PGDipArts Classics (including Classical Studies, Greek and Latin)

To understand anything properly, you need to have an appreciation of its origins. The cultures of Greece, Rome and the Mediterranean world lie at the root of many modern traditions and institutions, and not always in a positive way. By studying the Classics we are gaining further wisdom and insight into our challenges and experiences in the 21st century.

Classics is a self-contained interdisciplinary subject. It has links to almost every other arts subject – anthropology, art history, gender studies, history, languages, philosophy, politics, religious studies, theatre studies. Western medicine and science have their roots in Greece and Rome, too.

By studying Classics you will develop your awareness of language, your insight into literature and art, your understanding of history and politics, your knowledge of religion and mythology, your appreciation of ethical and social issues. You will certainly broaden your intellectual and cultural horizons. You will also develop valuable generic skills transferable to the outside world.

Arts degrees provide valuable generic skills in demand in the workplace. For some jobs you may well need further specialist training. However, there are plenty of employers who value the well-rounded education Classics provides. The millionaire financier Sir Robert Jones is fond of saying that he would far rather employ a Classics graduate than a Commerce one. Employers value transferable skills such as the ability to think through a problem, to see both sides of a question, to analyse, to present an argument, and to express yourself clearly and fluently.

Recent Classics graduates have made careers not only in school and university teaching but in university administration, foreign affairs, trade and industry, social welfare, local government, tourism, computing, insurance, law, librarianship, bookselling, publishing, museums and art galleries, fashion and design, broadcasting, journalism, tourism and the theatre. This list emphasises the versatility of Classics graduates.