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To apply you’ll need to:
- Make note of the Queen Mary institution code: Q50
- Make note of your chosen course UCAS code:
English Literature and Linguistics
- QQ13 — BA (Hons)
- QQ1Y — BA (Hons) with Year Abroad
- Click on the link below:
Have further questions? How to apply | Entry requirements
English Literature and Linguistics
2 study options
English Literature and Linguistics BA (Hons)
Key information
- Degree
- BA (Hons)
- Duration
- 3 years
- Start
- September 2023
- UCAS code
- QQ13
- 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 - Home fees
- £9,250*
- Overseas fees
- Fees for 2022 entry will appear here shortly
*These fees are for the 2021-22 academic year and are provided as a guideline. Fees for 2022-23 have not yet been set.
English Literature and Linguistics with Year Abroad BA (Hons)
Key information
- Degree
- BA (Hons)
- Duration
- 4 years
- Start
- September 2023
- UCAS code
- QQ1Y
- 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 - Home fees
- £9,250*
- Overseas fees
- Fees for 2022 entry will appear here shortly
*These fees are for the 2021-22 academic year and are provided as a guideline. Fees for 2022-23 have not yet been set.
Overview
Combine your love of English literature with learning how language itself works.
Learn how language develops and evolves, how it conditions our responses to the world, and the ways in which we use it to persuade, inspire and entertain.
Studying linguistics and English literature is a unique opportunity for students who have a love of English, both written and how the language itself is structured. Your linguistics modules will provide you with sound technical and analytical skills and a deeper understanding of language. Your literature classes will explore some of the most interesting and profound ways in which the English language has been used by poets, novelists and dramatists.
Structure
You can complete your English Literature and Linguistics 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
In English, you will take the following modules (all compulsory):
- Poetry (15 credits)
- London Global (30 credits)
- Literatures in Time Epic and Romance in the Middle Ages (15 credits)
In Linguistics, you will take the following two compulsory modules:
- Foundations of Language (30 credits)
- Sociolinguistics: English in Use (15 credits)
In addition, students choose 15 credits from linguistics modules at level 4.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Year 2
In English you will take one 30 credit module from List One or Two, and at least one module from Lists Three or Four:
List One: Medieval and Early-Modern Studies
- Chaucer: Gender, Faith, Identity
- Renaissance Drama
- Renaissance Literary Culture
List Two: Eighteenth Century Studies, Romanticism, Nineteenth-Century Studies
- Representing London: Writing the Eighteenth Century City
- Romantics and Revolutionaries
- Victorian Fictions
List Three: Modern, Contemporary, and Postcolonial Studies
- The Long Contemporary
- Modernism
- Postcolonial and Global Literatures
List 4: Special Options (this list changes each year). Modules may include:
- American Romanticsm
- Art Histories: an Introduction to the Visual Arts in London
- Global Shakespeare
- James Baldwin and American Civil Rights
- Terror, Transgression and Astonishment: the Gothic in the Long Nineteenth Century
- The Crisis of Culture: Literature and Politics, 1918-1948
- The Thousand and One Nights
In Linguistics, students normally choose 60 Credits optional linguistics modules at level 5 from a wide range of options that changes each year. Modules may include:
- Aspects of Meaning
- Explaining Grammatical Structure
- History of English
- Language and Mind
- Language in the USA
- Research Methods in Linguistics
- Semantics of African American English
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Year 3
You will take one of the following modules:
- English Research Dissertation
- English/Linguistics Research Project
You then choose your final-year elective modules from a wide range of options that changes each year. In English, your selection will normally include one 30 credit option module.
Elective modules may include:
- Beyond Language: Multimodality in Theory and Practice
- British Fictions of the 1960s
- Constructing a Language
- Creative Writing Prose Fiction
- Developmental Disorders of Language and Cognition
- Feminism(s)
- Gender and Language
- Guillotines, Ghosts and Laughing Gas: Literature in the 1790s
- Heroes and Outlaws in History and Fiction from 1100 to 1600
- James Joyce's Ulysses
- Language and Health Communication
- Meaning in the Real World, Sex
- Reading Late Victorian Literature
- Shakespeare: the Play, the Word and the Book
- Teaching Trans Lives
- Time, Narrative and Culture
- Writing Black and Asian Britain
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 Literature and Linguistics 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
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.
Studying abroad has allowed me to improve upon my adaptability and flexibility in new situations. I now feel even more comfortable communicating with people from different cultures because of this experience. I loved meeting people from all over the world.
Teaching
Teaching and learning
You'll receive approximately 10 hours of weekly contact time, which will be a mixture of lectures and seminars. Lectures are given by expert staff, and can also feature guests such as industry experts, poets, linguists and curators. Modules may also include 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 exams and coursework, often in the form of essays, but sometimes as extended projects, presentations, log books and portfolios.
Resources and facilities
Both Schools offer 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
- 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 meet visiting experts including publishers, curators, archivists, poets, novelists, activists and filmmakers
- opportunities to write, edit and publish for student newspapers and magazines
- Ling Lunch talks and departmental guest speaker seminars, which allow you to hear from Queen Mary academics, researchers and experts from institutions in Europe and North America
- a phonetics laboratory, including a soundproof recording studio.
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. 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, English Language and Literature or English Language. 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 Literature and Linguistics graduates go on to work across many different sectors, including publishing, journalism, marketing, arts and heritage and public relations.
Recent graduates from our English Literature and Linguistics degree have been hired by:
- Curzon PR
- Harper Collins
- The Independent
- London and Partners
- Penguin Random House
- Shakespeare’s Globe.
Career support
You’ll have access to bespoke careers support every step of your degree, including personal academic support from the English and Linguistics Departments. A practical third-year module will prepare you for the transition from university to working life by researching career, entrepreneurial and postgraduate study prospects.
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.
Unistats data for these courses
English Literature and Linguistics - BA (Hons)
English Literature and Linguistics with Year Abroad - BA (Hons)
About the Schools
School of English and Drama - Department of English
We provide a first-class learning environment - the Departments of Drama and English are in the top 35 in the world (QS World Rankings by Subject 2018). And you’ll learn from leading experts: Drama is ranked first and English fifth in the UK for research quality (Research Excellence Framework 2014).
Our degrees make full use of the literary and cultural riches of London, with trips to venues such as Shakespeare’s Globe, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Library.
School of Languages Linguistics and Film
The School of Languages, Linguistics and Film is friendly and vibrant. Our students produce podcasts and short films, put on plays and liaise with writers and journalists.
We’re visited by poets, novelists and outside experts, and have strong links with London’s cultural institutions.
In the 2017 National Student Survey, French and Hispanic Studies received overall satisfaction ratings of 100 per cent – top in the UK. German was ranked first in London and Hispanic Studies and Russian in the top five by the Complete University Guide 2018.
