Department of Italian

The Italian Department in St Andrews is one of the newest in the UK, but in just fifteen years has gained a very good reputation for the quality and range of its teaching, and the high calibre of its graduates. Italian culture, which shaped Europe in the middle ages and Italy was the cradle of the Renaissance, has offered through the centuries an enormous contribution to art and music. Italian literature, from Dante and Machiavelli to Pirandello, Montale and Umberto Eco, has been rich and influential.

The Italian Department in St Andrews offers particular expertise and experience in the teaching of Italian to complete beginners in the subject. Students with a Scottish Higher, A-Level, or other suitable pre-university qualification in Italian, follow a separate first year course tailored to their particular needs and experience. Language teaching at all levels in Italian takes place in relatively small groups. The structure of the Italian programme ensures that students receive a solid grounding in both the language and the culture of Italy. Skills of analysis and synthesis are developed through linguistic, literary and cultural study thanks to a wide range of our Honours options combining proven teaching expertise with a growing reputation for our scholarly research output.

Italian also offers a new taught MLitt Programme which aims to develop research skills to enable our students to move on to PG research studies and PhDs.