UCL has a renowned tradition in both teaching and research in French dating back to the foundation of the college in 1826 and continuing to the present day. UCL was the first university in the country to create a chair of French and this was one of the first chairs of any modern language to be established. Students with a doctorate from the Department of French at UCL share in this reputation for high quality scholarship and research. UCL is one of the few French departments in the UK to maintain full coverage of all periods of French and Francophone Studies, from the medieval period to the present. The department encompasses a vast array of expertise and a great variety of approaches to the study of French and Francophone literature, culture and politics. Recent graduates have used their knowledge to work in the fields of research, curatorship, the BBC, the BFI, advertising and the film industry.