| Qualification | Start dates | Entry requirements | Full- or Part-time | UCAS Code | Assessment | |
| Bachelor of Arts (BA Honours) | January July September | A-level: BBB | Level of English required | Full-time | Q3P5 | Exam and Coursework |
Course outline
English Literature here is taught to small groups by energetic and enthusiastic staff, led by Oxford-trained academics with international research profiles in 19th and 20th-century studies. Ideas developed in core seminars are taken forward in weekly small-group tutorials, where half a dozen students are encouraged to discuss and interpret specific passages of writing, under the watchful guidance of their tutor.
Our students are expected to read widely, and to develop strong lines of argument and personal responses to what they find, anchored in an informed understanding of the discipline and with reference to the critical debates that animate it.
The degree is structured around a combination of period study, thematic study, and modules inculcating theoretical and practical skills. Victorian literature modules cover prose from Dickens to Gaskell, and poetry from Browning to Hardy; twentieth-century literature topics range from Rhys, Hurston, Woolf, and Plath to Hemingway, Forster, Larkin, and Beckett. Shakespeare is one central focus. Other earlier writers who are studied include Marlowe, Donne, Webster, Herbert, Milton, Dryden, Centlivre, Swift, Pope, Blake, Wordsworth, Austen, Keats, and Shelley. You can explore some of the modules on this website. Thematic study encourages students to analyse contextually based on sociological variations, gender, contemporary politics, and psychological influences. We encourage the understanding of contemporary literary and cultural theory while never losing sight of the values of liberal/aesthetic education.
This innovative programme combines a traditional academic major in one of the most popular and relevant humanities disciplines, with an up-to-date new vocational minor, that will assist young writers and critics to make their way in the worlds of print, broadcast or online journalism. In both fields, students will benefit from the small-group, personalized teaching on which Buckingham stakes its reputation. This programme is intended for both native-speakers of English and fluent ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers. If you are outgoing, communicative, curious about the world, but at the same time in love with language, and great writing, this is your ideal programme.
Applicants to this programme are encouraged to apply for a Sir Ray Tindle Journalism Scholarship.
Our recent graduates have gone on to pursue careers in the media, creative writing, teaching, academia, business and marketing.
Teaching methods
In this department we believe in the surpassing value of the reading, discussing and understanding of great works of literature, not simply as processes that lead to higher levels of employability and the development of valuable critical skills (which they undoubtedly do) but as ends in themselves which are enriching and, ultimately, liberating. Small-group teaching is the key here and we run our programmes through seminars, workshops, tutorials (6 students maximum) and informal one-to-one discussion. A third of the programme is taken up by learning a language to proficiency and beyond.
What our students and alumni say
“University can be a daunting prospect when you are not long out of school but the Buckingham English Department nurtures you and allows your personal talents to shine. I edited the university magazine and chaired the theatre group and I am now using the media component of my degree course as a springboard into desktop publishing which I adore.”
Matthew Sanderson (English Literature with Multimedia Journalism, 2004)
