About us
German Studies today is strong and lively, with eleven full-time permanent members of staff, a Senior Lector, two further lectors, an AHRB Research Associate and two secretaries. Around 100 undergraduates join us each year (reading German Studies as well as German in combination with other subjects), and they all can take advantage of the unusually broad range of expertise we have to offer.
We possess strengths not only in German literature, but also in language and linguistics, and in film and history. Our research work is of international excellence, having received a 5 rating both in the 1992 and the 1996, and a 5* rating in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercises.
But we are not only good at research. In February 1996, all aspects of our teaching were carefully examined by a team of assessors carrying out the teaching quality assessment for the Higher Education Funding Council for England. We were awarded the highest possible marks in the areas of teaching, learning and assessment; student progression and achievement; and student support and guidance. We achieved a total score of 21 points out of 24 which at the time was the highest grade for teaching awarded in the Faculty.
German Studies enjoy many advantages as part of a major international university. It belongs to one of the largest Schools of Modern Languages in the UK and collaborates in joint programmes with a number of first-rate disciplines. German Studies developed the range of teaching expertise for which it is now renowned - in literature, linguistics, film and modern history.
It enjoys close links with the city's Swiss consulate and the Manchester branch of the Goethe-Institut, the german Cultural Institute for the North of England. When the Goethe Institut ceased to offer its own teaching programme in Manchester, its courses were transferred to the University of Manchester's Language Centre, which is now a Goethe-Institut examination centre.