About Us

Welcome to the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), one of the UK's largest institutions for research and teaching on Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Baltics, the Caucasus and Central Asia. 

SSEES is home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of academic staff devoted to the study of the Slavonic and East European region, with some 80 academics engaging in teaching and research in the fields of politics, sociology, economics, business, history, languages, literature and culture, all underpinned by our commitment to language-based area studies. 

It is the purpose of SSEES to promote the interweaving of disciplines around the common study of our region and its problems and to encourage the study of one of the unparalleled range of 18 languages from the region that we offer. Our graduates leave UCL not only with detailed disciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise but also with a keen awareness of the social, political and cultural specificities of a strategically important and constantly changing part of the world. 

Nearly one thousand students, from over 60 countries, receive research-embedded teaching from world-leading experts on our highly rated undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Most of our undergraduate programmes as well as our International Master’s programme can be combined with a year abroad at a university in the region.  

At the heart of our SSEES building is our world-leading library, with a dedicated staff and collection supporting innovative teaching and cutting-edge research. Our interdisciplinary research centres and seminars mobilise knowledge on such critical current topics as populism, economic integration, memory politics, corruption and global informality. Our students also benefit from our rich programmes of lectures and symposia that bring together leading experts in the region from London and around the world.