Our BA Language and/with History of Art with Foundation Year gives you the opportunity to study a modern language - French, German, Italian, Japanese or Spanish - to a high level of fluency and also learn about the history and culture of your chosen language-speaking area. You can study all kinds of artworks, from painting and sculpture to digital art and installations, and choose from a range of history of art modules, covering artists and art movements from the medieval period through to contemporary art. You will learn how to place artworks within their historical and cultural contexts and how to think more broadly about the role of images within society. You will also study a number of cross-cultural modules, exploring specific themes across a variety of cultures.

If you are contemplating a career in the arts, this degree will give you the chance to develop a range of key skills, from critical thinking and writing to effective visual analysis.

Before proceeding to the main degree, you will spend your Foundation Year preparing yourself for a degree in the arts by improving your study and research skills and gaining arts-related knowledge and understanding. You will also have the opportunity to take a language module as part of the Foundation Year.

Upon successful completion of the Foundation Year, you can automatically progress on to our three-year, full-time, evening study BA Language and/with History of Art.

• Our Foundation Year programmes will fully prepare you for undergraduate study. They are ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you did not achieve the grades you needed for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree.
• You will be studying close to some of the world’s most renowned museums and galleries, including the British Museum and the National Gallery. We also have our own state-of-the-art cinema and exhibition space, all housed in a historic building that was a former home to key members of the Bloomsbury Group, including the author Virginia Woolf and the artist Vanessa Bell.
• You will be taught by specialists from our Department of Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics, a centre of teaching and research excellence. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), Modern Languages and Linguistics achieved 100% for a research environment conducive to producing research of the highest quality.
• Established almost half a century ago, our Department of History of Art is an internationally respected centre for research and teaching. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), Art and Design at Birkbeck achieved 100% for a research environment supporting world-leading or internationally excellent research.
• You can participate in events organised by our lively research centres: Birkbeck Research in the Aesthetics of Kinship and Community, the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Cultures, the Centre for Comparative Research in European Cultures and Identities, the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre; the Architecture, Space and Society Centre and the Vasari Research Centre, which has pioneered the field of digital art history.
• The School of Arts is an official partner of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Opportunities for students have included a year’s free membership of the ICA, private views, discounts on all talks and events, free members' screenings and £3 cinema tickets on Tuesdays, up to 25% off ICA Artists' Editions and a monthly e-newsletter.