Humanities
English Literature
Close reading across periods and forms, and the critical and historical frameworks used to interpret them. A degree that trains you to build an argument in prose and defend it.
What it is and what you'd build
What you'll study
Survey modules across medieval to contemporary literature in the early years, then specialised options and an extended dissertation on a topic of your own.
- Qualification
- BA (Hons)
- Level
- Undergraduate
- Duration
- 3 years
- Placement year
- Not offered
- Subject area
- Humanities
Skills you'll build
- Close reading
- Critical argument
- Research
- Essay writing
- Editing
Found the course you were looking for?
Start your application and English Literature is already on it. You choose the universities next — with an Ignition advisor to tell you which ones you realistically meet.
Free to start. An Ignition advisor reviews your profile before anything is sent to a university.
Typical modules
A representative structure for a course of this kind. Module names, the balance between compulsory and optional, and the order they run in are set by each university — two courses with the same title can be taught very differently.
Year 1
- Approaches to literature
- Poetry and poetics
- Renaissance literature
- The novel
Year 2
- Romanticism
- Victorian literature
- Critical theory
- Modernism
Year 3
- Contemporary writing
- Specialist options
- Creative writing
- Dissertation
What you need to get in
Requirements are set per course, per intake, by each university. The figures below are placeholders showing the shape of a typical offer for a course of this kind, not an offer from anyone.
A typical offer
Example data- Academic
- AAB–BBC at A-level, or an equivalent international qualification
- Subjects
- English literature usually required
- English
- IELTS 7.0 overall with no component below 6.5, or an accepted equivalent
What each university asks for
The same course, at the universities that teach it. The spread is normal — it is why applying to a range rather than to one level of offer is the standard advice.
What this course costs
Across the universities that teach it, tuition runs from £16,500 to £32,000 a year. Tuition is the largest single line and the one you have least control over once you have accepted an offer — accommodation and the city are where a year actually gets cheaper or dearer.
Tuition, by university
Example Kingsford University
Edinburgh · about £1,150 a month to live
£20,000–£32,000
Example Metropolitan University
Manchester · about £1,050 a month to live
£16,500–£21,000
Funding available where it is taught
Full scholarships are rare and competitive. Partial awards and fee reductions are far more common, are often assessed automatically at the point of offer, and a surprising number go unclaimed.
Example Kingsford University
- Kingsford International Award — £4,500. Competitive award across all undergraduate programmes.
- Access to Law Bursary — £3,000. For students who would be first in their family to study law.
Example Metropolitan University
- International Merit Award — £3,000. Automatic for applicants exceeding the standard offer.
- Placement Year Bursary — £1,000. For students taking an assessed industry placement.
Build your own number
Averages are useless here. The only figure worth planning against is one built from the city, the accommodation and the course you are actually considering.
Where it leads
Graduates of courses like this commonly move into the areas below. None of them is a fixed track — a degree opens doors rather than choosing one for you.
- Journalism and publishing
- Communications and marketing
- Teaching
- Law via conversion
Career guides for this course
Each one covers what the work actually involves, the skills it needs, and the other degrees that lead there.
Where you can study it
2 universities teach this course in the example catalogue. The course is the decision; the university is the setting you make it in — so compare them on the city, the cost and the support rather than on reputation alone.
Example Kingsford University
Edinburgh · Scotland
£20,000–£32,000 a year
View universityExample Metropolitan University
Manchester · England — North
£16,500–£21,000 a year · placement year available
View university