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English with Creative Writing

Entry Year: 2023

2 study options

English with Creative Writing BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
3 years
Start
September 2023
UCAS code
QW11
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£21,200
Funding information
Paying your fees

English with Creative Writing with Year Abroad BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
4 years
Start
September 2023
UCAS code
QW1Y
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£21,200
Funding information
Paying your fees

Year abroad cost

Finances for studying abroad on exchange

View details

Overview

Looking for a degree that will inspire your intellectual curiosity and spark your creativity?

Our BA in English with Creative Writing will give you a sound knowledge base in literature, along with the all-important tools you need to become a writer.

You'll gain a deeper understanding of literary history and theory, exploring subjects from medieval literature and Shakespeare to modernism, postcolonialism and contemporary writing.

Headed by acclaimed writer Professor Brian Dillon (Essayism, Suppose a Sentence), the creative writing element of the course is designed to help you find your voice, develop your practical skills and techniques, and give you an insight into the process of writing. The team comprises of poet Nisha Ramayya, novelist Michael Hughes and Goldsmiths Prize Winner, Isabel Waidner.

You'll have the opportunity to grow and flourish as a writer in a safe and supportive environment, whether in prose, poetry or creative non-fiction.

Register your interest

Structure

You can complete your English and Creative Writing degree in three or four years. If you choose to do a year abroad this will take place in Year 3 and Year 3 modules will instead be studied in Year 4.

Year 1

You will take the following modules (all compulsory):

  • Introduction to Creative Writing 
  • London Global
  • Reading, Theory and Interpretation: approaches to the study of English Literature
  • Shakespeare

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 2

You will take the following two compulsory modules

  • Creative Writing: Poetry and Performance
  • Creative Writing: Prose

You then choose a minimum of two modules from across at least two of these lists:

List One: Medieval and Early Modern Studies

  • Chaucer: Gender, Faith, Identity
  • Renaissance Drama
  • Renaissance Literary Culture

List Two: Eighteenth-Century, Romanticism, and Nineteenth-Century Studies

  • Representing London: Writing the eighteenth-century city
  • Romantics and Revolutionaries
  • Victorian Fictions

List Three: Modern, Contemporary and Postcolonial Studies

  • Modernism
  • Postcolonial and Global Literatures
  • The Long Contemporary 

You then choose one or two modules from a wide range of options that changes each year.

Modules may include:

  • American Romanticism
  • Art Histories: an Introduction to the Visual Arts in London
  • Global Shakespeare
  • James Baldwin and American Civil Rights
  • Terror, Transgresssion and Astonishment: the Gothic in the Long Nineteenth Century
  • The Crisis of Culture: Literature and Politics 1918 - 1948
  • The Thousand and One Nights

This is a sample of modules from our full module directory.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 3

You will take two advanced creative writing modules from a list that changes each year. Modules may include:

  • Creative Writing Advanced Fiction: Serious Play - Ludic Strategies for Writing Fiction
  • Creative Writing Advanced Poetry: The Poetics of Translation
  • Creative Writing and Performance
  • Creative Writing Nonfiction: Illness and Experience
  • Narrative Theory for Creative Writers

You then choose one from: 

  • Creative Writing Dissertation
  • English Research Dissertation

You choose the rest of your final year modules (including at least one 30 credit module) from a wide range of options that changes each year.

Modules may include

  • British Fictions of the 1960s
  • Feminism(s)
  • Guillotines, Ghosts and Laughing Gas: Literature in the 1790s
  • Heroes and Outlaws in History and Fiction from 1100 - 1600
  • Jane Austen: Regency Novelist
  • Laughing Matters: Comedy and Contemporary Culture 
  • Michel Foucault
  • Reading William Blake
  • Shakespeare: the play, the word and the book
  • Time, Narrative and Culture
  • Writing Black and Asian Britain
  • Writing Empire: the eighteenth century 

This is a sample of modules from our full module directory.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Study options

Apply for this degree with any of the following options. Take care to use the correct UCAS code - it may not be possible to change your selection later.

Year abroad

Go global and study abroad as part of your degree – apply for our English with Creative Writing BA with a Year Abroad. Queen Mary has links with universities in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia (partnerships vary for each degree programme).

Find out more about study abroad opportunities with Queen Mary and what the progression requirements are. 

