English Literature BA (Hons)

Key facts

Course code: Q300
Award: BA (Hons)
Duration: 3 years full time, or 4 with a year abroad
Typical offer: AAA at A level, including English Literature or English Language and Literature
Start: September 2027
Places: 168 (1,412 applications for 2026 entry)
Where: School of English, Market Hill

Why study English Literature at Oxenfurt

The course covers every period of literature in English, because we think you should be able to read a fourteenth-century dream poem and a twenty-first-century novel with the same care. In the first year you study the whole sweep; by the third you are choosing among about thirty options and writing a dissertation on a subject of your own.

The University Library holds the Pontar Ballad Collection, about 9,300 printed broadside ballads from 1580 to 1900, and the School teaches with it. Several first-year seminars meet in the Special Collections reading room, and second-year students can take a module in editing a text from the original.

Creative writing is part of the course rather than a separate degree: you can take a poetry or prose workshop in each year, taught by published writers.

Course structure

Year 1 (120 credits)

Reading Poetry (20 credits)
The Novel: Origins to the Present (20)
Drama and Performance (20)
Medieval Literature: an Introduction (20)
Literary Theory and Criticism (20)
Writing Workshop or a module from another subject (20)

Year 2 (120 credits)

Three period modules from: Renaissance Literature; Restoration and Eighteenth Century; Romantic Literature; Victorian Literature; Modernism; and three options, which in 2026–27 included Editing the Broadside Ballad, American Literature to 1900, Poetry Workshop II and Literature and the Law.

Year 3 (120 credits)

A dissertation of 10,000 words (40 credits) and four options. Options in 2026–27 included Ballad, Song and Print; Writing the River: Literature of the Pontar; Contemporary British Poetry; Shakespeare’s Late Plays; Life Writing; and The Novel after 2000.

Modules listed are those offered in 2026–27 and may change. Options run only when enough students choose them.

Teaching and assessment

In your first year you can expect about 9 hours of timetabled teaching a week: lectures, seminars of about fifteen students, and a fortnightly small-group class on writing. In later years seminars become smaller and you meet your dissertation supervisor regularly.

Year 2 counts for 40% of your final classification and year 3 for 60%. About a third of your marks come from examinations and the rest from essays, a critical edition (if you take the editing module) and the dissertation.

Entry requirements

A levels

AAA, including English Literature or English Language and Literature. Contextual offer: AAB.

International Baccalaureate

36 points overall, with 6, 6, 6 at Higher Level, including English.

Scottish Highers and Advanced Highers

AAAAB at Higher and AA at Advanced Higher, including English.

English language

If English is not your first language, an approved English language test at the University’s higher level.

All applicants are considered on their whole application: predicted or achieved grades, personal statement and reference, and, for shortlisted applicants, an interview. We do not set a written admissions test.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees for entry in 2027
Fee status	Fee
UK students	£10,050 a year (the expected maximum for 2027–28, yet to be confirmed by the UK Government)
International students	£27,850 a year

UK students from households with an income below £42,875 receive an Oxenfurt Bursary of up to £3,100 a year. Students living in Novigrad can apply to the Ferry Bursary for help with the cost of the crossing. Fees and funding

Joint honours

English Literature with another subject
Course	Code	Typical offer
English and Philosophy	QV35	A*AA
English and History	QV31	AAA
English and French	QR31	AAA, including French
English and Music	QW33	AAA, including Music or Grade 8

Careers

Fifteen months after graduating, 89% of our English graduates of 2022–23 who answered the national graduate survey were in work or further study, many in publishing, teaching, journalism, the arts and the civil service.

Course changes

We make every effort to run courses as described. Modules, teaching methods and assessment may change between years, and after you have accepted an offer, because of staff changes, student demand or improvements to the course. If we make a significant change after you have accepted an offer, we will tell you, explain your options and, if you wish, help you to transfer to another course or university.