BA (Hons) English Literature with a Placement Year

About

UEA is the place where literature lives. You’ll be part of the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, a unique and supportive community of critics, writers, and drama practitioners who are dedicated to bringing literature to life (you can follow our activities on Instagram!). You’ll be studying literature in Norwich: a city with both a rich literary tradition and a vibrant contemporary writing scene.  

We emphasise choice and flexibility in building your own unique pathway through English literature. You’ll have the chance to discover a wealth of writers from the ancient classical past right up to poets and novelists writing now. You might explore diverse traditions of writing from across the globe, and you’ll tackle a heady mix of genres, which currently range from the gothic to children’s literature, crime writing to Latin American fiction, early modern women’s writing to biography. Your journey through literature is shaped by you and your interests – no two UEA English Literature degrees are the same.  

All our BA English Literature modules are 100% coursework. This enables you to cultivate the craft of critical writing. You might find yourself honing the perfect essay or try expressing your ideas in new, experimental forms in one of our creative-critical modules. Or you might turn your skill with words towards modules on writing as a profession, which give you a flavour of the diverse and exciting careers for which your literary critical training prepares you. 

Whatever you study, you’ll work with our world-leading critics, who will help you to develop your own critical voice. Your lecturers will be passionate about bringing their own expertise into the seminar room. UEA’s School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing is famous for innovation in teaching and for cutting-edge research – that’s why in the most recent Times Higher Education Analysis (REF2021), UEA was ranked 19th in the UK for the quality of its research in English Language and Literature. Your lecturers will be passionate about bringing their own expertise into the seminar room.

On English Literature with a Placement Year, you’ll normally spend 9-12 months of your third year in a placement, gaining invaluable working experience and employability skills in a relevant area of your choice. 

Your Literature degree will enable you to become an imaginative and knowledgeable reader of literature, and a confident writer about it. You’ll graduate as a passionate and informed advocate for the literature you love, ready to take all the skills you’ve learnt into a host of careers.