Flexible Combined Honours

Rules for levels and languages

Students wishing to take an optional module at a lower stage (e.g. a stage 2 module in stage 3) will not normally be able to request this during Online Module Selection. If you want to take a lower-level module and it is not available as part of your selections in OMS you must wait for the module change window to open in September/January when you can submit a module change request.

You will need to complete the FCH Lower-Level Module Request Form before you submit your module change request.

  • No more than three languages can be studied in a degree.
  • Only one language can be taken at beginners level per year.
  • A maximum of two languages can be taken at beginners level during a degree.
  • A maximum of 90 credits of language modules can be studied in any year.
  • If you are studying a language you cannot start a language in your final year. This is the same rule that applies to non-FCH students studying languages.

Help with choosing the appropriate level of language for you to study is available from the Language Centre.

You should take 60 credits of study in the autumn term and 60 credits in the spring term, so that you have a balanced workload.

If need be, you can take up to 75 credits in one of the terms and 45 in the other, as the imbalance of workload is usually manageable.

You are not allowed to take more than 75 credits in any one term, as the workload will be too much. FCH and departments reserve the right to remove you from modules in the term for which you have more than 75 credits in order to reduce the number to a maximum of 75 credits, and correspondingly place you on modules in what was the lower term.

Students cannot take up a new subject in the final year of their degree programme. This is to make sure that core modules in the subjects of study have been completed across the years of the degree programme at the right time and level, building knowledge at the appropriate pace, and to ensure that students do not attempt wholly new studies in the final year when there is the maximum weighting of marks in determining degree classification.