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What makes English Literature and History at Worcester special?

In combination, these subject areas enable you to explore English Literature in some of the immensely varied contexts of its production alongside investigating different aspects of History across a broad range of periods.

English Literature at Worcester will introduce you to cutting-edge thinking in spheres as diverse as Shakespeare in performance, children’s literature, contemporary American writing and ecocriticism.

History at Worcester offers you the opportunity to study the political, cultural and social history and introduces you to many of today’s debates surrounding approaches to historical study.

Overview

Overview

Key Features

  • A long, established and evolving course with highly-skilled and enthusiastic lecturers who are experienced teachers and published researchers
  • Strong emphasis on the development of advanced literacy, research, analysis and communication – all of which are highly valued by employers
  • A wide range of modules in British, European and World History from the sixteenth through to the twenty-first centuries and encompassing both ‘canonical’ and ‘marginal’ texts
  • Opportunities to gain work experience, to study abroad for a semester and to play an active role in local and regional literature festivals.
  • Ready access to the nationally significant resources of Worcestershire County Archives Service, which is based in The Hive (the university library)
  • Tailor your course to your individual needs with a joint honours course  

 

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It’s not too late to apply!

You can still apply to study with us after the January UCAS deadline. Don’t be tempted to rush an application together as fast as you can, you still want to make sure your application and personal statement are as good as possible.

Your teachers can still write you a reference after the January deadline so make sure to let them know you’re applying to university

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Book your place at an Open Day

Want to know why so many students love living and studying in Worcester?

Our Open Days are the perfect way to find out.

Book your place
Entry requirements

What qualifications will you need?

104
UCAS tariff points

Entry Requirements

104 UCAS Tariff points 

Study options

Full-time or part-time study available

 

Toni Brookes, English Literature graduate

“Studying English at Worcester undoubtedly provided me with three of the most academically stimulating years I’ve had so far. I was given the opportunity to study literature from the 16th century through to the contemporary, with the chance to focus on specific research interests through the final year dissertation project. We covered a diverse range of periods and genres, with assessment including traditional academic essays, creative portfolios, reflective journals and group presentations. Throughout my studies I always felt supported, both personally and professionally, by academic staff who were encouraging, responsive and passionate about their subjects.

"Since graduating from the University of Worcester I have held professional roles in copywriting, marketing more generally, and currently, higher education. Having enjoyed my final year dissertation so much, I also decided to pursue postgraduate study and recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Contemporary Literature and Culture, obtaining a distinction classification. There is no doubt that the skills in critical thinking and analysis I developed throughout my degree were fundamental to successfully completing postgraduate work, and I often find myself thinking about the wonderfully transformative environment I was able to study in as an undergraduate.”

Great lecturers who care and want to help as much as they can to help me achieve the best possible grades. Interesting new modules which I would not have considered taking prior to my undergraduate degree.

BA History student

Course content

What will you study

Our courses are informed by research and current developments in the discipline and feedback from students, external examiners and employers. Modules do therefore change periodically in the interests of keeping the course relevant and reflecting best practice. The most up-to-date information will be available to you once you have accepted a place and registered for the course. If there are insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, this might not be offered, but we will advise you as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative. 

The modules for this course are currently being reviewed and updated for 2023 entry; for the latest information please contact the course leader.

Year 1

Mandatory modules:

  • Britain since the Reformation (30 credits)
  • Reconstructing the Past: Academic, Public and Popular History (30 credits)
  • Literary Forms and Genres
  • Ways of Reading, Ways of Writing
  • Writing Worcester Past and Present

 

 

 

Year 2

Mandatory modules:

  • Exploding the Canon: Literary Theory and Practice

 

 

Module options:

  • Movement and Migration
  • Politics, Sex and Identity in the Early Modern World
  • Shakespeare: Stage, Page and Screen
  • Gothic and Romantic Literature
  • Spaces of Modernity
  • Children’s Literature
  • Work Project
  • Historical Research: Method and Practice (30 credits)
  • The American Century, 1917-2001 (30 credits)
  • The German Empire, 1862-1918
  • History Work Experience Module
  • War and Peace: The Making of Modern Ireland (30 credits)
  • ‘A People’s War?’ Britain and the Second World War
  • Georgian Britain and the Atlantic World, 1760-1820.

Year 3

Module options:

  • Independent Research Project/Dissertation
  • Justice and Revenge: from Tragedy to the Western
  • Postcolonial Encounters
  • Writing and the Environment
  • War and Conflict
  • Gendering Voices
  • Partnerships and Rivalries
  • Literatures and Cultures: International Explorations
  • Queer Bodies, Queer Texts
  • Literature and Culture – Local Heritage
  • The Good War: USA in WW2
  • The Atlantic Slave Trade
  • Nazi Germany
  • Research Experience Module
  • British Imperialism, c.1857-1972
  • Gender, Sexuality and Welfare. The Body in History.
  • Witchcraft and the Devil
  • Japan's World, 1854-1951 
2 female students and 1 male student working at table

Joint Honours

Discover our full range of joint degrees and read about how your degree will be structured.

Find out more about studying a joint honours course
Teaching and assessment

How will you be taught?

