School of Society and Culture

BA (Hons) English

UCAS tariff 104 - 112 Contextual offers
A contextual offer is an offer to study at university that takes personal circumstances that may affect grades into account.
UCAS course code Q300
Institution code P60
Duration

3 years

(+ optional placement)
Assessment breakdown 100% coursework
Course type

Full-time
Study location Plymouth
Register for open day
Apply at UCAS.com

Engage with the breadth and variety of literature in English, from the rise of the gothic to the graphic novel. Choose from modules exploring literature in relation to history, genre, culture – and, if you wish, sample creative writing. English is a degree highly valued by employers, so take advantage of our many opportunities for work experience and prepare for a rewarding career.

Personalise your degree

At Plymouth, your degree really is what you make it. Choose to study optional modules from across the school.

Year 2 icon
In your second year...
Choose to swap in up to two modules from across the school.
School of Society and Culture stick or swap graphic
In your final year...
Dive deeper into your subject by sticking with our selection of options or swap in another module from across the school.
Certificate icon dark
Achieve your final degree certificate
If you've studied three optional modules from the same second subject area, you can choose to add this to your degree certificate.
Find out how our flexible course structures provide you with an opportunity to personalise your studies, feed your curiosity, and help you achieve your career aspirations.

Careers with this subject
  • Designed to ensure a range of real-world, professional skills. For example, we have modules that provide professional skills relating to scriptwriting, journalism, and publishing. There is also an optional placement year to gain professional experience before graduating.
  • Develop a range of valuable skills, including critical and creative thinking and excellent communication, presentation and project management skills.
  • Benefit from a tailored programme of Careers events and opportunities. As an English graduate you will be a compelling candidate for all kinds of jobs including teaching, marketing, journalism, publishing, and museum work.
  • Boost your career prospects by working with a publishing house, literary agent, arts organisation or magazine on our work-based learning module or extra-curricular internships.

Key features
  • Personalise your degree by choosing from a wide variety of optional modules in literary studies and creative writing, or widen your horizons by taking specialist modules in other subjects in the school.
  • Learn from internationally recognised research-active staff.
  • Benefit from assessment through coursework, with no written exams.
  • Make the most of a rich cultural life with our Arts & Culture Programme and the University’s links with local cultural organisations, like The Box and Theatre Royal.

Course details

  • Year 1

  • In your first year, you'll study historical, theoretical, and aesthetic approaches to literary analysis. You’ll read literature which investigates the making of the modern world; engage with exciting theories of reading such as eco-criticism, psychoanalysis and Marxism; and, if you choose, try your hand at creative writing in a wide range of genres including prose, poetry, drama and professional writing. You will also learn key research and essay-writing skills.

    Core modules

    ENG4001
    Gods, Monsters, and Heroes: Myths and Legends in Literature 20 credits

    This immersive module provides an important grounding for new students studying English and Creative Writing. Based around some of the earliest written texts that underpin Western literature, the module engages with a number of issues to enable students to gain an understanding of the historical development of literature and the ways in which texts relate to each other over the centuries.

    100% Coursework

    ENG4002
    Writing and the Modern World, 1600-1700 20 credits

    This module considers ‘modern’ ways of writing, thinking, trading, seeing, and relating to others in the seventeenth century. The literature of this period first explores ideas central to our own time and place, and is crucial both to understanding literary history and to understanding ourselves. The course will be structured through four key narratives, traced through a chronological selection of texts: authority, modern ideas of gender, global capitalism and modern print culture

    100% Coursework

    ENG4003
    The Craft of Writing I: Prose Fiction and Non-Fiction 20 credits

    This module introduces students to the key concepts and issues in creative writing through the practise of workshops. We will read classic contemporary works of fiction and nonfiction including autobiography, travel writing, poetry sequences, essays and reportage. We will produce our own works, and critically evaluate and contextualise them.

