Linguistics (Study Abroad)

BA Hons

  • UCAS code Q103
  • Entry year 2026 or 2025
  • A level requirements AAB
  • Duration Full time 4 years
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We welcome applications from the United States of America

We've put together information and resources to guide your application journey as a student from the United States of America.

Overview

Top reasons to study with us

  • 3

    3rd for Linguistics

    The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide (2025)

  • 4th for Graduate Prospects (Linguistics) Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025

  • World top three for Linguistics QS World University Subject Rankings 2024

Live, love and deceive – language is how we do it all and linguistics is the study of language. Whether conducting experiments in child language acquisition, using big data to analyse how anti-vaccine discourses take hold in social media, or comparing how languages structure knowledge, you will study with researchers at the forefront of computational, corpus, and forensic linguistics and more.

Why Lancaster?

  • Study with the best. Linguistics at Lancaster University is ranked 3rd in the world by QS 2024
  • Explore language functions across a range of contexts including business, law, politics, health and literature
  • Learn from linguistic experts, famous for their work in corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics, stylistics, discourse analysis and speech science
  • Benefit from world-leading facilities including our phonetics lab, eye-tracking lab, perception and learning lab, and EEG lab
  • Gain valuable work experience through volunteering opportunities or work on live projects through our paid research internships
  • Choose to study with academics who are leading innovations at the forefront of specialist fields

Real world applications

Linguists at Lancaster take pride in the practical applications of their work as well as its academic significance. Research on phonetics, grammar and pragmatics informs work of medicine, marketing and speech sciences as well as work in forensics and policy-making.

You might explore how language works in non-human systems such as speech technologies and AI and discover what is required to develop them. You could be using big data to analyse how ideas go viral on social media, whether or not they are grounded in fact, or study the theorised connections between language, mind and culture as explored using brain imaging technologies.

Through explorations such as these, you will discover your personal interests, while being supported to think about what comes after your degree and how to develop the skills needed by future employers.

Answering fundamental questions

Studying linguistics at Lancaster is exciting opportunity to work with our enthusiastic, accessible academics and learn from their impressive knowledge. They will encourage you to think critically about vital questions relating to how language is used in the world around us, such as:

  • Where does language come from and what is it made of?
  • How do the world’s languages vary and how does the language you speak shape your experiences?
  • How is language learned and how can it be impaired?
  • How can technology be harnessed to study patterns in the way language is used?

Through exploring these questions, you will look at how language functions across a broad range of contexts, giving you a well-rounded understanding of language and linguistics from a global perspective.

Develop a specialist skill set

This course will provide you with a skill set that opens doors to a range of exciting and rewarding careers. You will develop transferable skills that include a capacity for critical thinking, an ability to gather, organise and analyse large quantities of data, and an aptitude for generating new and innovative ideas.

You’ll have the chance to develop specialist skills in the lexical and grammatical analysis of real and constructed languages, the acoustic analysis of speech, and computer programming for language technologies, skills valued by current and emerging industries which capitalise on generative AI.

There are plenty of opportunities to build on your skills outside of the classroom. Each year we invite current students to apply for a research internship. These are paid roles in which our students work closely with academic members of staff on active research projects. You would gain advanced research skills that are valuable in a variety of employment settings. Recently, our students have worked as interns on the following projects:

  • What makes language(s) easier or harder to learn?
  • Analysing AI-Generated Speech
  • The role of creativity and working memory in second language writing performance

Which course?

We offer degrees in Linguistics, English Language, and Language Sciences. Which programme is right for you depends on your interests.

Linguistics

Our Linguistics degree is focussed on general principles of language, including its properties, development, variation and use.

English Language

Our English Language degree focusses on how these issues relate to English in particular, including the sounds and structures of English, its history, its regional and global varieties, and its use in areas like politics, the media, and advertising.

Language Sciences

Discover the fascinating science of language – from how children acquire language skills to how machines comprehend and produce language.

Linguistics and English Language

Our combined degree Linguistics and English Language gives you the best of both worlds.

Meet our staff

Get to know some members of our staff. In the videos they give brief insights into their research interests and teaching.

Sam Kirkham

Dr Sam Kirkham discusses articulatory phonetics, demonstrating how ultrasound technology allows us to observe the dance of the tongue during speech production.

Claire Nance

Professor Claire Nance discusses sounds of the world’s languages using ‘r’ as an example, which articulatorily complex and varies in its articulation across different languages.

Chris Hart

Professor Christopher Hart discusses linguistic relativity and the language of Tzeltal, which describes object locations as uphill, downhill or across the hill rather than using words for left and right.

George Brown

Dr George Brown discusses computational linguistics and its contributions to speech technology including text-to-speech conversion and AI.

