History and Modern Languages

The History and Modern Languages (HML) course lasts four years. When you apply, you can choose to study a language from scratch (ab initio) or post-A Level or equivalent.

First year students take core language papers (including writing, translation, and oral skills), and a paper exploring cultural topics in your chosen language. On the historical side, you also take two history papers chosen from a broad variety covering different periods of European and world history and political thought. In second year, you continue to develop your language skills through further core papers, and combine these with a) a paper chosen from a wide range of literary, historical, cultural, or linguistic topics in your language area, b) a history paper, and c) a further specialist paper from either subject.

Your third year is spent abroad, either studying or working, and you will also work on a project relating to the culture, thought, history, or politics of your language area. Having spent the year immersed in your language, you then have an oral examination when you return from your year abroad. In your fourth and final year, you take five papers: two core language papers, a third paper on an area of culture or history related to your language, a history paper focusing on a particular period, region or theme, and a fifth paper that can be a specialist paper from either your language area or from history.

History and Modern Languages is taught at Cambridge by way of University-based lecture courses and College-based supervisions. The relationship between the two is co-ordinated by the College’s Director of Studies who arranges your supervisions each term and oversees your academic studies.

For more information about the course and its modules, visit the University website.

If you are applying for a post-A Level language, the College admissions assessment consists of a discursive response in the foreign language (40 minutes) and a discursive response in English (20 minutes). If you are applying for a language from scratch (ab initio), the College admissions assessment consists of a discursive response in English (40 minutes) and a language aptitude test (20 minutes).

We ask for two pieces of written work; if you're applying to study History and a language that you’ve already studied at A Level or equivalent, one of these pieces should be in that language. Otherwise, they should be drawn from your A Level or equivalent work, or from an EPQ. The work should be in essay format, with a word limit of up to 1,500 words for each piece. Strong history essays are driven by arguments backed up with specific evidence, usually from a mixture of primary and secondary sources; written work that shows these qualities is particularly helpful for us to see what you can do.

Shortlisted applicants for History and Modern Languages at King’s will have two interviews, one for each half of the degree and each lasting around 25 minutes. 

The History interview will be a broad discussion about your interest in studying History at university, to explore how you think as a historian; this interview may also involve a source-based exercise, for which no prior preparation is required.

For the Modern Languages interview, you will be given a passage to read beforehand. If you’re applying to study a language that you’re already studying at school, this will be in the language; if you’re starting a language from scratch, it will be in English. We’ll ask you to read and think about this passage, and then talk through it together with you during the interview. We’ll also discuss why you’re interested in studying languages and cultures at university. If you’re applying to study a language that you’re already studying at school, we’ll also have a short conversation in that language. 

While each interview tests the different skills required for the History and Modern Languages degree, both interviews are – above all – conversations. In the Modern Languages interview, we are more interested in seeing how you respond to words and concepts you may not be familiar with; in the History interview, similarly, we’re less interested in what you already know about the past than in the ways you might expand, refine, and reframe that knowledge going forward.

We look for students who are academically curious, have explored their interests outside of their school or college curriculum, and are ready to be challenged. We are also looking for students who can demonstrate an aptitude for language learning.

Show us why you are interested in the subject – what intellectual excitement it has for you. Interrogate the relationship between History and the language you have chosen.

You can find our more about HML by visiting the University website, the Faculty of History website, and the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics website. If you are interested in exploring the different subjects that make up HML, you can read more about History and Modern and Medieval Languages at King’s.

King’s also runs Open Days if you'd like a taste of what studying here is really like.

Our History Fellows have discussed their research as part of our King's of Curiosity podcast series, hosted by our Provost. Hear Marcus Boick talk about the history of Germany or Peter Frankopan and Carrie Humphrey explore the Silk Roads. They make perfect super-curricular activities!