About Us

About us

Welcome to one of the UK's most highly rated university departments for Asian Studies, ranked second in The Complete University Guide - Subject League Table 2025.

We teach undergraduate programmes in Chinese and Japanese, and offer a range of taught and research-led postgraduate programmes in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and East Asian Studies.

Undergraduate study

Choose from a range of four-year MA (Master of Arts) honours degrees in:

  • Chinese
  • Japanese

Multiple degree programmes are available, including single and joint honours combinations.

Each programme includes study abroad in Year 3. 

Postgraduate study

Take a taught or research programme. Choose from:

  • Chinese (Masters by Research and PhD)
  • East Asian Studies (taught masters and PhD)
  • Japanese (Masters by Research and PhD)
  • Korean (Masters by Research and PhD)

Beginners Asian languages for everyone

Open Language courses in Chinese, Business Chinese, Japanese and Korean are free to all University of Edinburgh students. You can take one at any stage of your undergraduate or postgraduate programme.

Each course lasts one semester and can be taken for 20 credits or for extra credit, depending on your other study commitments. Classes are suitable for complete beginners.

Find out more about Open Language courses

News and events

News and events

Graphic of a person with a phone and the words #3 in the UK World Top 15

QS World Rankings by Subject 2025

The University of Edinburgh is ranked 3rd in the UK for Modern Languages and Arts & Humanities.

Globally, we’re in the World Top 15: Arts & Humanities (10) and Modern Languages (13).

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings are based on research citations and the results of major global surveys of employers and academics.

They are International Ranking Expert Group (IREG) approved.

The Complete University Guide 2025

The University of Edinburgh is ranked 2nd for Asian Studies in The Complete University Guide - Subject League Table 2025.

The Complete University Guide ranks the best 130 universities in the UK on measures such as:

  • student satisfaction on undergraduate programmes (including Chinese and Japanese)
  • research quality 
  • graduate prospects

Research Excellence

Research Excellence

The University of Edinburgh is ranked Top 5 in the UK for research in Modern Languages.

As reported in Times Higher Education, the rankings are based on the quality and breadth of our research in Modern Languages.

They come from the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) – the UK’s system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions.

In addition to Modern Languages, research in Asian Studies was submitted to REF 2021 in the categories of Politics, Sociology, History and Theology.

This article was published on