the ba programme in development studies is a combined honours degree, allowing students to blend a critical awareness of international development, with a solid grounding in another discipline or subject area. this allows development studies students to place the knowledge they gain as part of their degree within a specific regional, cultural or disciplinary context. combined-honours degrees in arabic are intended to give students a solid grounding in modern standard and classical arabic, as well as conversational ability in egyptian colloquial arabic, in combination with a second subject. intensive study of a wide range of arabic language and literature is a compulsory feature of combined-honours degrees in arabic. students are required to spend the third year of study at a university in the middle east.