qw38 - English Literature with Creative Writing BA
English Literature with Creative Writing BA Honours
UCAS Code: QW38 (full time: 3 Years)
Course Overview
This degree combines the study of English literature with modules designed to tap into your creative energy and shape it into texts as poetry, prose, film or theatre.
At a Glance
UCAS Code
QW38
UCAS Institution Name and Code
NEWC, N21
Degree Awarded
BA Honours
Course Duration
3 Years
Entry Requirements
A Level: AAA-AAB
IB: 35-36 points
Opportunities
You will be taught by a number of internationally acclaimed writers. Our teaching is closely linked to the programme of the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA), giving you regular contact with leading creative artists.
We also work with the independent Northern Stage theatre, located on campus, and with the Royal Shakespeare Company to support your study of creative writing in the theatre.
In addition, you will have access to frequent public readings in the School by staff, visiting artists, and postgraduate students, including the Newcastle/Bloodaxe Poetry Lectures.
Quality and ranking
The quality of the English study experience at Newcastle is highly recognised. We rank:
- top 10 in the UK – The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019 (English Studies category)
- top 20 in the UK – The Complete University Guide 2020 (English Category)
- top 20 in the UK - The Guardian University Guide 2019 (English and Creative Writing category)
- 90% overall student satisfaction score – National Student Survey 2018
- 3rd in the UK for research – Research Excellence Framework 2014 (English Language and Literature category)
- top 150 – English Language and Literature category – QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019
- top 200 – Arts and Humanities category – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2018
Creative Writing at Newcastle also ranks highly:
- 3rd in the UK – The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019
- 2nd in the UK – The Complete University Guide 2020
- 100% overall student satisfaction score (Imaginative Writing Category) – National Student Survey 2018
Internationally acclaimed staff
If you choose to follow the path of creative writing at Newcastle you will be walking it with a number of internationally acclaimed writers:
- poets Sean O’Brien and Bill Herbert
- novelist Jackie Kay
- film maker Tina Gharavi
- playwright Margaret Wilkinson
Boost your employability with a work placement
Apply to spend 9 to 12 months on an optional work placement between Stages 2 and 3. You can apply to spend your placement year with any organisation and will receive University support to do so.
You’ll gain first-hand experience of working in the sector, putting your learning into practice and developing your professional expertise.
It will extend your degree by a year and is subject to availability.
Find out more about Work Placements.
Cultural industries placement
In Stage 3, you have the chance to gain valuable work-related experience by undertaking a work placement in one of the cultural industries. This is an exciting opportunity to relate the knowledge and skills you have acquired to the work environment, as well as enhancing your CV.
Your placement will be an integrated part of your degree which will last for one day per week for about 10 weeks (60 hours). It will be assessed through the submission of a Project Work Diary and a Final Report which together form the Placement Portfolio.
Places are limited and entry to the module may be on a competitive basis.
Field trips and events
Studying at Newcastle means much more than your time spent in the classroom or the library. The School organises regular field trips to cultural venues in the region such as:
- theatres
- The Wordsworth Trust (Dove Cottage)
- Lindisfarne
- Bede’s World
- Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books
- local museums including Beamish and the Great North Museum
We are home to the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts (NCLA). This brings internationally renowned writers to Newcastle, through a year-long festival of readings, discussion and debate.
Study abroad
You have the opportunity to study abroad for one semester in your second year, through the Erasmus programme. The work that you do and the grades you achieve are counted towards your final degree.
The School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics has Erasmus links with the following universities:
- Leiden in the Netherlands
- Peter Pazmany in Hungary
- Gdansk in Poland
- Ghent in Belgium
We also have study abroad links with two universities in Canada – Dalhousie and New Brunswick - available through our Non-EU Study Abroad exchange programme.
Facilities and support
As a student at Newcastle, you will be part of our School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, which has a long and prestigious history.
Facilities
The School occupies its own building, the Percy Building, in the heart of campus where you will join a lively community of students, academics, authors and professionals.
All of our students enjoy exceptional library provision from our award-winning Library Service, which houses over one million books and a huge range of electronic resources.
