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Undergraduate courses/English and Creative Writing courses/English Literature with Education Studies

Key facts

Entry requirements

112 or DMM

Full entry requirements

UCAS code

Q320

Institution code

D26

Duration

3 yrs full-time

3 years full-time

Fees

2024/25 UK tuition fees:
£9,250

2024/25 international tuition:
£15,750

See all the key facts

Entry requirements

112 or DMM

Full entry requirements

UCAS code

Q320

Institution code

D26

Duration

3 yrs full-time

3 years full-time

Fees

2024/25 UK tuition fees:
£9,250

2024/25 international tuition:
£15,750

See all the key facts

Boost your future career prospects by combining the study of English literature with education. You’ll explore a wide range of literature from global writers, covering topics like the novel, Victorian and Romantic literature, Shakespeare, text technologies, and modernism. You’ll uncover how texts function and discuss literature’s impact on society, both past and present, while honing your skills in critical analysis, creative thinking, and research.

Alongside your literary studies, you’ll delve into key aspects of education, childhood, and lifelong learning. You’ll critically examine educational structures, policies, and practices, gaining a deep insight into learning processes and systems.

As a graduate of English Literature with Education Studies, you’ll be prepared for careers in teaching, media, marketing, publishing, youth work, public relations, and the civil service. Your studies will also enhance your communication, problem-solving, empathy, and leadership skills, equipping you to thrive in diverse and evolving professional environments.

  • Gain transferable skills in critical thinking, creativity, and teamwork, making you highly employable and sought after across various industries.
  • Study childhood, lifelong learning, social justice, and education alongside English poetry, fiction, and drama from different centuries and continents, with flexibility to focus on your interests.
  • Set yourself apart with a combined degree in English Literature and Education Studies, offering a unique blend of literary exploration and educational insights.
  • Master print and digital technologies, including hand printing and HTML programming, through expert guidance from our Centre for Textual Studies.
  • Enjoy dynamic learning with diverse teaching methods led by leading academics conducting world-class research, ensuring you develop a broad range of valuable skills.
Block teaching designed around you

You deserve a positive teaching and learning experience, where you feel part of a supportive and nurturing community. That’s why most students will enjoy an innovative approach to learning using block teaching, where you will study one module at a time. You’ll benefit from regular assessments – rather than lots of exams at the end of the year – and a simple timetable that allows you to engage with your subject and enjoy other aspects of university life such as sports, societies, meeting friends and discovering your new city. By studying with the same peers and tutor for each block, you’ll build friendships and a sense of belonging. Read more about block teaching.

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What you will study

Block 1: Introduction to the Novel

In this module, you will learn to critically read novels at undergraduate level. Building on your experience of reading fiction at school, college, or for leisure, you will develop deep analytical readings and apply your growing critical skills to a wide range of novels encountered throughout your degree. This module aims to get you thinking about how novels work and how, as readers, we can understand them from different perspectives. You will learn to recognise subtle changes in narrative position, when to trust or distrust a narrator, how to identify subgenres (e.g., Realism, Romanticism, Modernism, and Postmodernism), and how to use literary criticism to uncover unexpected interpretations. You will integrate critical reading into your preparation for workshops and assessments to enhance your understanding of literary texts. This module provides the core academic skills in reading, writing, and research necessary for your time at university, alongside the analytical and communication skills that will, after graduation, make you attractive to future employers.

Assessment: Class Test (40%) and Research Essay (60%)

Block 2: Journeys and Places

This module focuses on journeys and places, offering you the chance to explore key concepts underpinning your study of English language and linguistics. You will take a post-disciplinary approach to your studies, using techniques from diverse areas to address key questions related to journeys and places in relation to the use of English around the globe.

You will attend interactive lectures with students from across the School of Humanities and Performing Arts, and apply the concepts addressed in these lectures to the study of English language within subject-specific workshops and assessments.

Themes covered may include journeys, spaces, and the concept of welcome; (im)mobilities and journeys through time and space; representation and imaginative geographies; gender and placemaking; belonging and place attachment; journeys, places, and identities; as well as themes related to sustainability and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Assessment: Coursework (30%) and Essay (70%)

Block 3: Childhood, Social Justice and Education

This module introduces key contemporary debates in Childhood Studies. It explores the construction of childhood, inequalities surrounding it, and what it means to be a child in the UK today. Drawing on sociological and political theories, you will critically evaluate issues impacting childhood and how they are reflected, sustained, or challenged by society. You will also contest and interrogate your own thinking about childhood and society.

Assessment: Academic Poster (40%) and Report (60%)

Block 4: Poetry and Society

Through this module you will develop your understanding of poetic form and genre and consolidate your close-reading skills by scrutinising a range of poems and poets from different historical periods. You will explore the historical origins and development of specific poetic genres such as epic and pastoral and learn the conceptual tools and technical vocabulary needed for critical analysis of poetry at undergraduate level.

Assessment: Essay 1 (40%) and Essay 2 (60%)

Block 1: Exploration and Innovation: Medieval to Early Modern Literature

This module covers the birth of English literature, introducing texts written between the medieval era and the early modern period. You will explore poetry, drama, and prose, comparing early English literature with key European works of the time.

