Thank you for considering an application
To apply you’ll need to:
- Make note of the Queen Mary institution code: Q50
- Make note of your chosen course UCAS code:
English and Drama
- QW34 — BA (Hons)
- QW4Y — BA (Hons) with Year Abroad
- Click on the link below:
Have further questions? How to apply | Entry requirements
English and Drama
2 study options
English and Drama BA (Hons)
Key information
- Degree
- BA (Hons)
- Duration
- 3 years
- Start
- September 2020
- UCAS code
- QW34
- 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. Applicants with A-Level English Language may be considered on an individual basis. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements - UK/EU fees
- £9,250
- International fees
- £18,000
Funding information
Paying your fees
English and Drama with Year Abroad BA (Hons)
Key information
- Degree
- BA (Hons)
- Duration
- 4 years
- Start
- September 2020
- UCAS code
- QW4Y
- Institution code
- Q50
- Typical A-Level offer
- Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature or English Language and Literature. Applicants with A-Level English Language may be considered on an individual basis. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements - UK/EU fees
- £9,250
- International fees
- £18,000
Funding information
Paying your fees
Overview
Are you interested in the fusion of literature, performance and culture?
Our BA joint honours course in English and Drama is an exciting opportunity to study the practice of theatre and performance, and the reading of texts from a broad spectrum of genres and periods. It combines practical and theoretical study in a wide range of interconnected areas, providing you with a variety of approaches to drama and literary studies as active and dynamic subjects.
Along with an understanding of how approaches to Drama and English complement one another, you will be encouraged to locate texts and performances in their political, cultural, and historical contexts. You'll also develop your communication and research skills, and skills in working collaboratively.
Our staff – leading academics and artists – will work with you to make learning challenging and engaging, and help you to develop as an informed critic, reader and performance maker.
Programme changes for 2020
At Queen Mary, we have been adapting to the challenges of Covid-19 so we are ready for the new academic year, with all the academic, pastoral and community support you need to settle in and thrive. For your chosen programme of study, the result is an innovative blended learning offering, giving you access to a world-class education whether or not you can join us on campus from September. For more information, please visit our dedicated FAQ pages.
Structure
You can complete your English and Drama 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
Your first year includes a combination of practice-based and lecture/seminar-based modules:
- Drama: London, Culture and Performance (15 Credits: Semester 1)
- Drama: Power Plays (15 credits: Semester 1)
- Drama: Beyond Acting (30 credits: Semester 2)
Plus:
- London Global (30 credits: Semesters 1 and 2)
- Poetry (15 credit: Semester 1)
- Literatures in Time (15 Credit: Semester 2)
Or
- London Global A (15 credits: Semester 1)
- Poetry (15 credit: Semester 1)
- Reading Theory and Interpretation (30 credits: Semester 2)
You can find out more about our modules from Queen Mary’s module directory.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Year 2
Select two modules across three subject areas
1. Medieval and Early Modern Studies
- Arthurian Literature from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Game of Thrones
- Renaissance Literary Culture
2. Eighteenth-Century, Romanticism, and Nineteenth-Century Studies
- Representing London: Writing the Eighteenth-Century City
- Romantics and Revolutionaries
- Victorian Fictions
3. Modern, Contemporary and Postcolonial Studies
- Modernism
- Postcolonial and Global Literatures
- The Long Contemporary
You select the rest of your English modules from a range of options that changes each year.
Modules may include:
- Art Histories: an Introduction to the Visual Arts in London
- Black and Asian Writing in Britain
- Chaucer: Telling Medieval Tales
- James Baldwin and American Civil Rights
- Satire, Scandal and Society
- The Crisis of Culture: Literature and Politics 1918–1948
- Women and their Writing in the Romantic Period
- Writing Now
You select Drama modules from a combination of seminar and practice-based options.
Select at least one Drama module from
- Culture, Power and Performance (seminar)
- Group Practical Project (practice-based)
Select from modules, which may include:
Practice-based:
- Action Design
- Adaptations
- Approaches to Applied Performance
- Making Contemporary Theatre
- Performing Personae
- Performing Shakespeare
Seminar-based:
- Acting Theory
- Costume Dramas
- Dance Theatre
- Illness and Disability in Performance
- London Performance Now
- Naturalism
- Places of Performance
- Race and Racism in Performance
- The Senses in Performance
- Theatre for the People
- Voice, Gender and Performance
This is a sample of modules from our full module directory.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Year 3
Select one from
- English Research Dissertation
- Practice-based Research Project
- Written Research Project
You select the rest of your final-year modules from range of seminar and practice-based options that changes each year.