Writing opportunities
Newcastle University Students' Union is home to one of the best student newspapers in the country, The Courier. You also have the opportunity to submit poetry and short prose for the School's magazine, Alliterati.
Support
You'll have a personal tutor throughout your degree – an academic member of staff who can help with academic and personal issues. You'll also have access to a peer mentor in your first year – a fellow student who can help you settle in and answer any questions you have.
Social activities
There's a lively literary society, EngSoc, which organises social and academic events around a literary theme, as well as a Linguistics Society. There's an active student drama scene on campus, with two student drama societies open to all. You have opportunities throughout the year to get subsidised tickets for theatre productions in Newcastle.
Find out more
Visit the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics' website, where you can watch:
- video interviews of our current students
- video interviews of our graduates and find out what they're doing now
Christa, English Literature with Creative Writing BA HonoursThe entire School of English is housed in the Percy Building, which is a great building and feels very communal. The staff are great and passionate about what they teach, and listen to what you have to say – regardless of whether it’s about the text you’re discussing, about the module or course in general or something you’ve read in your own time.
Compare this course
See how this course compares with others for topics such as student satisfaction, fees and costs and prospects after graduation using the Unistats Key Information Set.
Modules for 2018 entry
Please note
The module and/or programme information below is for 2018 entry. Our teaching is informed by research and modules change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline, the requirements of external bodies and partners, student feedback, or insufficient numbers of students interested (in an optional module). To find out more read our terms and conditions.
Module/programme information for 2019 entry will be published here as soon as it is available (end of May 2019).
Our degrees are divided into Stages. Each Stage lasts for an academic year and you need to complete modules totalling 120 credits by the end of each Stage. Further information, including the credit value of the module, is available in each of the module descriptions below.
Stage 1
Compulsory modules
- SEL1000 Introduction to Creative Writing
- SEL1003 Introduction to Literary Studies I
- SEL1004 Introduction to Literary Studies II
- SEL1023 Transformations
- SEL1030 Close Reading
- SEL1031 Drama, Theatre and Performance
Stage 2
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
You will choose one of the following modules:
You choose one module, and may choose up to three, from Group A and Group B.
Group A
- SEL2201 Renaissance Bodies
- SEL2202 Writing New Worlds, 1660-1800
- SEL2203 Revolutionary Britain, 1789-1832
- SEL2219 Monsters, Misery and Miracles: Heroic Life in Old English Poetry
Group B
- SEL2204 Victorian Passions: Victorian Values
- SEL2205 Fictions of Migration
- SEL2206 Contemporary Cultures
- SEL2207 Modernisms
- SEL2217 Popular Performance Here and Now
It may also be possible to choose 20 credits of appropriate modules from outside the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, with approval of the Degree Programme Director. Alternatively you may choose one module from the following list:
- NCL2007 Career Development for Second Year Students
- NCL2100 Developing Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Employability
- SEL2210 Independent Research Project*
* SEL2210 is an independent study module in English Literature or a related subject (film/theatre). The Independent Research Project is only open to students who are also taking 60 credits of taught modules in Literature at Stage 2, as described in lists (d) and (e). SEL2210 is a prerequisite for the dissertation in English Literature at stage 3 (SEL3362). If you wish to take this module you should meet with the Subject Head for Creative Writing.
Work Placement (optional)
You can apply to spend 9 to 12 months on an optional work placement between Stages 2 and 3. You can apply to spend your placement year with any organisation and will receive University support to do so. It will extend your degree by a year and is subject to availability. It isn't available if you're spending a year studying abroad. Find out more about Work Placements.
Stage 3
Compulsory modules
You choose one module from the following list:
- SEL3400 Prose Portfolio
- SEL3401 Theatre Script Portfolio
- SEL3402 Poetry Portfolio
- SEL3403 Screenwriting Portfolio
Optional modules
You choose one module, and may take up to three, from Group C and Group D.