Assessment: Commentary (30%) and Comparative Essay (70%)

Block 2: Exploring Work and Society

This module prepares you for post-degree pathways by focusing on the skills, capabilities, and knowledge needed to thrive in professional environments. Emphasis is placed on core attributes and transferable skills while developing familiarity with the world of work.

You will critically engage with themes such as race, gender, identity, and geopolitical issues in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, conceptualizing a more equitable and sustainable society.

Through subject-specific workshops, lectures, seminars, and independent learning, you will explore work environments related to your discipline. Activities may include responding to real-world briefs, placements, community projects, and creating project proposals tailored to your programme.

Assessment: Written Portfolio or Recorded Presentation (100%)

Block 3: Cultural and Technological Transformations

Optional module

This module examines how technology has impacted education and learning, focusing on media literacy, e-learning, and the digital divide. You will explore how technology creates opportunities for inclusive education and empowers students through platforms like gaming and podcasting.

Assessment: e-Portfolio (100%)

Block 4: Romantic and Victorian Literature

You will explore literature from the Romantic and Victorian periods (1780–1901), studying texts by writers like Mary Wollstonecraft, William Wordsworth, and Charles Dickens. Themes will include class conflict, urban poverty, faith, national identity, and gender roles.

Assessment: Coursework (40%) and Essay (60%)

Block 1: Dissertation

Throughout the year, you will research and write a dissertation on a chosen topic, with guidance from the English Literature team. Workshops will support your project development, introducing key theoretical approaches such as Marxism, feminism, and ecocriticism.

Assessment: Research Portfolio (20%) and Dissertation (80%)

Block 2: Print and Digital Revolutions

This module explores the Gutenberg and Digital revolutions, focusing on how printing and computing have influenced writing. You will create your own texts using historical and digital technologies.

Assessment: Test (30%) and Report 1 (35%) and Report 2 (35%)

Block 3: Gender and Education

This module examines debates around gender in education, exploring the historically disadvantaged position of females and the construction of gender. Recent debates on gender and achievement, including the "problem of boys," will also be covered.

Assessment: Coursework (40%) and Project (60%)

Block 4: Modernism and Magazines

This module investigates Anglo-American modernism and its publication in 'little magazines.' You will study modernist texts by authors like T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf and explore how these works responded to modernity.

Assessment: Essay (40%) and Research Portfolio (60%)

Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.

Overview

You will learn through a mix of lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials, group sessions, and student-led seminars. Teaching methods may include discussions, film screenings, or computer lab-based activities. You’ll complete reading and research in advance to engage in discussions with tutors and peers.

In the first year, you'll expand your knowledge of major literary genres (poetry, fiction) and develop foundational skills in research, writing, and critical analysis, alongside an introductory module in childhood education. The second year deepens your understanding of English literature’s development over time while allowing you to explore an additional Education Studies module of your choice. In the third year, you’ll pursue your own academic interests through taught modules and a dissertation—an independent project on a literary topic you select.

You’ll experience a variety of assessments, including essays, presentations, journals, practical work (e.g., producing a sonnet using a sixteenth-century printing press), blogs, and your dissertation. These assessments will enhance your skills in communication, critical thinking, and creative flexibility.

Contact Hours

You’ll typically attend 8-10 hours of teaching per week, with an additional 30 hours of independent study for project work and research.

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Our facilities

Library and learning zones

On campus, the main Kimberlin Library offers a space where you can work, study and access a vast range of print materials, with computer stations, laptops, plasma screens and assistive technology also available.
As well as providing a physical space in which to work, we offer online tools to support your studies, and our extensive online collection of resources accessible from our Library website, e-books, specialised databases and electronic journals and films which can be remotely accessed from anywhere you choose.

We will support you to confidently use a huge range of learning technologies, including Blackboard, Collaborate Ultra, ²ÝÁñÊÓƵ Replay, MS Teams, Turnitin and more. Alongside this, you can access LinkedIn Learning and learn how to use Microsoft 365, and study support software such as mind mapping and note-taking through our new Digital Student Skills Hub.

The library staff offer additional support to students, including help with academic writing, research strategies, literature searching, reference management and assistive technology. There is also a ‘Just Ask’ service for help and advice, live LibChat, online workshops, tutorials and drop-ins available from our Learning Services, and weekly library live chat sessions that give you the chance to ask the library teams for help.

Course specifications

Course title

English Literature with Education Studies

Award

BA (Hons)

UCAS code

Q320

Institution code

D26

Study level

Undergraduate

Study mode

Full-time

Start date

September 2024

Duration

3 years full-time

Fees

2024/25 UK tuition fees:
£9,250

2024/25 international tuition:
£15,750

Entry requirements

GCSEs

  • Five GCSEs at grade 4 or above including English and Maths

Plus one of the following:

A levels

  • A minimum of 112 points from at least two A levels

T Levels

  • Merit

BTEC

  • BTEC National Diploma - Distinction/Merit/Merit
  • BTEC Extended Diploma - Distinction/Merit/Merit

Alternative qualifications include:

  • Pass in the QAA accredited Access to HE overall 112 UCAS tariff with at least 30 L3 credits at Merit.
  • English GCSE required as separate qualification. Equivalency not accepted within the Access qualification. We will normally require students to have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.
  • International Baccalaureate: 30+ points

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential.

English language tuition, delivered by our British Council-accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.