English BA (Hons)

About the course

English at DMU offers an exciting combination of traditional and innovative modules, from Chaucer and Shakespeare, to contemporary literature, film adaptations, and texts and technologies.

“Modules are informed by staff researching at the cutting edge of their discipline and with distinctive specialisms” (External Examiner’s Report, 2012)

“One of the highly distinctive aspects of English Literature provision at De Montfort is the innovative and stimulating approach taken to module assessment. This results in an extremely varied and interesting diet of assessment for students” (External Examiner’s Report, 2012)

Reasons to study an English degree at DMU

• World-leading research ranked 9th in the entire UK. This means that you will be taught by tutors who are nationally and internationally recognised as leaders in their field and passionate about their subject.
• Modules taught by tutors with national and University teaching awards.
• Modules which offer unique opportunities, such as recreating early modern technology by hand-printing your own text using movable type.
• Opportunities for overseas study through our Erasmus and international exchange schemes.
• Opportunities for work placements, CV-building, employability and careers workshops and advice.
• A wide repertoire of study support opportunities, including workshops, one-to-one tutorials, and an informal peer-mentoring scheme designed by DMU English postgraduates for undergraduates.
• Overall score of 4.5 out of 5 in the National Student Satisfaction Survey (2012), including high scores for Teaching Quality, Academic Support and Student Development
• Theatre visits; opportunities to meet visiting writers; a student English Society

The English course introduces you to a range of classic and contemporary texts, and to a variety of approaches to literature. There is a common core of modules and a wide range of options, including in Year 3 opportunities for work placements..

As well as regular film showings of literary adaptations and theatre visits, you have the opportunity to meet writers such as screenwriter Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House, Little Dorrit), poets Jackie Kay, Simon Armitage and Andrew Motion, and novelist Louis de Bernière, one of our honorary graduates. There is also a student English society which organises events such as poetry readings.

You are given considerable guidance in the early stages of the course (including the services of our Academic Guidance team) and are gradually encouraged to become more independent in your research and learning.

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Key facts

UCAS course code:

English BA (Hons) Q300
English with Languages BA (Hons) QR39

Duration: Three years full-time/six years part-time

Institution code: D26

Entry and admission criteria

2013

• Normally 260 points with a minimum of 160 points from 2 full A levels and including grade C or above in English Language or Literature
• National Diploma DMM and a grade C or above in A level English Language or Literature
• Five GCSEs at grade A*–C including English Language or Literature at grade C or above. We also accept the BTEC First Diploma plus two GCSEs including English at grade C or above
• International Baccalaureate: 28+ Points

Interview required: Yes

International Students

If English is not your first language, an IELTS score of 6.5 or equivalent when you start the course is essential. English language tuition| is available at DMU both before and during the course if required.

Teaching and assessment

This course is taught by a team of internationally-renowned scholars and uses varied teaching methods, including lectures, guest lectures by visiting academics, seminars, workshops, and one-to-one tutorials. Students normally have eight to ten hours of scheduled contact time per week, with each course usually consisting of one lecture and one seminar per week or one two-hour workshop. In addition, staff are available each week for one-to-one tutorials.

During your time at DMU, you will experience a wide range of assessment methods, including essays, presentations, preparation worksheets, journals, examinations, website production, anthologies (in which you select poems on a topic of your choice and write an introduction to your own poetry collection), peer evaluation and creative work. The range of assessment methods means that you will develop a broad spectrum of communication and technological skills alongside an ability to think critically, independently, flexibly and imaginatively. Students are in addition kept up to date through Blackboard, our interactive teaching resource. We also have an open door Academic Guidance Centre, a University Learning and Study Support Centre, and a bespoke postgraduate assisted learning scheme.

Student Prizes

• Nicholas Zurbrugg Prize (for Best English Dissertation)
• Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society Prize (for the Best Overall Final-Year English Literature Student)
• Prize for Best Overall Second-Year English Literature Student

Course modules

Year one modules|

• Introduction to the Novel
• Poetry and Society
• Introduction to Drama
• Writing and Screening English

English BA (Hons), Level 4 (Year1), Reading List 2013-14|

Year two modules|

• History of English: Medieval to Augustan Literature (compulsory)
• Romantic and Victorian Literature
• Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature
• Ways of Reading
• Rewriting Film and Literature

Year three modules|

• Dissertation (compulsory)
• British Drama 1956 to the Present
• Contemporary Fiction
• Contemporary Poetry
• English in the Workplace
• Modernism and Modernity
• Postcolonialism
• Shakespeare and Marlowe
• Studies in Literature and Film
• The Working Class in Literature and Film
• Writing the Self
• medieval.com
• Text Technologies
• Sex and Death in Romantic Writing
• Practical Oral History: The DMU/British Theatre Archive Project

Academic expertise

There are 16 full-time members of staff|, including young scholars and established researchers, who form distinctive research clusters in the following areas:

• Literature on Screen/Adaptations
• Textual Studies (electronic publishing, history of the book, bibliographical studies)
• Early Modern Literature and Culture, including Shakespeare
• Modernism
• Romanticism
• 19th Century Literature and Society
• Critical Theory and the History of Criticism
• Women’s Writing

Four major international journals are edited within the department:

• Adaptation (OUP)
• Journal of Browning Studies (Browning Society)
• Literature and History (Manchester University Press)
• Shakespeare (Routledge)

A major series of undergraduate guides to literature is co-edited within the department:

• Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature (Edinburgh University Press)

A number of staff publications have had an international impact upon the academic community and have helped to shape English in new and distinctive ways.

Work experience and placements

In the third year Single Honours students taking ‘English in the Workplace’ have the chance to do a work placement with a local employer. The placements allow students to reflect on the skills that they have acquired during their degree, while also gaining valuable work experience before entering the world of full-time work.

Students on this module have undertaken placements at the National Space Centre in Leicester, the English Association, the DMU Press office, The Demon student newspaper, the Leicester Mercury, voluntary organisations such as Help the Aged, Leicester Study Support and Right to Read, and schools and colleges including Leicester Grammar School, Regent College, Taylor Primary School, Riverside Business and Enterprise College and Bishop Ellis Primary School.

Careers Advice is provided by the University Careers Service and the Faculty Careers Adviser. She is available on-site every Wednesday during term time for career consultations and she contributes to the Year 3 talk (given by the programme leader at the start of students’ final year) and gives a presentation for students on the third-year ‘English in the Workplace’ module.

Graduate careers

With their advanced level of communication and reasoning skills, accompanied by their ability to work independently and as part of a group, English graduates are highly employable, with 93 per cent of recent graduates finding employment or going on to further study within six months of their degree (2011). Our graduates go into a wide range of careers including banking, charity work, the civil service, library services, marketing, the media, public relations, publishing, primary and secondary teaching, and postgraduate study.

Recent English graduates have gone on to careers in:

• Teaching (Primary and Secondary English)
• Teaching English as a Foreign Language – Central Mexico
• Higher Education – Communications Officer for the Centre for Learning Support and Development, London South Bank University; Corporate Communications Manager, De Montfort University
• Journalism and Publishing – Condé Nast (publisher of Vogue and GQ)
• Arts – Researcher/Talent Seeker for On-line Art Gallery

Fees and funding

2013 entry

UK/EU Fees: £9000
International Fees: TBC

Learn more about fees and funding information 2013|

Scholarships

Learn more about our Undergraduate scholarships and awards| information.