Claire Hardaker

Dr Claire Hardaker discusses forensic linguistics and the different tasks that forensics linguists perform for the police, including authorship analysis and profiling.

Your year abroad

A student sitting in front of a suspension bridge on a sunny day.

Study abroad

The study abroad option is an exciting opportunity for anyone who is thinking of working abroad during their career or who simply wants the experience of living and studying overseas as part of their degree.

Often study abroad students describe the year abroad as a “transformative experience”, as it can shape your future career path as well as having a positive impact on your personal development.

Study abroad - Lancaster students
Sunway University

Experience and skills

On a study abroad course, you'll spend two years at Lancaster before going overseas in your third year to study at one of our international partner universities. This will help you to

  • develop your global outlook
  • expand your professional network
  • increase your cultural awareness
  • develop your personal skills.

You’ll return to Lancaster for your final year of study in year four.

Ayers Rock, Australia

Host universities

During your year abroad, you will choose specialist modules relating to your degree and potentially other modules offered by the host university that are specialisms of that university and country. 

The places available at our overseas partners vary every year. In previous years destinations for students in the Faculty have included Australia, USA, Canada, Europe and Asia.

Castle Hill in Lancaster

Alternative option

We will make reasonable endeavours to place students at an approved overseas partner university that offers appropriate modules. Occasionally places overseas may not be available for all students who want to study abroad or the place at the partner university may be withdrawn if core modules are unavailable.

If you are not offered a place to study overseas, you will be able to transfer to the equivalent standard 3-year degree scheme and would complete your studies at Lancaster. Lancaster University cannot accept responsibility for any financial aspects of the year abroad.

Careers

A degree in linguistics gives you access to a range of exciting and rewarding career paths, in linguistics roles and much broader occupations and industries. In our increasingly digital world, we continuously see new and innovative professional roles being created.

Some of our graduates have become:

  • Speech and language therapists for the NHS and private sector organisations
  • Marketing professionals in large corporations and small businesses
  • Software engineers in the technology industry
  • Researchers in primatology and neuroscience labs

In the future, we expect our graduates to go on to roles in:

  • Developing chatbots
  • Improving the quality of AI-generated voices
  • Researching how humans interact with technology

This course also gives you the foundation for progressing into further study, with many graduates continuing to master’s and PhD study.

Careers and employability support

Our degrees open up an extremely wide array of career pathways in businesses and organisations, large and small, in the UK and overseas.

We run a paid internship scheme specifically for our arts, humanities and social sciences students, supported by a specialist Employability Team. The team offer individual consultations and tailored application guidance, as well as careers events, development opportunities, and resources.

Whether you have a clear idea of your potential career path or need some help considering the options, our friendly team is on hand.

Lancaster is unique in that every student is eligible to participate in The Lancaster Award which recognises activities such as work experience, community engagement or volunteering and social development. A valuable addition to your CV!

Find out more about Lancaster’s careers events, extensive resources and personal support for Careers and Employability.

Careers

Find out about some of the careers our alumni have entered into after graduation.

Entry requirements

These are the typical grades that you will need to study this course. You may need to have qualifications in relevant subjects. In some cases we may also ask you to attend an interview or submit a portfolio. You must also meet our English language requirements.

Find more about these qualifications and others not shown here

Learn about how we will assess your application

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Contact Admissions

If you are thinking of applying to Lancaster and you would like to ask us a question, please complete our enquiry form and one of our team will get back to you.

International foundation programmes

Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored foundation pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University degrees. Visit the INTO Lancaster University website for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.

Contextual admissions

Contextual admissions could help you gain a place at university if you have faced additional challenges during your education which might have impacted your results. Visit our contextual admissions page to find out about how this works and whether you could be eligible.

Course structure

Enhancing our curriculum

We continually review and enhance our curriculum to ensure we are delivering the best possible learning experience, and to make sure that the subject knowledge and transferable skills you develop will prepare you for your future.

We will publish more detailed information about the structure of this degree course for 2026-entry in June 2025, ahead of our summer undergraduate open days. This will include overviews of the core modules you will take and examples of optional modules which may be available to you.

Fees and funding

We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2026/27 entry fees have not yet been set.

As a guide, our fees in 2025/26 were:

Home International
£9,535 £24,700

Fees and funding information

Additional fees and funding information accordion

Scholarships and bursaries

Details of our scholarships and bursaries for students starting in 2026 are not yet available.

You can use our scholarships for 2025-entry applicants as guidance.

Important information

The information on this site relates primarily to 2026/2027 entry to the University and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.

The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.

More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.

Our Students’ Charter

We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. View our Charter and other policies.

Undergraduate open days 2025

Our summer and autumn open days will give you Lancaster University in a day. Visit campus and put yourself in the picture.

Undergraduate Open Days
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