Additional Costs

A few modules may require you to buy tickets to shows or exhibitions (often at a discounted rate) as well as pay for travel within London.

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Testimonial

My favourite thing is definitely the inclusivity on campus, there's a huge diversity of people from across the world...There's no better place to be I feel like. It's one of the best decisions I've made.

Mahima Tyagi, English with Creative Writing (2021)

Teaching

Teaching and learning

You'll receive approximately 10 hours of weekly contact time, comprising lectures, smaller seminar groups, field trips, tutorials and workshops.

For every hour spent in class, you'll complete a further four to six hours of independent study.

Assessment

Assessment typically includes a combination of coursework including essays, projects, presentations, log books and portfolios.

Resources and facilities

The School offers excellent on-campus and London-based resources to support your studies, including:

  • access to Senate House Library and the British Library – the most important intellectual resources in London
  • opportunities to meet visiting experts including publishers, curators, archivists, poets, novelists, activists and filmmakers
  • proximity to specialist archives and collections such as the BFI National Archive, Poetry Library, Women’s Library, National Art Library and the Warburg Institute
  • opportunities to write, edit and publish for student newspapers and magazines.
Video

English with Creative Writing at Queen Mary University of London. Hear from our students Mahima, Jess and Christian about why you should join the #QMULfamily.

Funding

Loans and grants

UK students accepted onto this course are eligible to apply for tuition fee and maintenance loans from Student Finance England or other government bodies.

Scholarships and bursaries

Queen Mary offers a generous package of scholarships and bursaries, which currently benefits around 50 per cent of our undergraduates.

Scholarships are available for home, EU and international students. Specific funding is also available for students from the local area. International students may be eligible for a fee reduction. We offer means-tested funding, as well as subject-specific funding for many degrees.

Find out what scholarships and bursaries are available to you.

Support from Queen Mary

We offer specialist support on all financial and welfare issues through our Advice and Counselling Service, which you can access as soon as you have applied for a place at Queen Mary.

Take a look at our Student Advice Guides which cover ways to finance your degree, including:

  • additional sources of funding
  • planning your budget and cutting costs
  • part-time and vacation work
  • money for lone parents.

Careers

Our English graduates go on to work in all sorts of sectors, including teaching, publishing, media and communications, and arts and heritage. Some of our most well-known alumni include authors Sarah Waters, JG Ballard and Conn Iggulden, and TV comedy writer James Lamont.

Recent graduates from the School of English and Drama have gone on to work for:

  • Harper Collins
  • Historic Royal Palaces
  • The Independent
  • London and Partners
  • Penguin Random House
  • Shakespeare’s Globe.

Career support

You’ll have access to bespoke careers support during every step of your English degree, and a practical third-year module will prepare you for the transition from university to working life by researching career, entrepreneurial and postgraduate study prospects.

The Department of English has strong links with the worlds of publishing, performance and poetry, and experts regularly deliver talks and lectures.

Our careers team can also offer:

  • specialist advice on choosing a career path
  • support with finding work experience, internships and graduate jobs
  • feedback on CVs, cover letters and application forms
  • interview coaching.

Learn more about career support and development at Queen Mary.

Data for these courses

English with Creative Writing - BA (Hons)

English with Creative Writing with Year Abroad - BA (Hons)

The Discover Uni dataset (formerly Unistats)

About the School

The School of English and Drama provides a first-class learning environment -- the Departments of Drama and English are in the top 40 in the world (QS World Rankings by Subject 2019). And you’ll learn from leading experts: Drama is ranked first and English fifth in the UK for research quality (Research Excellence Framework 2014).

We are a large school, with a lot of specialist staff, enabling us to offer a wide range of topics and approaches. You’ll have tailored support, including individual feedback on your work, and there are opportunities to contribute to student performances and publications.

We regularly host prominent writers and performers and collaborate with leading organisations such as the V&A, the Barbican, the Live Art Development Agency and Shakespeare’s Globe. Our course makes full use of London’s exceptional theatre and performance resources (e.g. theatres, galleries, museums, libraries, archives, site-specific performance, festivals).

The School runs several innovative research centres, including the Centre for Poetry; the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies; the Centre for Religion and Literature in English; and the Sexual Cultures Research Group.

Contact us

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