English and Cultural Studies
Part-time BA (Hons) Degree
The English and Cultural Studies degree offers the opportunity for a broadly-based study of English and culture. You follow a central core of modules taught by the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies but can choose other relevant modules from other departments.
This degree also offers an excellent opportunity to develop foreign language skills.
| Starts | Starts October 2018, applications should be submitted by 31 August 2018 |
| Day and time | Dependent on modules taken; please contact us for more details |
| Fee | See Student finance and fees for more information. View potential additional fees. |
| Venue | Main Campus, The University of Warwick |
| Entry requirements | There are no prescribed entry qualifications for the degree; applicants are normally interviewed by the course selector in the Department of English, who will look for evidence of academic ability and commitment and, in addition, for evidence of serious interest in the study of literature. This evidence might be obtained from study of literature in an Access, 'A' Level or a CLL course, or a less formal engagement with literature. |
| Length |
Minimum 4 years, maximum 10 years |
| Contact | Please use our Contact page to send us an enquiry Professor Anthony Howard, Academic Co-ordinator, English - A.Howard@warwick.ac.uk - 024 7652 3397 |
Areas of study
Level 4 (first year of undergraduate study)
The degree requires you to take 120 Level 4 credits followed by a further 240 Honours Level credits. At Level 4, there is one compulsory module, Modes of Reading, which is taken by all Warwick students, full and part-time, taking degrees in English. The module offers an introduction to the practices of criticism and will address form, genre and literary inheritance. You are strongly encouraged to take a second module in English to increase your knowledge and skills in literature. The following are offered:
- Modern World Literatures
- The Epic Tradition
- Medieval to Renaissance English Literature
Other introductory modules in English and Cultural Studies are offered by the Departments of Film and TV Studies, History, Classics and Ancient History, History of Art and the Language Centre.
Honours Level
At Honours Level you must take a minimum of four of the eight Honours Level modules available from the English Department. This is an indicative list of the modules that have been offered:
- • The European Novel
- • U.S. Writing and Culture, 1780-1920
• North American Women Writers
• Romantic and Victorian Poetry
• Seventeenth Century: The First Modern Age of English Literature
• Literary and Cultural Theory
• The Practice of Poetry
• Screenwriting TBC
• Arthurian Literature and its Legacy
• The English Nineteenth Century Novel - evening class on offer for 2016/17
• Modern American Poetry
• New Literatures in English
• Devolutionary British Fiction
• Explorations in Critical Theory
• The Global Novel
• Literature, Environment, Ecology
• Shakespeare and Selected Dramatists of his Time (Traditional/Hybrid/Practical versions available. Please note the Hybrid and Practical versions are available only to finalist students)
• European Theatre
• Twentieth Century US Literature
• Dissertation (application to be approved in advance; deadline to submit a fully approved form is Friday week 1, term 3 - see module webpage for full details, application form and useful workshop to help prepare you over the summer)
• Othello - 15 CATS Term One only
• English Literature and Feminisms 1799-1899
• Eighteenth-Century Literature
• Crime Fiction, Nation and Empire: Britain 1850-1947
• Literature and Psychoanalysis
• States of Damage
• Shakespeare and the Law - 15 CATS Term One only
• Restoration Drama - 15 CATS Term Two Only
• Early Modern Drama - 15 CATS term One Only• The European Novel
• Dissonant Voices of the Middle Ages: Satire and Debate 1325-1525
• Fiction Now: Narrative, Media and Theory in the 21st Century
• Disasters and the British Contemporary
• Queer and There: Queer Theory and the History of Sexuality in the Global Context - 15 CATS Term One Only
• Literature, Theory and Time
• Cultures of Abolition: Slavery, Prison, Debt, and Data
• Writing Out Loud: Slam, spoken word, and performance poetics
• The Marriage Plot: romance, sex and feminism in English Fiction - 15 CATS Term Two Only
• Inventing Selves 1 - 15 CATS Term Two Only
• Remaking Shakespeare
• Commodity Fictions: World Literature and World-Ecology
• Global City Literature: Image, Theory, Text
• Exophony or Writing Beyond the Mother Tongue - 15 CATS Term Two Only
You may take optional modules from other departments in the Faculties of Humanaities and Social Sciences with the agreement of the course director and academic co-ordinator.
Teaching, assessment and study support
The degree is designed to be fully supportive to those who are new to university study, whatever your age. There are a variety of assessments and these may include coursework assignments, formal examinations, presentations and research projects. You can study between one and three 30 credit modules per year. You can expect to commit to around 10 hours a week for each module you take, which includes contact time and independent study. Tutors are experts in their field and have extensive teaching experience, including working with adult learners. Throughout your degree programme you will be provided with considerable support and guidance.
*The modules mentioned above may be subject to change. Please read our terms and conditions for more detailed information.