For more information about teaching, learning and assessment on this course, please see the single honours course pages for English Literature and History.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification documents for English Literature and History.

 

Meet the team

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course.

Professor Michael Bradshaw

Professor Michael Bradshaw

Michael is the Head of School of Humanities, having previously worked at Edge Hill University, Manchester Metropolitan University, Bristol University and the University of Tokyo.

Michael is a specialist in Romanticism, especially poetry and drama of later Romantics. His published critical work includes authors such as: Thomas Lovell Beddoes, John Clare, George Darley, Thomas Hood, John Keats, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Walter Savage Landor, Mary Shelley, and Percy Shelley. 

He has also published on Romantic drama, ‘Romantic generations’, Romantic fragment poems, and the periodical press in the 1820s, as well as the contemporary author Alan Moore.

Dr Lucy Arnold

Dr Lucy Arnold is a specialist in Contemporary literature, with particular research interests in contemporary gothic, narratives of haunting, contemporary women’s writing and psychoanalytic criticism. Her teaching experience spans a wide range of periods and genres but focusses on twentieth and twenty-first century literature. Her published work to date has concerned the writing of Booker Prize winning novelist Hilary Mantel, with her monograph, Reading Hilary Mantel: Haunted Decades, published with Bloomsbury in 2019.

professor-darren-oldridge

Professor Darren Oldridge

Darren Oldridge is a specialist in sixteenth and seventeenth-century religious history. His interests include witchcraft and the Devil, the supernatural, and the religious context of the English Civil Wars. A recurring theme of his work is the rationality underpinning apparently strange beliefs: this is reflected, most recently, in the new edition of Strange Histories (Routledge: 2017). More broadly, he is interested in the relationship between poetry and film and the past.

At Worcester Darren teaches modules that reflect these interests, including The Early Modern World and Witchcraft and the Devil. At present he is editing the third edition of The Witchcraft Reader, to be published by Routledge in 2018.

prof-suzanne-schwarz

Professor Suzanne Schwarz

Suzanne Schwarz’s teaching at the University of Worcester focuses on the transatlantic slave trade and West Africa in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She also focuses on developing historical research skills for students through the study of regional and local history. She was the recipient of two student-led teaching awards in 2013 and 2014.

Careers

Where could it take you?

Employability

Many English Literature graduates will take a fourth year postgraduate Certificate in Education before entering the teaching profession. Other students will take a certificate in TEFL and become teachers of English as a second language at home or abroad. Those graduates who achieve particularly good results in their first degree will choose to progress to a Masters course, which will then often lead to a career as a researcher or further study to PhD. Many students progress to careers requiring good communication skills such as Public Relations or develop research careers with media or publishing companies. Throughout the English Literature degree there is a focus on developing employability which includes attractive opportunities for work experience on a work project module. Students are also strongly encouraged to take up the opportunity to study abroad for a semester.

History graduates from Worcester have progressed in recent years to take up work in a variety of career sectors, including teaching, accountancy, law, the media industries, local government, the police, retailing, administration, marketing, management and university lecturing and research. A growing number of our graduates progress to postgraduate research in history, both at the University of Worcester and at other universities. Thus, History remains an attractive and personally satisfying degree to study, with a strong track record of supporting graduate employability in a range of professional, managerial, administrative and media-related careers.

 

 

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Careers and Employability

Our Graduates pursue exciting and diverse careers in a wide variety of employment sectors.

Find out how we can support you to achieve your potential.
Costs

How much will it cost?

Full-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard fee for full-time home and EU undergraduate students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2023/24 academic year is £9,250 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

International students

The standard tuition fee for full-time international students enrolling on BA/BSc/LLB degrees and FdA/FdSc degrees in the 2023/24 academic year is £14,700 per year.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Part-time tuition fees

UK and EU students

The standard tuition fees for part-time UK and EU students registering on this course in the academic year 2023/24 are £1,156 per 15-credit module, £1,542 per 20-credit module, £2,312 per 30-credit module, £3,083 per 40-credit module, £3,469 per 45-credit module and £4,625 per 60 credit module.

For more details, please visit our course fees page.

Additional costs

Every course has day-to-day costs for basic books, stationery, printing and photocopying. The amounts vary between courses.

If your course offers a placement opportunity, you may need to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check.

Accommodation

Finding the right accommodation is paramount to your university experience. Our halls of residence are home to friendly student communities, making them great places to live and study.

We have over 1,000 rooms across our range of student halls. With rooms to suit every budget and need, from our 'Traditional Hall' at £122 per week to 'En-suite Premium' at £207 per week (2023/24 prices).

For full details visit our accommodation page.
How to apply

How do you apply?

Apply through UCAS

English Literature and History BA (Hons) - QV31

UCAS is the central organisation through which applications are processed for entry onto full-time undergraduate courses in Higher Education in the UK.

Read our How to apply pages for more information on applying and to find out what happens to your application.

 

 

UCAS Code

QV31

Apply Via UCAS

Get in touch

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We're here to help you every step of the way.

 

Dr Sharon Young

Admissions Tutor, English Literature
s.young@worc.ac.uk
01905 542428

Professor Neil Fleming

Admissions Tutor, History
n.fleming@worc.ac.uk

Admissions office

admissions@worc.ac.uk
01905 855111

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