    100% Coursework

    ENG4005
    Writing and the Modern World, 1700-1800 20 credits

    This module considers the further development of modern ways of writing, thinking, trading, and seeing in the eighteenth century. This period is crucial to understanding literary history and ourselves. The module explores four key themes:- the beginnings of human rights and democracy in the eighteenth century - modern ideas of gender which originate in the eighteenth century - imperialism & the transatlantic world - eighteenth-century reading practices and the development of new genres.

    80% Coursework

    20% Practicals

    ENG4007
    Rewritings: Contemporary Literature and its Histories 20 credits

    This module will examine how and why modern and contemporary authors have rewritten or reworkedinfluential literary texts of the past. Students will engage with a range of different literary forms,including fiction, poetry, drama and, where appropriate, film. By investigating the impulses behind suchintertextual acts, students will explore the ways in which literature engages with the cultural politics ofits times, focusing particularly on issues of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class and aesthetics. This module will include 2, 2 hour talks that introduce our School and programme level employability related opportunities and support, including details of the optional placement year.

    100% Coursework

    ENG4010
    Adventures in Criticism: Introduction to Critical Theory 20 credits

    This module will introduce some key critical theories relevant to the study of English literature. It will familiarise students with a range of theoretical perspectives and enable them to develop an understanding of different ways of reading literature, and its wider contexts.

    100% Coursework

  • Year 2

  • In your second year, you’ll take core modules in Romantic and Victorian literature, studying these key periods from an interdisciplinary perspective, and engaging with debates in philosophy, science, psychology, politics, art, gender and race. You will then select from a wide range of specialist modules, including a range of specialist literary, creative, and work-based options. You’ll also have the opportunity to branch out beyond literary studies, if you wish, and take specialist modules in other subjects in the School.

    Core modules

    ENG5001
    Romanticism 20 credits

    In this module literary Romanticism, in its rich and problematic diversity, is introduced and explored through a consideration of imaginative conceptions of the individual in writing between 1790 and 1830. The study ranges through a selection of texts in verse – lyric and narrative – and prose - essayistic, theoretical and fictional.

    100% Coursework

    ENG5009
    Victorian Literature and Culture 20 credits

    This module aims to introduce students to the Victorian period through an examination of literature read in conjunction with a range of other contemporary cultural documents including scientific, sociological, psychological, political economic and aesthetic texts.

    100% Coursework

    ENG5019
    Brave New Worlds: Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Politics 20 credits

    Science Fiction seems to be a field or mode that is particularly difficult to define, in part because it crosses over with many other forms. But it is also one of the most popular types of literature easily ranging from the highbrow to the low. This module will explore SF writing since 1960, with a particular focus on the hybridity of the field and the ways in which it intersects with fantasy writing, to explore a range of political issues in the contemporary world. SF is ‘a wide-ranging, multivalent and endlessly cross-fertilizing cultural idiom.’ (Roberts, 2006, 2) But is it really concerned with the future, or in fact, driven by nostalgia to engage with the ways in which the past has constructed the present? The module will be thematically structured and will concentrate on Anglophone writing.

    100% Coursework

    ENG5003
    American Novel 20 credits

    This module will explore the development of the novel in America from its beginnings in the eighteenth century through to the twentieth century. As part of this module, students will consider changes in the novel form with particular reference to America’s literary history.

    100% Coursework

    Optional modules

    SSC500
    Stage 2 Professional Development, Placement Preparation and Identifying Opportunities 0 credits

    This module is for students in the School of Society and Culture who are interested in undertaking an optional placement in the third year of their programme. It supports students in their search, application, and preparation for the placement, including developing interview techniques and effective application materials (e.g. CVs , portfolios, and cover letters).

    PIR5013MX
    Politics Beyond Parliaments 20 credits

    This module analyses the role of civil society and the public sphere in democratic governance and in democratization from a variety of theoretical perspectives.

    100% Coursework

    CRM5003MX
    Harm in the 21st Century 20 credits

    This module explores the global challenges of harmful behaviours and activities in contemporary society by considering specific areas of concern for criminologists. By drawing on real-world examples in everyday life, the module examines how social problems and issues have arisen due to processes of globalisation that have changed the social, political and economic landscape of the 21st century.

