Undergraduate

Overview

Broaden your horizons

Are you interested in the world's fastest growing economy? Have you ever wondered why politics and religion seem to be inseparable in the Middle East? Would you like to learn more about Japanese film and literature?

All these topics and more are offered at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, where the areas of study range geographically from the Mediterranean to the Pacific, and in time from the classical era to the present day.

There are no specific subject requirements and no prior knowledge of any of the languages is expected from applicants (Part I is designed to accommodate beginners) - it's more important to do some exploratory reading (see the Faculty website for suggestions).

Flexibility: our range of options

Our course is flexible and numerous options and combinations are available.

• You can study Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese or Persian.
• You can combine Arabic, Hebrew and Persian with each other or with a modern European language (providing you have an A Level/IB Higher Level in the European language), Egyptology or Assyriology. You can take Arabic or Hebrew on their own, but Persian must be combined with another language.
• Chinese and Japanese cannot ordinarily be combined, except with each other in Part II.

You should indicate which language(s) you’re interested in studying in your Supplementary Application Questionnaire (SAQ). The choice isn’t absolute, and some students change direction before they start or as they progress.

Chinese Studies provides you with a good fluency in modern Chinese (Mandarin), knowledge of literary and classical Chinese, and a critical understanding of the rich variety of Chinese culture.

If you choose Japanese Studies, you'll master the spoken and written forms of the modern Japanese language and gain a comprehensive understanding of Japan, its rich and varied culture, its society and its vital role in world affairs.

Arabic Studies and Persian Studies seek to give you a deeper understanding of the Middle East and Islam, their rich heritage and their contribution to world knowledge.

Hebrew Studies encompasses both classical (Biblical) and modern Hebrew and its literature, as well as modern Middle Eastern history and culture, and other languages such as Aramaic.

Individuality: our teaching approach

Our Faculty is small in size, the advantage being that teaching mainly takes place in small groups and, as such, is geared to your needs.

In Part I, you get a thorough grounding in the language(s) of your choice (modern and classical). You can also study (depending on the subject) the literature, history, religion, politics, anthropology and society of your region so as deepen your understanding and expertise.

You spend your third year abroad, studying or working in a country where the language you're learning is spoken. In the fourth year, greater specialisation is possible and you write a dissertation on a topic of your choice.

Living and learning abroad

The year abroad is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in the culture you're studying and to improve your language skills.

Chinese and Japanese Studies students spend the year studying at a university in the appropriate country. Arabic, Persian and Hebrew Studies students have some choice of which country they go to and, to a certain extent, what they do. In the past, students have studied at a university, taught, and worked for companies or charities.

Changing course

It's possible to change course after Part I. In recent years, undergraduates have successfully changed to modern languages, Law, and Human, Social, and Political Sciences.

Versatility: your choice of careers

The range of career options open to graduates is vast. Besides those who go into research, many graduates use their subject directly in subsequent employment. Examples include journalism, business and commerce, teaching overseas, the Civil Service (especially the Foreign Office), NGOs, or international scientific agencies.

Even if you choose not to stay in a related field, employers are often impressed by your choice to study a difficult language. Our graduates have also gone into banking, marketing, law, and one runs a successful travel agency specialising in tours of China.

Course outline

Teaching is through lectures, seminars and classes, and supervisions, and you can typically expect 10-12 hours of teaching each week (dependent on papers/languages studied).

You take four papers in Year 1, five in Year 2, and four papers (five in Chinese Studies) and a dissertation of 12,000 words in your final year.

Assessment varies from paper to paper but may include written, translation, oral and/or listening examinations, and coursework.

Entry requirements

Typical offers require
A Level: A*AA
IB: 40-41 points, with 776 at Higher Level
For other qualifications, see our main Entrance requirements pages.

Further Resources

Find out more about Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Cambridge

• Course website - Explore Asian and Middle Eastern Studies in mor detail on the course website.
• Year abroad - Information about the third year of the AMES course, which is spent overseas.

Tools to help you with your Asian and Middle Eastern Studies application

• Funding opportunities - Details of the funds available to support AMES students.

Check out the specific resources for each of the subjects that make up Asian and Middle Eastern Studies:

Unistats info

Contextual Information

From September 2012, every undergraduate course of more than one year's duration will have a Key Information Set (KIS). The KIS allows you to compare 17 pieces of information about individual courses at different higher education institutions.

However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.

We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.

You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by the KIS.

1. The KIS relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it leads to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.
   
   Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases a KIS comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.


2. Whilst the KIS makes reference to some broad types of financial support offered by institutions, it cannot compare packages offered by different institutions. Different students have different circumstances and requirements, and you should weigh up what matters to you most: level of fee; fee waivers; means-tested support such as bursaries; non-means-tested support such as academic scholarships and study grants; and living costs such as accommodation, travel.


3. The KIS provides a typical cost of private (ie non-university) accommodation. This is very difficult to estimate as prices and properties vary. University accommodation can be substantially cheaper, and if you are likely to live in College for much or all of the duration of your course (as is the case at Cambridge), then the cost of private accommodation will be of less or no relevance for you. The KIS also provides the typical annual cost of university accommodation and the number of beds available. Note that since most universities offer a range of residential accommodation, you should check with institutions about the likelihood of securing a room at a price that suits your budget. Knowing the number of beds available is not necessarily useful: it may be much more important to find out if all students are guaranteed accommodation.


4. Time in lectures, seminars and similar can vary enormously by institution depending on the structure of the course, and the quality of such contact time should be the primary consideration.


5. Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression.

The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the KIS data.