Welsh and Music Cardiff University

Overview

By combining Welsh and Music at Cardiff University , you will gain a wealth of transferable skills and knowledge, opening the doors to a variety of career paths. You may find a joint honours degree both stimulating and rewarding as you observe similarities and differences between the two subjects. Often there are complementary issues and perspectives that link the subjects, be they critical analysis, historical context or recent research.

Key facts

The Welsh course is relevant to contemporary Wales and delivered by a school noted for its research quality and impact. The course aims to produce graduates with a thorough academic and practical understanding of the Welsh language, its literature and culture, a high level of skill in written and spoken Welsh and well-developed employability and creative skills relevant to modern Wales.

Undergraduate courses in the School of Music are flexible and challenging, allowing you to specialise and develop your own interests while building a thorough grounding in music aesthetics, analysis, composition, ethnomusicology, music history and performance. 

The location of the school greatly adds to its appeal for music enthusiasts, as Cardiff is a great location for the study of music in the UK: the city has a professional opera company, Welsh National Opera, and a professional symphony orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. The School of Music enjoys a fruitful relationship with both organisations that allows, for instance, students to attend dress rehearsals and buy cut-price tickets for concerts.

Career prospects

The degree is especially suited to those seeking a career in teaching or academia, arts, but it can just as effectively lead on to other types of graduate employment or provide the foundation for postgraduate study.

The demand for Welsh speakers means that a degree in Welsh can be highly valuable for jobs and roles that require bilingual speakers. Many of our graduates are now following careers in areas such as law, politics, media, performing arts, administration and education, or engaged in postgraduate study.

Employability skills are embedded in modules at the School of Music so that you will learn both music-specific and academic skills that are transferable to other domains, especially the workplace. The skills developed within a music degree help our students to progress to a wide range of careers, both within and beyond the music profession.

Graduates have gone on to careers with the BBC, Arts Councils, Glyndebourne Opera, English National Opera, universities, Oxford University Press, the National Trust, and London Symphony Orchestra, along with a range of other industrial, commercial, and charitable organisations.

Placements

Year two includes a period of work experience in a workplace in which Welsh is used on a daily basis. This period of work experience is part of a programme of events designed to focus on developing employability and career skills.