    100% Coursework

    CRM5009MX
    Crime, Harm and Culture 20 credits

    The module aims to provide students with a critical appreciation of harm and crime by exploring relevant issues from film, television, music, fiction literature and art. By applying a criminological lens to different forms of popular culture, students will be able to examine a variety of media forms in terms of its content and its contemporary political, social and economic context using different theories and concepts.

    100% Coursework

    ENG5002MX
    Gothic Fictions: Villains, Virgins and Vampires 20 credits

    This module looks at eighteenth- and nineteenth-century novels to trace the variety and scope of literary contributions to the Gothic. It begins by discussing the origins of the Gothic novel, then moves to the heyday of the genre in the revolutionary 1790s, on to authors writing in the early and mid-nineteenth century, through to the decadence of the 1890s.

    100% Coursework

    ENG5013MX
    ‘Hurt Minds’: Madness and Mental Illness in Literature 20 credits

    This module considers changing attitudes towards, and a variety of theories of, the mind, examining how different cultures have understood ‘healthy’ and ‘unhealthy’ mental states. It will look at how the experience and treatment of mental illness has been represented in fiction. The mind is at its most fascinating when it behaves outside of expected social norms. By considering a variety of literary texts over several centuries, this module explores shifts in the definition, understanding, evaluation, and management of exceptional mental states.

    100% Coursework

    ENG5017MX
    Writing Genre Fiction 20 credits

    This module takes students into in-depth engagement with prose fiction writing in various genres, with possibilities including fantasy, science-fiction, period/historical, young adult fiction, horror, comedy, romance, crime, and thriller. The module is taught through lecture, seminars, and workshops where students are asked to submit and feedback to peers and tutors on a regular basis.

    100% Coursework

    LAW5019MX
    Law in Context: Commerce and Intellectual Property 20 credits

    This module focuses on the work of commercial lawyers in practice in helping businesses to trade. It analyses a range of contractual agreements dealing with the manufacture, sale, supply and distribution of goods, assets and services in general and intellectual property in particular.

    100% Coursework

    PER5008MX
    Play and Games for Performance 20 credits

    This module will introduce students to practical methods for designing games and play structures for participatory performances that invite audiences to become actively involved in the work. In addition to learning new tools for designing and facilitating play, students will be prompted to consider playfulness from a theoretical perspective, recognising the connection between the play of mimesis and theatrical performance.

    100% Coursework

    PIR5014MX
    Voter Behaviour and Effective Election Campaigning 20 credits

    This module undertakes an advanced examination of contemporary trends and developments in theories of electoral behaviour globally; then more specifically the relationship between electoral rules, electoral systems and election outcomes; the evolution of campaign techniques, and the role, mechanics, and accuracy of opinion polls in modern electoral politics. These global understandings are applied directly to the case of British politics.

    100% Coursework

  • Optional placement year

  • Core modules

    SSC600
    School of Society and Culture Placement Year

    Students have the opportunity to gain work experience that will set them apart in the job market when they graduate by undertaking an optional flexible placement year. The placement must be a minimum of 24-weeks (which can be split between a maximum of two different placement providers) and up to a maximum of 48-weeks over the course of the academic year. The placement is flexible and can be undertaken virtually, part or full time and either paid or voluntary. This year allows them to apply and hone the knowledge and skills acquired from the previous years of their programme in the real world.

  • Final year

  • In your final year, you’ll complete your period studies core with the ground-breaking literature of early 20th-century Modernism. You’ll also choose from a range of specialist modules, mostly with a focus on 20th-century and contemporary literature. There will be a further opportunity to choose a module from another subject in the school if you wish to branch out. You’ll also design and develop your own year-long dissertation project on a topic of your choice, which you'll work on with focused support from your personal supervisor.

    Core modules

    ENG6001
    Dissertation 40 credits

    The student will complete, under tutorial supervision, a significant project in critical or creative writing. Maximum length 9000-10,00 words or equivalent in creative form.