Modules may include
- British Fictions of the 1960s
- Ghosts and Laughing Gas: Literature in the 1790s
- Guillotines
- James Joyce's Ulysses
- Reading William Blake
- Shakespeare: the Play, the Word and the Book
- Writing Muslims
- Applied Performance
- Culture, Performance and Globalisation
- Performance and Community
- Performance Composition
- Shakespeare after Shakespeare
- Verbatim, Testimonial, Tribunal
- Writing About the Arts
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 and Drama 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 at Queen Mary and what the progression requirements are.
Additional Costs
Some modules require you to buy books, tickets to performances or exhibitions, and travel within London. Tickets are free in your first year and, where possible, offered at a discounted rate in subsequent years.
In English and Drama you are working with people, both practical workshops and seminars, it's very sociable.
Teaching
Teaching and learning
You’ll usually attend eight hours of classes weekly, mainly in the form of seminars, lectures and studio-based workshops. Practice-based modules include additional scheduled studio time weekly for student-led practice. Some modules also include lectures, tutorials and field trips.
For every hour spent in class, you'll complete approximately three to four further hours of independent study preparing for classes and assignments.
Assessment
Assessment typically includes a combination of written and practical assignments, such as essays, performances, presentations, portfolios, log books, programme notes, reviews, feature articles, artist websites, podcasts and dissertations. Some assessment is based around group work, especially for performance projects and presentations. There are no written exams in Drama and no exams in English beyond the first year.
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, artists, directors, producers, playwrights and activists
- motion capture equipment, allowing students to explore innovative practices with new technology and film
- opportunities to act, direct and stage manage through the Queen Mary Theatre Company
- proximity to specialist archives and collections such as the National Theatre, Live Art Development Agency Study Room, Poetry Library, Women’s Library, Black Cultural Archives and Warburg Institute
- opportunities to write, edit and publish for student newspapers and magazines
English and Drama Joint Course at Queen Mary University of London. Hear from our students Christopher, Mahima and Blanka about why you should join the #QMULfamily.
Entry requirements
| A-Level | Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Applicants with A-Level English Language may be considered on an individual basis. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking. |
| IB | International Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 32 points overall, including 6,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects. This must include a minimum of 6 in Higher Level English A. |
| BTEC | See our detailed subject and grade requirements |
| Access HE | We consider applications from students with the Access to Higher Education Diploma. The minimum academic requirement is to achieve 60 credits overall with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 15 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. This must include at least 6 Level 3 credits in English Literature or Literacy modules at Distinction. |
| GCSE | Minimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4. |
| EPQ | Alternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification. For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq |
| Contextualised admissions | We consider every application on its individual merits and will take into consideration your individual educational experiences and context. More information on how academic schools and programmes use this information as part of the admissions process, can be found on our contextualised admissions pages. |
| A-Level | Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include grade A or above in A-Level English Literature or English Language and Literature. Applicants with A-Level English Language may be considered on an individual basis. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking. |
| IB | International Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 32 points overall, including 6,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects. This must include a minimum of 6 in Higher Level English A. |
| BTEC | See our detailed subject and grade requirements |
| Access HE | We consider applications from students with the Access to Higher Education Diploma. The minimum academic requirement is to achieve 60 credits overall with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 15 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. This must include at least 6 Level 3 credits in English Literature or Literacy modules at Distinction. |
| GCSE | Minimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4. |
| EPQ | Alternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification. For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq |
| Contextualised admissions | We consider every application on its individual merits and will take into consideration your individual educational experiences and context. More information on how academic schools and programmes use this information as part of the admissions process, can be found on our contextualised admissions pages. |
Non-UK students
We accept a wide range of European and international qualifications in addition to A-levels, the International Baccalaureate and BTEC qualifications. Please visit International Admissions for full details.
If your qualifications are not accepted for direct entry onto this degree, consider applying for a foundation programme.
English language
Find out more about our English language entry requirements, including the types of test we accept and the scores needed for entry to the programme.
You may also be able to meet the English language requirement for your programme by joining a summer pre-sessional programme before starting your degree.
Further information
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 and Drama graduates go on to work across many different sectors, such as the creative arts, publishing, teaching, and media and broadcasting.
Recent graduates from the School of English and Drama have been hired by:
- BBC
- Harper Collins
- The Independent
- National Theatre
- Penguin Random House
- Shakespeare’s Globe.
Career support
You’ll have access to bespoke careers support during your degree including access to experts in the Departments of English and Drama, specific modules (e.g. Applied Performance, Drama and Education, Writing about the Arts, Livelihoods in English); School and Department-run careers and professional development workshops; extra-curricular experience with arts organisations; and advice about postgraduate study.
Our Queen Mary 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.
Unistats data for these courses
English and Drama - BA (Hons)
English and Drama with Year Abroad - BA (Hons)
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.
