Undergraduate study | Persian

• You’ll complete a four-year Master of Arts (MA) honours degree. You can take Persian Studies as a single honours degree, or study Persian jointly with one of a range of other subjects, including Arabic.
• It doesn't matter whether you’re starting from scratch, or have some existing knowledge of Persian. Over the course of your four years, ​​​alongside the written and spoken language, you'll acquire a good knowledge of the Persian-speaking world, past and present, including its literature, culture, history, religion and politics.

Years 1 & 2

• Our programmes are very flexible. In your first two years, alongside language learning, you'll study a range of courses giving you a broad knowledge base and transferable skills. This may enable you to change the focus of your degree going into your final two (honours) years, which is when you start to specialise.

Years 3 & 4

• Your third year will potentially be spent in full, or in part, in a country where Persian is spoken, or at an approved institution elsewhere. This depends on the travel advice in place at the time.
• If international travel is not possible for Persian, you will be offered alternative ways of engaging with the Persian language and culture. 
• You will learn how to undertake your own research to the level of completing a dissertation in your final year. This is your chance to focus on a topic, period or discipline that’s of particular interest to you. We have an extensive range of honours courses to choose from on different aspects of Iran (including pre-Islamic Persia), Islam and the Middle East.
• In your final year, you will also continue to develop your translation and conversational skills in Persian.

Location

• You’ll be based at the heart of the University of Edinburgh, in the city’s historic centre. Our Georgian building has its own library and the Main University Library is just across the square from us, housing over 23,000 IMES resources, including Islamic manuscripts.

Teaching and learning

• Our approach to learning and teaching is active, inclusive and question driven to help you gain skills for life after university.
• Across your courses, you’ll typically be taught in a combination of lectures, tutorials (including language classes) and seminars. On some courses, you will have seminars instead of lectures, especially in your honours years.
• You will also be expected to study independently and in small groups, and to read widely.

Assessment and support

• You’ll be assessed through a combination of coursework and exams. 
• Coursework may take a range of forms to give you the opportunity to practice different skills. 
• Exams will include oral exams to test your spoken language skills.
• Depending on where you go and what you do on your Year Abroad, Year 3 may include being assessed, in part, by a host university.
• As well as the teaching and other staff you will meet day-to-day, there are lots of ways to get help with your learning, including through the University’s Institute for Academic Development and Edinburgh University Students' Association.

In the 2025 to 2026 academic year, you can take Persian Studies ​​​​as a single honours degree, or study any of the following joint honours degree combinations...

If you’d like to study on any of our undergraduate programmes, you must apply through UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. 

The UCAS site will show you if any of our Persian degree programmes remain open for application for 2025 entry.

Search the UCAS website for our Persian programmes

If you have applied to start studying Persian with us in September 2025, check out our applicant website for 2025 entry.

Visit the applicant website for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies

Keen to get a head start for 2026?

There’s lots of information about our undergraduate Persian programmes on the University of Edinburgh Degree Finder. 

For example, you can find out about:

• the courses you will take each year
• how you will be taught and assessed
• the support we offer
• entrance requirements
• English language requirements
• fees and funding opportunities
• student societies and living in Edinburgh

Browse our Persian programmes on Degree Finder 2026

Applications for 2026 entry open in September 2025.

Skills and experience

Studying one or more languages to degree level demonstrates that you're a good communicator, and someone open to other cultures and new ideas – what employers value as Intercultural Competence.

Beyond the language skills you will develop on our programmes, and the nuanced understanding you will gain of diverse cultures and societies, graduating with a four-year Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh shows intellectual maturity, resilience, and flexibility.

The skills you will be able to demonstrate to employers when you graduate include the ability to:

• understand, analyse and articulate complex issues and concepts
• manage your time to meet deadlines on different types of projects
• work independently and as part of a group

Opportunities across sectors

Our programmes are an excellent primer for a range of careers, especially those that place a premium on thinking that is both disciplined and imaginative.

Within the private, public, not-for-profit, and for-benefit sectors, previous graduates have gone on to work in:

• business, finance, commerce and tech
• communications, marketing, advertising and public relations
• education, outreach, advocacy and training
• journalism, broadcasting and media
• leisure, tourism and travel
• politics, policy work, diplomacy, civil service and law
• publishing, culture, heritage and the arts
• research, development and venture acceleration
• translating and interpreting

Local and global opportunities

With increasing migration in response to changing global dynamics, there is demand for our graduates in Scotland, the UK and abroad.

Wherever you are based in the world, the ability to communicate in another world language, and to understand the cultures to which it opens doors, will make you stand out.

If you are keen to work abroad, it’s good to know that, collectively, the three variants of modern Persian (Farsi, Dari and Tajik) are the first language of more than 120 million people in the Middle East and Central Asia. There are also significant communities of speakers in Europe (including Turkey), Australia and North America.

Your language learning and cultural awareness will make you ideally placed to work with displaced people from Iran and Afghanistan now living in Europe and other parts of the world, and with international organisations advancing refugee issues, rights and spaces.

Further study

The enhanced research skills you will develop on a four-year programme, particularly in your honours years, are a valuable asset if you wish to continue studying at postgraduate level. 

At the University of Edinburgh, we typically offer both taught and research-led masters programmes in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, and interdisciplinary taught Masters programmes in:

• Comparative Literature
• Intermediality
• Film Studies

Any of our masters degrees, whether research-based or taught, is a good foundation for a PhD, but is equally of value as a stand-alone qualification.

Find out more about LLC alumni and futures