    100% Coursework

    ENG6002
    Modern and Contemporary Literature 20 credits

    This module will explore a number of themes through an examination of writing published in the approximate period 1910-1930. The themes will include structural and linguistic experimentation, historical and artistic influences, the First World War and literary networks.

    100% Coursework

    ENG6012
    Shakespeare and the Early Modern Stage 20 credits

    This module provides an introduction to many aspects of Shakespeare’s plays with emphasis on the practice and practicalities of playwriting for the early modern stage and on Shakespeare’s plays in performance. Students will also be introduced to a range of critical approaches to the plays, from Shakespeare’s contemporaries to the present day.

    100% Coursework

    ENG6006
    Laughing Matters: Cruelty and Comedy of Literary Satire 20 credits

    Introduces historical and contemporary satirical theories; analyses satirical forms; enables critical engagement with the foundational associated modes: comedy, parody, irony and hyperbole.

    100% Coursework

    Optional modules

    ENG6005MX
    American Crime Writing 20 credits

    This module considers the development of twentieth-century American crime fiction from hard-boiled detectives, to myths of the mafia, and postmodern reinventions of the genre. This module will explore the cultural contexts of American crime writing, prevailing conventions of the genre, as well as challenges to those conventions.

    100% Coursework

    ENG6008MX
    Features Journalism Workshop 20 credits

    This module offers students an in-depth experience of professional writing. We will explore technique in features and literary journalism; music reviews, opinion columns and longer immersion features as well as other contemporary works of non-fiction feature writing, both short- and long-form, from sub-genres including profiles and interviews, autobiography and columns, travel writing, and reportage. We will learn to research and produce our own works of professional nonfiction and critically evaluate them.

    100% Coursework

The modules shown for this course are those currently being studied by our students, or are proposed new modules. Please note that programme structures and individual modules are subject to amendment from time to time as part of the University’s curriculum enrichment programme and in line with changes in the University’s policies and requirements.

Personalise your degree
All our degrees have a wide range of optional modules and there is even the opportunity to study modules from any of the School of Society and Culture 's subject areas.
You could graduate with one of the following personalised course title combinations:
 
English with Anthropology

Modules

    ANT5006MX
    Decolonising the Social Sciences 20 credits

    This module responds to contemporary calls to decolonise the social sciences. It reads the history of social science through the lens of post-colonial and indigenous studies. How have non-western voices been marginalised and silenced by academia? What does academia look from the perspective of the subaltern? Can the social sciences shed their colonial robes, or are they doomed to remain racialised and exclusionary disciplines? We explore these questions in regard to emerging disciplines aimed at constructing better and more inclusive futures, including 'indigenous criminology', 'participatory ethnography', and the 'anthropology of the otherwise'.

    100% Coursework

    ANT5008MX
    Brave New Worlds: Ethnography of/on Online and Digital Worlds 20 credits

    This module teaches students how to use ethnographic methods to make sense of the internet, which we now increasingly inhabit. Students learn how to navigate and analyse platforms such as Facebook or TikTok. They study how these technologies transform our relationships, identities, and ideas of truth. The module also examines the socio-cultural and ethical aspects of digital worlds (e.g. Second life).

    100% Coursework

    ANT6008MX
    Coastal Cultures: Marine Anthropology in the age of climate change and mass extinction. 20 credits

    Using ethnography, we analyse how coastal communities use the sea – not only as a source of livelihood, but as a key ingredient in the construction of their identity and place in world. Drawing on a range of cases from across the world – from Polynesian sorcerers, to Japanese whale mourners, to Cornish surfers – we study how coastal communities are responding to climate change, sea level rise, pollution, and extinction.

    100% Coursework

English with Art History

Modules

    ARH5008MX
    Painting Sex and Power 20 credits

    The module examines the link between the perception of sexuality and power in a variety of media, and from diverse historical and geographic contexts. Critical approaches from gender studies will be combined with visual analysis in order to contextualize the biased and stereotypical nature of the imagery.

