BA Linguistics with Data Science (Including Foundation Year)

An understanding of language enhances our self-awareness, inspiring us to address fundamental questions about our communication as human beings. Linguistics is an increasingly important subject, impacting on areas in psychology, philosophy, education and artificial intelligence. It has real-world applications in such diverse fields as human rights, computer-assisted language learning, and the study of institutional language in settings like doctor-patient interactions, interviewer-interviewee dialogues, and courtroom exchanges.

This course will give you the unique skillset of using data science to tackle these topics by engaging with tools such as analysing large corpora of texts, conducting experiments, statistical analysis, and machine learning. It will allow you to develop your research and IT skills by collecting and analysing linguistic data using state-of-the-art technology, and a combination of team-work and independent projects will enhance your communication, problem-solving, and management skills.

At Essex, you will acquire a broad foundation in the study of language. Our diverse research looks at this uniquely human phenomenon from several angles: the structures that exist in the world's languages, the variation in how people speak them, how humans process and understand language, and how languages are learned and best taught.

If you have a global outlook, are interested in human interaction and want real-world practical skills, welcome home.

• You'll receive a unique skillset combining data science analytics with thorough linguistic comprehension
• Ranked 11th in the UK for Linguistics in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2022)
• To study on our course, you don't need an English A-Level; our courses are designed to take you from the ground up - our courses are about what you can learn, not what you already know

Previous university/college study is required in addition to local high school qualifications for our Undergraduate Bachelor degree courses.

We accept a number of international qualifications, including the International Baccalaureate with the majority of our courses requiring a grade 30 or above or the SATR with the majority of our courses requiring a minimum of 1100 out of 1600 with 550 in each test.

The purpose of the BA Linguistics with Data Science is to boost your employability by equipping you with solid foundations in the skills needed to work in the digital economy while also providing you with the substantial content of a linguistics degree that is valued by employers for its transferable skills relating to communication ability, critical and thinking skills as well as the broad cultural and social knowledge needed to analyse and curate content for social media.

Our Department's graduates have gone on to have careers in a wide variety of fields, including teaching, journalism,, advertising, marketing, travel, communications, publishing, speech and language therapy, and business administration.

For example, some of our department's recent graduates have gone on to work for a wide range of high-profile companies including:

• The British Council
• English in Action
• Cambridge University Press
• Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
• Royal Bank of Scotland
• Norfolk Constabulary

We also work with the University's Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.

UCAS

Applications to UCAS are open for 2023-24 entry. Applications are made online via the UCAS Apply and UCAS Hub, where you will be charged a small fee for processing your application. Here you will be able to fill out your details, upload your personal statement, choose the universities you would like to apply for, and track your application status.

It’s important that you complete your application fully to give us all the information we need to make a decisions as quickly as possible. A few key things that we will need are:

• Details of all qualifications, including those you may have not finished yet and any predicted grades
• Your personal statement (we have some tips for this)
• A suitable reference – if this is not provided or does not meet our requirements this may be a condition of any offer made and will be required before your place can be confirmed.

The UCAS code for Essex is ESSEX E70. Our individual campus codes for our Loughton and Southend campuses are ‘L’ and ‘S’ respectively. There is no campus code for Colchester – please leave this blank in your application.