Surrey campus is all quiet with the students having finished for the year, and many of the students our office have spent the year helping find a placement are beginning to start their year of work. However, a new module has started for me so it's back to study…
Last month I attended the three-day residential for the compulsory CEIGHE module Challenges of Careers Work in Higher Education. This module looks at an overview of the wider context of where Higher Education careers work takes place. At the residential we looked at a range of topics, from stakeholders, to personal challenges in our roles, to student expectations, as well as wider external factors of labour market and policy influences, and of course economic and political changes (it goes without saying that Brexit unknowns got a mention). It was interesting to look at both the internal and external influencers of challenges myself and my colleagues face in our roles, and how we might look to respond and change to try to keep delivering our services effectively.
There were a mix of people from different Universities at the residential, in a variety of roles, such as Careers Advisors, and staff from areas of Placements and Employer Engagement. Having a chance to connect with others is a great benefit I have found from these residentials so far. You have the opportunity to share best practice and to reflect a bit more on how you, and your place of work, are supporting students. It enables you to sit outside of your own University bubble for a few days and listen to different perspectives. I have also found that it is good for approaching the distance studying, as it helps you to assess and reflect on what you do know and understand already, but also what topics you are less familiar with so that you can place a focus on those areas when it comes to the module reading.
With this being the third module for me now, I do feel it has become less daunting to work out how to approach the studying. I am able to look ahead at what is required for that module, in terms of volume of reading and assignment questions, and begin to plan a little schedule of study. This hasn't come without some trial and error to begin with, when working out how much time is needed for reading and draft writing. However, I realise this is part of the learning curve of returning to study, and I am proud to be nearing the mid-way point now of my diploma.
So assuming this glorious sunshine doesn't make my brain too useless, I am aiming in July to get ahead on plans for assignment number three!
About the author
Rose Leek is a paid blogger for CLL.
I relocated back near my hometown last year in Surrey, after a decade living near the sea in East Kent. I work in a University Employability & Careers Centre, assisting engineering and science students onto a placement year as part of their degree, and providing administrative support to their academic tutors.
I started the Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Education, Information and Guidance in Higher Education (CEIGHE) in October 2017 and am looking forward to developing a wider awareness of the service I work within, and increasing my confidence and understanding.
I have experienced a year with lots of change, and it is both exciting and daunting to be adding studying back into my life. I have never written a blog and my reasoning for doing so is the hope that it will help me to better reflect on, and share, my experience as a CEIGHE student. My course is mainly distance taught, with a few residential workshops per year. I wanted to also try to share the perspective of being a distance student, and how I will (hopefully!) learn to juggle the balance of study, work and home.
I look forward to the journey ahead!
And if all else fails, maybe the cat can do some of my studying for me?
Well, I’ve completed a year! Looking back, it seems to have flown by. However, I know that it has taken a great deal of commitment and hard work, and this is only my first year!
When I started the degree, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought, quite naively, that I’d breeze through it no problem. I didn’t anticipate how much work would be involved in a ‘part-time’ degree. It has been a very busy first year, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. I’ve learned so much this past year. I’ve learned from the lessons, key note speakers, and additional reading. I’ve also learned how to write a blog, use Office 365, navigate the library, use One Drive to access my documents at Warwick and at home, find my way around campus, use Harvard referencing and master academic writing (ok, ‘master’ might be a slight exaggeration!!). I’m sure that there are lots more things that I could add to that list, but I think you get the point – I’ve learned a lot in my first year.
Whilst this first year has been really full-on, I’ve still enjoyed it immensely. The lessons have been informative and interesting. Each module has taught me something different about the early years - such as the benefits of storytelling, the different perspectives that impact on the early years, and how children develop from birth. And, the recommended reading lists and additional reading have expanded my knowledge even further. Plus, the Saturday morning key note speakers have been really informative. Overall, my experience of being a first year at university has been a good one. And, most of all, I’m glad I chose Warwick. I love the campus. It’s always buzzing with students. There are cafes, coffee shops and nice places to go for a walk. Plus, on most visits to campus I’ll see ducks, rabbits or squirrels wandering around. Also, spring-time on campus was lovely, when the daffodils were in bloom. If it was a bit easier to find a parking space, then it’d be almost perfect! ;)
Now the first year is finished, and my last assignment was submitted on Wednesday, I’m looking forward to a nice break. I may fit in some reading over the summer, but I’ll mostly be taking it easy, spending time with family, and making the most of the good weather!
I hope you all have a fab summer break. I’ll be back blogging in September, so ‘bye’ till then!
When I was planning a weekend away with my family and deciding on dates, I didn’t consider university work-load. I only really considered what the weather might be like, if my husband could book the dates off work and the fact that I would have finished my first year at Warwick (or so I thought!). So, I picked my dates (15-18 June) and booked a mini-break to Prestatyn, Wales. In about May, it dawned on me that I needed to submit a 3000 word assignment by 27 June. So, I was taking a weekend break, at a pretty crucial time! However, I was determined that I would do as planned and spend some quality time with my family, with no laptop or books. Plus, I had another 3000 word assignment due by 13 June, so I thought that it would be nice to switch off for a few days after that and recharge the batteries. So, that’s what I did. I packed up the car, left my laptop and books at home, and headed to Wales. I wasn’t sure if I could put the pending 3000 word essay out of my mind and relax, but it was surprisingly easy! The fact that I hadn’t even had chance to make a start on it before the weekend away didn’t ruin my break either. I just switched off and enjoyed some quality family-time, and a break from the books. And, whilst the weather wasn’t scorching, we still went to the beach.