    100% Coursework

    ARH5002MX
    Imagery in Online and Offline Worlds: Film, Television and Video Games 20 credits

    This module provides students with a comprehensive understanding of current approaches towards mass media and visual culture. Particular emphasis will be put on medium-specificity, content analysis and audience studies.

    100% Coursework

    ARH6002MX
    Questions in Contemporary Art 20 credits

    The module introduces and examines selected questions raised in the last three decades in contemporary art. Case studies drawn from art history, critical and cultural theory, and where appropriate related disciplines, will be examined.

    100% Coursework

English with Creative Writing

Modules

    ENG5010MX
    Writing Creative Nonfiction: Autobiography, Travel Writing, Reportage 20 credits

    This module introduces students to the key concepts and issues in contemporary works of creative nonfiction, or 'life writing'. Included in our readings will be works of memoir and autobiography, travel writing, personal essays and reportage. The module is entirely taught in workshops where we experiment with producing our own works of creative nonfiction and learning to refine them, as well as critically evaluate and contextualise them.

    100% Coursework

English with History

Modules

    HIS5004MX
    Global Cold War: Politics, Culture and Society 20 credits

    This module is an introduction to major themes in the political, social and cultural history of the modern world with special focus on the 20th century and the Cold War.

    100% Coursework

    HIS5007MX
    Eighteenth-Century Empires 20 credits

    This module is designed to explore the ‘long eighteenth century’ with a broad geographical focus, encompassing, but not limited to the Atlantic Isles, Atlantic world, formal and informal empire, and trading connections. It takes in the slave trade and impact of slavery globally, studies voyages of exploration, examines the scientific and political enlightenment, and wider cultural and social impacts of imperialism.

    100% Coursework

    HIS5009MX
    Middle Kingdoms: Themes in Early Modern Asia 20 credits

    This module introduces the history of early modern Japan (c.16th-19th centuries). At one level, it explores key questions shaping the histories of the late Sengoku (‘Warring States’) and Tokugawa Japan. Building on these questions, it then situates the Japanese experience in a trans-regional perspective with reference to early modern China, Korea, Ryukyu, as well as Europe.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

    HIS5014MX
    Dunkirk to D Day: The Second World War in Europe 20 credits

    The module examines the Second World War in Europe and the Atlantic Ocean from 1940 to late 1944.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

    HIS6002MX
    Piracy and Privateering, c.1560-1816 20 credits

    This module explores piracy and privateering activity in the seas around the British Isles and further afield from the reign of Queen Elizabeth to the end of the second Barbary War in 1816. This course focuses on the social history of piracy and privateering, the organisation of pirate society, and the economic impact of piracy and privateering.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

    HIS6006MX
    America, the United Nations and International Relations 1945 to the present 20 credits

    This module provides a detailed examination of the relationship between the United States of America and the United Nations in the management of international relations from 1945 to the present.

    Explore this module

    100% Coursework

English with Criminology

Modules

    CRM6010MX
    Green Criminology 20 credits

    This module will address theoretical perspectives, methodological issues, and empirical research related to the field of green criminology, including applied concerns, such as policy and social/political praxis, through a range of concepts, topics, and themes that are central to green criminology.

    100% Coursework

    CRM5007MX
    Contemporary Issues in Criminology 20 credits

    This module focuses upon a contemporary criminological or criminal justice-related issue that has received attention in the media and in official reports but may not be well covered yet in an established academic literature. The purpose of the module is for students to collect data on the issue and to subject it to a criminological analysis appropriate to the topic.

    100% Coursework

    CRM5008MX
    Security and Policing Today: Debates and Issues 20 credits

    This module provides students with a contemporary overview of debates and issues in policing and security environments that inform practice and development in the field. The module examines how modern policing and security function, the impact of professionalization on all aspects of policing tasks and the tensions and benefits attained from multi-agency working. The module considers policing legitimacy, the ethics of crime control and associated engagement with the diversity of contemporary society, competing community interests and professional practice.