Group C
- SEL3055 Chaucer, Shakespeare and the Book of the Future
- SEL3090 Chaucer, Chivalry and Heresy in the Middle Ages
- SEL3373 Women of Virtue and Women of Pleasure: Sensibility in the Age of Reason
- SEL3391 Women on Trial: Gender, Power and Performance in Shakespeare's England
- SEL3392 Between the Acts: English Theatre, 1660-1737
- SEL3393 Shakespeare's Show Business
- SEL3406 Making Ireland: Kingdom, Colony and Nation in Text and Performance
Group D
- SEL3016 Orgasms, Onanism, Odalisques: Desire and the Body at the fin-de-siecle
- SEL3091 Sex and Money: Economies of the Victorian Novel
- SEL3338 Home, Heritage, History: 20th century children's literature
- SEL3340 Romantic Poetry: Journeys of the Imagination
- SEL3346 Contemporary Documentary 1: Theory and Practice
- SEL3347 Contemporary Documentary 2: Theory and Practice
- SEL3378 Landscapes of American Modernism
- SEL3386 Modernist Poetry: Pound to the Beats
- SEL3390 The Literature of Capitalism
- SEL3395 The Victorian Novel: Time, Change and the Life Course
- SEL3397 American Poetry Now
- SEL3011 Growing up Global: Childhood and National Identity from Postwar to Present
- SEL3404 High-toned, Middlebrow and Lowdown: Jazz-Age Literature in the Magazines
- SEL3409 Planetary Imagination
It may also be possible to choose a module from outside the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, with approval of the Degree Programme Director. Alternatively you may choose one module from the following list:
- NCL3007 Career Development for Final Year Students
- NCL3008 Advanced Career Development*
- SEL3324 Cultural Industries Placement Module (Semester 1)
- SEL3325 Cultural Industries Placement Module (Semester 2)
*Only available to students who have taken a Career Development module at Stage 2.
All candidates are considered on an individual basis.
If your qualifications are not listed here, please see our additional entry requirements web pages to find out which other qualifications are considered.
The entrance requirements below apply to 2020 entry.
Careers
English literature with creative writing careers
English students acquire a range of valuable skills, which they can transfer to many different employment situations. Your literary and linguistic training can be used in journalism, librarianship, teaching and the highly competitive fields of writing, acting and directing.
You will also gain other skills such as the capacity to analyse and summarise material, to communicate, to work to a deadline, to argue a case, to work independently as well as collaboratively, to think logically and to be able to use computers.
This is excellent preparation for a wide number of professions and as such, our graduates have gone on to a variety of career areas including editorial, marketing, PR and other forms of media. Others have gone to work in law, politics, HR, teaching and supporting specialist learning.
Find out more about the career options for English Literature, Language and Linguistics from Prospects: The UK's Official Careers Website.
What our graduates go on to do: employment and further study choices
See what our recent graduates went on to do and view graduate destinations statistics. These statistics are based on what graduates were doing on a specific date, approximately six months after graduation. Take a look at the most recent data available for our graduates.
The destination data is available in varying levels, beginning with the University and moving through Faculty and School down to individual course reports. This final level may give you some useful ideas about possible options after your course or a course you are considering.
Careers and employability at Newcastle
Newcastle University consistently has one of the best records for graduate employment in the UK.
96% of our 2017 UK-domiciled UG/PG graduates progressed to employment or further study within six months of graduating.
85.5% of our graduates are in graduate level employment or further study within six months of graduating.
We provide an extensive range of opportunities to all students through an initiative called ncl+. This enables you to develop personal, employability and enterprise skills and to give you the edge in the employment market after you graduate.
Our award-winning Careers Service is one of the largest and best in the country, and we have strong links with employers.
Applying to Newcastle University through UCAS
To apply for undergraduate study at Newcastle you must use the online application system managed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).
UCAS codes for Newcastle University
- institution name - NEWC
- institution code - N21
UCAS buzzword
Ask your teacher or adviser from your school or college for the UCAS buzzword. You need the buzzword when you register on the Apply system. This makes it clear which school or college you are applying from.
All UK schools and colleges and a small number of EU and international establishments are registered with UCAS.
If you are applying independently, or are applying from a school or college which is not registered to manage applications, you will still use the Apply system. You will not need a buzzword.
Making your application
On the UCAS website you can also find out more about:
- application deadlines and other important dates
- offers and tracking your application
Application decisions and enquiries
Find out more about our admissions process and who to contact if you need help with your application.