Rhyl beach
Plus, I enjoyed the staple seaside dinner of fish, chips and mushy, on our visit to Llandudno!
It was a great break. Definitely well needed, and I was certainly ready for it. However, it was the calm before the storm! When I came back, it was a mammoth task to do a 3000 word assignment in just over a week. I was at Warwick most evenings till midnight or 1am. The positives were – I did get to see the campus rabbits coming out for a midnight feast most nights, the roads were clear, and the campus was quiet. The negatives were - I barely spent an evening with my husband, I didn’t read my daughter a bedtime story for a week, and I was exhausted! However, I completed the assignment, finished my first year and I’ve learned a valuable lesson – I won’t book a weekend away when I have a 3000 word assignment due! :)
Learning is the "acquisition of knowledge or skill through study, experience or being taught" (Oxford English Dictionary).
My definition, which is perhaps not as concise: "learning is receiving information, making sense of it, understanding it and being able to apply it"
One of the assignments on the CLL Gateway course is to research a topic and present your findings to the class. As I am enjoying learning new things I decided to look at the theory and practise of learning, here are some of the things I found.
It has long been acknowledged that people have learning preferences. Individuals have a better chance of understanding information if it is presented to them in a favourable format. In its simplest form this would be either seeing it, hearing it or doing it themselves.
Neil Fleming wrote extensively about learning theory and describes four main preferences, he uses the acronym VARK:
Visual – Images, photographs, diagrams, video and illustrations.
Auditory – Lectures, podcasts, group discussions, verbal Q+A, recital of key points.
Read/Write – Written text, lists, note taking and further reading
Kinaesthetic – Hands on learning, role play, models, practical experiments
Some people respond well to a blend of these methods, but most have a bias toward one or two preferences. It can be useful to know what your preferences may be, so you can look for the information in a more suitable package e.g. listening to an audiobook rather than reading the text, taking an active part in discussions with your fellow students instead of studying in isolation. Draw diagrams and flow charts to illustrate theories or put theories into context by weaving them into a story of events linked to people. The are many possibilities.
Flemings VARK questionnaire is available to try at: http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/
The research that resonated more with my personal learning was David Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle. Kolb maintains that one cannot learn without first having an Experience. Following this Experience is a period of Reflective Observation where the learner makes sense of the event and gains an understanding of what has happened. Conceptualisation is next, where the learner concludes, makes amendments and forms the idea into a concept to try out in the last stage which is Active Experimentation, applying the new idea to form the next experience. Then start again and the cycle continues.
Having read this theory it's clear to me that I spend a lot of time in Reflective Observation. Its useful to have this insight and now I can plan this into my study time.
There are many more learning style theories to look at, some linked with personality types and some with basic tests that can be done to help identify how you might learn more efficiently.
I will leave you with the same question I started with,
How do you learn?
About the Author
I'm Steve Lock and I'm on the Gateway to Higher Education at CLL. I'm not an academic, I've been employed in practical roles throughout my working life. I've been in the Armed Forces and now work in the Emergency Services. My next personal challenge is education, have a look at my blog to see how I'm getting on…..
I started my social studies 2+2 degree in 2015, I have found it really challenging at times, but have enjoyed every minute of it at the same time. I made the transition from Solihull college to Warwick University in October 2017and have just finished my 3rd year, so thought this would be a good time to share some tips I believe will help anyone preparing to transition this year.
- firstly, don't be afraid to take part in seminars! I took modules in sociology and philosophy, and at the beginning, I felt a bit like an imposter especially in seminars, however, I quickly realized that as a mature student we can offer a different opinion or perspective on certain topics and that we shouldn't be worried about contributing to seminar discussion.
- My second tip would be to make use of the CLL common room in the social sciences block, you will get to meet other CLL students who are happy to chat, offer support or advice, you will soon find that there are other students that have all been through the experiences you have.
- Always check with your lecturer about whether they want a bibliography or reference list, the word spacing they like etc departments and lecturers can be different.
- Keep an eye on tabula for your deadline submission dates and times.
- Organise your time you may have five weeks off for Easter but you have a lot of assignments due in after this period, make the most of the time don’t leave things till last minute.
- Make the most of your lecturers feedback sessions to talk about any concerns you have about assignments etc, and use feedback from assignments to help improve future assignments.
- Remember there is a support section on moodle, click on CLL student support where you can access, general information, study skills, student welfare, technology and eLearning, and careers and development.
- And most of all enjoy your time at Warwick there are plenty of activities and societies for you to join or get involved in.
- finally, make the most of the services available whether it be the various workshops, IT support, or counseling there is always something that can help you progress if you need help or support with anything there is always someone that can help.
anyway, hope these help, good luck with your transition to Warwick.
Student Experience
"I have really enjoyed the mixture of different modules that I have studied throughout the six years: from the Epic Tradition through to North American Women Writers and of course Shakespeare. I have had the benefit of reading a variety of diverse literature, and come to appreciate many texts which I never would have picked up off the shelf, and I have learnt a great deal about history and culture as well."