    70% Coursework

    30% Tests

    CRM6011MX
    Security Management 20 credits

    This module provides students with a critical insight into the professional domain of security management. It provides an overview of the theories, policies, procedures and practices that underpin the work of the security manager, and focuses upon a career-relevant knowledge and understanding of this significant area of expertise.

    70% Coursework

    30% Tests

English with International Relations

Modules

    PIR6007MX
    Global Environmental Politics 20 credits

    This module examines the problem of environmental degradation and its implications for our global political economy. It discusses the major debates in political thought around the primary causes of environmental degradation. The module outlines the major attempts to build international regimes for global environmental governance, and the difficulties and obstacles that such attempts have encountered. A range of ideas, critiques, policy proposals, innovations in governance, and templates for political activism within the environmental movement are critically evaluated.

    100% Coursework

    PIR5009MX
    Refugee Studies 20 credits

    This module focuses on the political, economic and social context of forced migration and considers the complex and varied nature of global refugee populations. It analyses responses at international, national and regional level and engages with a range of challenging questions around international co-operation, the framework of international protection, humanitarianism and the causes of displacement.

    100% Coursework

    PIR5011MX
    Global Development 20 credits

    This module embraces both theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding development issues and policies, at international and multilateral scale. The approach incorporates historical, economic, political and social perspectives. The module considers issues faced by international development agencies, as well as the impact on populations in the developing world to illustrate and provide context for the discussion of various developmental concerns.

    100% Coursework

English with Politics

Modules

    PIR6008MX
    Voter Behaviour and Effective Election Campaigning 20 credits

    This module undertakes an advanced examination of contemporary trends and developments in theories of electoral behaviour globally; then more specifically the relationship between electoral rules, electoral systems and election outcomes; the evolution of campaign techniques, and the role, mechanics, and accuracy of opinion polls in modern electoral politics. These global understandings are applied directly to the case of British politics.

    100% Coursework

English with Sociology

Modules

    SOC5005MX
    Globalisation and Social Justice 20 credits

    This module investigates the key debates of globalisation and critically evaluates, in terms of its economic, political, socio-cultural and legal dimensions, the causes and consequences of a globalising world. It furthermore explores a range of international social justice issues to examine the relationships (causative and ameliorative) between policies and (in)justice

    60% Coursework

    40% Practicals

    SOC5006MX
    Gender, Sex and Sexuality 20 credits

    This module introduces students to the sociology of gender, sex and sexuality. It interrogates these concepts with particular reference to identity, activism, social justice and social change. It develops an understanding of the similarities, differences and intersections between gender, sex, sexuality and other social signifiers of difference/diversity including ‘race’, ethnicity, dis/ability, class and age.

    100% Coursework

    SOC6004MX
    Health, Medical Power and Social Justice 20 credits

    This module considers a range of issues concerning health, illness and medical power in contemporary society. The module seeks to develop an understanding of the impact of ‘medicalisation’ on everyday life, as well as the importance of social divisions, such as age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status. There will be a focus on a range of sociological perspectives on health with an opportunity to focus upon areas of particular interest.

    100% Coursework

English with Law

Modules

    LAW5009MX
    Environmental Law 20 credits

    The module provides an examination of key themes in environmental law, with a focus on the generation, application and enforcement of this law within a critical and applied context.

    100% Coursework

    LAW5012MX
    Law, Literature and the Screen 20 credits

    To introduce students to fictional and factional representations of the legal order in prose, film and TV, and to examine the inter-connections between law, literature and the screen.

    100% Coursework

    LAW6012MX
    Public International Law 20 credits

    A module that focuses on the primary legal principles of the public international legal order, before exploring a range of substantive areas, such as, for example, the use of force, the law regulating the conduct of war, International Human Rights, International Criminal Law and International Environmental Law.

