Why East Asia?

East Asia is the most dynamic area of the world economy, and will become the dominant world economic power in the 21st century. Britain and Europe will be left behind if they don't strengthen their expertise on this vital region. In addition to its economic importance, the East Asian region is the origin of one of the world's great cultural traditions. Studying East Asia will give you the opportunity to win jobs and pursue careers relating to this region.

Sheffield University is uniquely qualified to offer you a course on East Asia, as we are the only major University outside London that has expertise on all three key countries of the region - China, Japan and Korea. We have developed our East Asian Studies degree to allow students to gain a broad range of expertise across the whole region, complementing our other single-honours degrees, which focus on the language and society of one of the major countries.

The East Asian Studies degree

Our degrees in East Asian Studies, like those in Chinese, Japanese or Korean Studies, offer you a range of options which you can tailor to your own needs and career aspirations:

We have a single honours degree in East Asian Studies if you'd like to concentrate mainly on the study of the region, and develop a considerable level of proficiency in one of its languages (currently the options are Japanese and Korean).

Another option is to do a dual honours degree, in which you combine the study of East Asia with that of a major discipline such as Music.

If you are not able to commit a major part of your degree to East Asia, you can still add an East Asian dimension to your degree by enrolling in modules on East Asia or an East Asian language.

The degree programme

The single honours and dual honours degrees in East Asian Studies are all three years in length. If you are doing the single honours degree (East Asian Studies) you will take a variety of ‘studies modules’ during your three years at Sheffield and you will also have the option to take non-specialist language modules in Chinese, Japanese or Korean if you wish. Studies modules relate to China, Korea and Japan and cover topics such as history, society, business and literature; they involve lectures on specific themes, and seminars or tutorials in which you discuss these themes with tutors. In addition to the lectures, seminars and tutorials, you will need to spend time out of class writing essays or preparing for class discussions or presentations. If you are doing a dual honours degree you will be required to take studies modules from the other department.

The East Asian Studies dissertation

In your third and final year, if you are doing a single honours East Asian Studies degree, an important component of your degree will be a 15,000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice relating to one or more countries in East Asia. You will work on the dissertation over the course of the year with a supervisor from the department, using the analytical skills you have developed through your studies modules in earlier years to produce a high-quality piece of research. If you are doing a dual honours degree, you may choose to do a shorter version of this dissertation (approximately 7,000 words in length) if you wish, though this is not obligatory.

Developing your individual interests

At most levels of your degree, you will also have the opportunity to take modules which are of interest to you but which may not relate to East Asia. These are known as ‘unrestricted’ modules, and are important in that they allow you to tailor your degree to include areas of study in which you have an interest or which you see as important but which are not ‘core’ to your studies.

Our staff

Sheffield has a group of very highly qualified staff in East Asian Studies, all of whom have PhDs and many of whom have published books with presses such as Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge and Macmillan, and in leading academic journals around the world. Their expertise covers a wide range of topics in East Asian Studies, ranging from history and literature through economics to politics, business and international relations.