About us

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures (SMLC) embraces the subject areas of Comparative Literature, French, German, Hispanic Studies, Italian and Slavonic Studies.

The School seeks to foster a culture of excellence in research in each area of its activities, thereby fomenting an intellectual climate in which learning and teaching of the highest quality can be delivered. In doing so the School aims to participate fully in the University of Glasgow's mission which is to play a leading role in the intellectual, professional, commercial and cultural life of the local, national, and international communities to which it belongs and with which it interacts.

The School has around 40 members of academic staff teaching and researching (some of whom are native speakers) and is backed by native language teachers in all subject areas. Degree courses at Honours level are offered in Comparative Literature, French, German, Hispanic Studies, Italian, Russian and Spanish, often in combination with other subjects and, together with Czech, Polish, Portuguese and Slavonic Studies, as single courses within a General degree.

All staff are located in the recently refurbished Hetherington Building in Bute Gardens. Student facilities in the building include a fit for purpose and well stocked audio-visual library, computer cluster and student common room.

The Language Centre

The School's teaching is supported by the excellent technical resources in the Language Centre which is situated on the ground floor of the Hetherington Building.

The Language Centre Library provides a range of resources, facilities and training to all categories of users in support of the learning, teaching and research of the languages and cultures of the School, including a collection of digital, audio-visual and printed material.

Multimedia, Internet, CALL and satellite facilities are available on site for students of languages, backed up by self-access study, viewing, borrowing, reference and search facilities for the latest books, multimedia, audio and video language learning materials, language databases and resources.

Some 10,000 items are currently available in 60 languages at levels from beginner to advanced, which cater for basic language skills such as listening, pronunciation and speaking, languages for specific purposes such as telephone French, languages for specific professions such as law, commerce, medicine and engineering.