    100% Coursework

English with Policing and Security Management

Modules

    CRM6011MX
    Security Management 20 credits

    This module provides students with a critical insight into the professional domain of security management. It provides an overview of the theories, policies, procedures and practices that underpin the work of the security manager, and focuses upon a career-relevant knowledge and understanding of this significant area of expertise.

    70% Coursework

    30% Tests

    CRM5008MX
    Security and Policing Today: Debates and Issues 20 credits

    This module provides students with a contemporary overview of debates and issues in policing and security environments that inform practice and development in the field. The module examines how modern policing and security function, the impact of professionalization on all aspects of policing tasks and the tensions and benefits attained from multi-agency working. The module considers policing legitimacy, the ethics of crime control and associated engagement with the diversity of contemporary society, competing community interests and professional practice.

    70% Coursework

    30% Tests

    CRM5006MX
    Forensic Criminology: Social Investigations

    This module focuses on how social science can contribute to criminal investigations. This involvesforensically investigating the backgrounds and experiences of individuals involved in criminal or deviantbehaviour. The sociology of the police who are tasked to conduct investigations is also analysed. Students will be encouraged to apply criminological techniques and theory to scenario-based examples which will focus on victims, offenders and the police, and their positions in society.

Entry requirements

UCAS tariff

104 - 112

Contextual offers: Typically, the contextual offer for this course is 8 points below the advertised tariff. A contextual offer is an offer to study at university that takes into account individual circumstances that are beyond your control, and that can potentially impact your learning and your exam results, or your confidence in applying to university.

Check your eligibility for a contextual offer

A level
Typical offer will be 104 points from a minimum of 2 A levels, including A level English Language, Literature or Creative Writing, or a related subject (e.g., History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Sociology) at Grade B, excluding General Studies.
International Baccalaureate
26–28 points overall. Typical offer will be 26 points overall including three subjects at Higher Level and English at grade 5 at Higher Level. If overseas and not studying English within IB, you must have IELTS 6.5 overall with 5.5 in all elements.
18 Unit BTEC National Diploma/QCF Extended Diploma
DMM. Please contact admissions@plymouth.ac.uk for more information.
BTEC National Diploma modules
If you hold a BTEC qualification, it is vital that you provide our Admissions team with details of the exact modules you have studied as part of the BTEC. Without this information, we may be unable to process your application quickly and you could experience significant delays in the progress of your application to study with us. Please explicitly state the full list of modules within your qualification at the time of application.
All access courses
Pass a named Access to Higher Education Diploma (preferably English, humanities or combined), with at least 33 credits at merit and/or distinction.
T level
As a University we will continue to review T Level qualifications as more information becomes available in the next couple of months.
GCSE
Mathematics and English language grade C/4. If you meet this criteria, please seek further advice with the Admissions team at admissions@plymouth.ac.uk.
Equivalent qualifications may be considered.
We welcome applicants with international qualifications. To view other accepted qualifications, please refer to our tariff glossary.

Fees, costs and funding
Student 2024-2025 2025-2026 *
Home £9,250 £9,250
International £17,100 £17,600
Part time (Home) £770 £770
Full time fees shown are per annum. Part time fees shown are per 10 credits. Please note that fees are reviewed on an annual basis. Fees and the conditions that apply to them shown in the prospectus are correct at the time of going to print. Fees shown on the web are the most up to date but are still subject to change in exceptional circumstances. More information about fees and funding.

* UK Government announcement on tuition fees

On Monday 4 November 2024 the UK Government announced a proposal to increase tuition fees for home undergraduate students from £9,250 to £9,535 per annum from September 2025 onwards. The University of Plymouth intends to apply this new fee from September 2025. However, implementation of this increase will be subject to Parliamentary procedure. The University will give further details to both prospective and current students as soon as more information becomes available.

Undergraduate scholarships for international students

To reward outstanding achievement the University of Plymouth offers scholarship schemes to help towards funding your studies.

Additional costs

This course is delivered by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business and more details of any additional costs associated with the faculty's courses are listed on the following page: Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business additional costs .

