students' needs, based on up-to-date materials and methods and largely taught by native-speaking tutors.
• Flexible options in work and study abroad, forming an integrated part of Honours degrees.
• The combination of advanced language skills, transferable skills with relevance to professional careers, and broad intellectual and cultural education.