Academic Excellence

Language Skills

Companies locating in Birmingham have access to a large pool of people with language skills. Language students at the universities and the Brasshouse Language Centre number approximately 9,500 each year.

In 2003-2004, there were nearly 12,000 students studying languages in universities regionally. Over 4,500 of them were studying in Birmingham.

Source: Students in Higher Education Institutions 2003/04
Copyright: Higher Education Statistics Agency Ltd 2005

University Specialisms

Aston University

Aston University's School of Languages and Social Sciences is recognised as a leader in its field. It is well known for the quality of its teaching provision (rated excellent by the Quality Assurance Agency) in their integrated degree programmes, placing the School at the top of a number of league tables of university languages departments. They are also noted for the quality of the research (Grade 5 out of a possible 5*) undertaken by their staff.

Part of the language programmes at the university is the year abroad, a compulsory and integrated part of the degree course.

10% of students are from 65 countries from around the world.

University of Birmingham

The Centre for European Languages and Cultures at the University of Birmingham has the highest number of "starred" departments in modern languages in the UK after Cambridge.

The University of Birmingham has one of the largest German departments in the country. It has established its reputation as a centre of excellence in German Studies and is further enhanced by the top rating awarded to it in the most recent national Research Assessment Exercise. There is also an active student German Society, which organises a variety of social and cultural events.

The Department of Hispanic Studies is one of the larger Hispanic departments in the country. The development of Galician Studies within this department makes Birmingham one of the most significant concentrations of expertise on this area of Hispanic Studies in the country.

The Times Good University Guide survey of university departments has ranked the Department of Italian Studies amongst the top five in the country. The Department was rated 5* in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.

The University of Birmingham has a long history of educating international students. Out of their total student population of over 31,500 they have over 5,500 international students from nearly 150 countries worldwide.

Birmingham City University

Each year an increasing number of these students come from non-European countries. The university currently enrols students from more than 50 countries outside the EU with particularly strong recruitment from China, India, Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Other Facilities

The City has excellent language training facilities, including the largest specialist language centre for adults, the Brasshouse Centre. This offers a unique range and levels of courses in 30 languages, to an estimated 6,000 students each year and throughout the year, by 120 foreign language teachers.
Source: Brasshouse Language Centre 2007.

The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry has a Language Services Division, which covers language training as well as translation and interpreting services. The approved language services supplier to the British Chamber of Commerce movement, the division is also ISO 9001:2000 accredited.

Other businesses in the City offer language courses, many specialising in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages.

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