Tuition fees for optional placement years

The fee for all undergraduate students completing any part of their placement year in the UK in 2024/2025 is £1,850.
The fee for all undergraduate students completing their whole placement year outside the UK in 2024/2025 is £1,385.
 Learn more about placement year tuition fees

How to apply
All applications for undergraduate courses are made through UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service).
UCAS will ask for the information contained in the box at the top of this course page including the UCAS course code and the institution code.
To apply for this course and for more information about submitting an application including application deadline dates, please visit the UCAS website.
Support is also available to overseas students applying to the University from our International Office via our how to apply webpage or email admissions@plymouth.ac.uk.

Learning from experts, you'll have a wealth of resources at your fingertips

English and creative writing promo screenshot
Expert-led
All modules are taught by specialists actively writing and researching in their fields – this award-winning research is embedded in their everyday teaching. Our researchers also use their expertise to play a leading role developing major public projects.
Outside view of the Charles Seale-Hayne library
Fully supported
Access resources such as the Charles Seale-Hayne Library, specialist writing support from the Learning Gateway and Writing Cafe, and the archives at Plymouth's museum and art gallery, The Box.
Student in Bath on a field trip - part of the Jane Austen module
Real-world, professional skills
Focused course content allows you to narrow your specialisms while field trips and work-based learning ensure your skills are transferable to employment. We have modules that provide professional skills and an optional placement year.

My time at Plymouth has allowed me to explore various career options. I’ve never had a concrete idea of what I want to do with my degree, however the lecturers and support staff at Plymouth have enabled me to try public speaking at open days, writing for the ‘Bruseels’ pamphlet, and editing for INK Journal, all of which have given me a clearer idea of what I wish to pursue.

Mitchell Gregory, BA (Hons) English student

It was one day during my first year I wrote a random LinkedIn post saying “I've got this idea for a magazine…” and within a couple of hours I’d had hundreds of emails from people wanting to be a part of it. I felt so underqualified to be leading a team of women who just wanted to tell great stories! But we built up a team of 40, wrote the content, and within three months we started publishing.

Write your future

Take advantage of the many opportunities on offer to develop the knowledge and practical experience to succeed.

Options without limit
The broad variety of skills you will hone are highly valued in almost every field, giving you access to numerous career pathways.

International exchange

Expand your horizons overseas
Experience other cultures and grow your network by studying or working abroad in either Europe or the US.

Become a published author
Gain invaluable experience with INK, our in-house magazine, building skills in everything from desktop publishing to editing and magazine journalism.

Learn from award-winning researchers and writers

Featured modules

Explore an eclectic range of literature across cultures and geographies using a decolonial perspective to help gain a critical understanding of the world. The first year module, 'Critical Theory', introduces key theories which helps to understand literature from different perspectives.
In addition, modules such as 'Literature of The Atlantic World: Race, Resistance, and Revolution' and 'Hurt Minds: Madness and Mental Illness in Literature' explore how thinking has changed on issues such as race, class, gender and mental health.
The moon through a window - BA English featured module
Gothic Fictions: Villains, Virgins, Vampires
Woman's hand writing on a notebook with a pen on a wooden desk.
Professional Writing
Surveillance camera and graffiti (image courtesy of iStock - 000011792920)
American Crime Writing
Miriam Darlington

“The creative arts are a brilliant way for people to express feelings they might not be ready to talk about.

“Creative writing and painting are positive mediums to express my emotions. Poetry in particular helps process my experiences with masculinity and mental health.”
Discover how creative writing – in tandem with a rising reputation for painting – helps current BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing student Ieuan Holt express different pieces of himself.
Ieuan Holt at the Royal Academy of Arts

Preparing you for your future

Real-world workplace experience ensures our students are career ready upon graduation
We believe that real-world experience is central to success in today's job market. We focus on embedding experiential learning into our courses through our exciting partnerships with external organisations, offering students the opportunity to undertake internships, placements and volunteering.
Two young intercultural interns or placement students discussing notes in copybook in and office setting.Shutterstock 2224873497