De Montfort University
UCAS Code: W800 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
104 UCAS points from at least two A-levels or equivalent
Access to HE Diploma
Pass QAA Access to Higher Education course with at least 30 level 3 credits at Merit. We will normally require students have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
T Level
UCAS Tariff
About this course
Find your voice and discover your own creative writing path through studying with us at DMU. By embedding stimulating themes throughout our distinctive course structure we give you the opportunity to develop skills across fiction, poetry, memoir, the graphic novel, screenwriting, non-fiction, audio and performance writing, concrete poetry and new media.
We welcome you if you're passionate about creative writing, eager to build on your strengths, and excited to discover new skills. You’ll learn from published writers and join a vibrant community of creatives who share your passion for writing.
Our programme is practical, where you learn by doing. Workshops focus on collaborative learning, where you give and receive feedback, draft and revise your work, and reflect critically. Industry-focused skills are integrated throughout, ensuring you develop the confidence to professionally promote, present, and publish your writing.
With an innovative thematic structure, the course encourages you to explore different forms and styles while giving you the flexibility to focus on your areas of interest. Uniquely, each year offers the opportunity to undertake your own self-directed long project, giving you the freedom to develop work that aligns with your creative ambitions.
**Key features**
* You can choose a route through this degree in Film Studies, History, Journalism, or Media, tailoring your studies to your interests and career goals.
* You’ll learn from successful published writers and become part of a creative and passionate community of fellow writers.
* The programme is uniquely organised by theme, supporting you in developing your skills across a wide range of writing practices, such as fiction, poetry, memoir, screenwriting, and digital writing.
* We’ll encourage you to join regional writing networks, participate in spoken word events, and showcase your work at book fairs and festivals, including DMU's annual States of Independence book festival.
* You’ll work beyond classroom boundaries in a variety of inspiring settings to enhance your creativity, such as Leicester Gallery at DMU, local museums and landmarks, DMU’s Special Collections archive, and ghost story workshops in a deconsecrated chapel.
* Benefit from block teaching, where most students study one subject at a time. A simple timetable will allow you to really engage with your learning, receive regular feedback and assessments, get to know your course mates and enjoy a better study-life balance.
Modules
**First year**
Block 1: Exploring Creative Writing
Block 2: Journeys and Places
Block 3: Multimodal Writing
Block 4: Shaping Ideas (year-long module)
**Second year**
Block 1: Writing Identity
Block 2: Exploring Work and Society
Block 3: Story Craft
Block 4: Word, Image, Sound (year-long module)
**Third year**
Block 1: Screentime
Block 2: Writing and Publishing
Block 3: Uncreative Writing
Block 4: Dissertation (year-long module)
Assessment methods
We want to ensure you have the best learning experience possible and a supportive and nurturing learning community. That’s why we’re introducing a new block model for delivering the majority of our courses, known as Education 2030. This means a more simplified timetable where you will study one subject at a time instead of several at once. You will have more time to engage with your learning and get to know the teaching team and course mates. You will receive faster feedback through more regular assessment, and have a better study-life balance to enjoy other important aspects of university life.
**Structure**
This degree programme is carefully designed to develop your potential by ensuring you encounter the full range of forms open to the 21st century creative writer, whilst also allowing you the flexibility to focus, for assignments, on projects and genres that interest you most. We want you to learn that practicing a particular kind of writing can hone your craft in a different form.
In the first year, the focus is upon shorter work, and the importance of developing your editing and re-drafting skills; and your capacity to accept and evaluate feedback from others. This process will enable you to take a critical and reflective approach to your work (Both creative and reflective writing will be assessed). But you will also practice shaping and developing your own ideas, and practice reading as a writer to learn new craft skills.
As you progress through your studies the assignments lengthen, and the focus upon research intensifies as you are expected to situate your own writing alongside your reading of other writers in your field. This involves developing a more sustained writing practice informed by an understanding of the conventions of particular genres, and your management of readers’ expectations. You will also consider how your sense of the ways in which creative work is published and marketed will help you understand how your own practice might fit in – or resist – contemporary conventions.
In all years, the modules reinforce the knowledge that reading and analysing the work of other practitioners – your fellow students included - will help you understand and develop your own formal and technical abilities.
You will experience a range of assessment modes alongside creative writing pieces in the core genres, for example, creative CVs, publications projects, case studies, field trips, and hypertext and audio-visual work. The bulk of the assessment is centred on creative writing coursework and critical reflection – you will take a reflective, critical, and analytical approach to their work and to learn to read as practitioners. You will gain insight into your own creative methods by situating your work in relation to other writers, research materials, and critical writings.
**Contact hours**
You will be taught through a combination of workshops, lectures, tutorials, group work and self-directed study. In your first year you will normally attend around 10 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and workshops) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 28 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Leicester Campus
Arts, Design and Humanities
What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Creative writing
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Creative writing
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
The jobs market for this subject - which includes creative writing and scriptwriting courses - is not currently one of the strongest, so unemployment rates are currently looking quite high overall, with salaries on the lower side. But nevertheless, most graduates get jobs quickly. Graduates often go into careers as authors and writers and are also found in other roles where the ability to write well is prized, such as journalism, translation, teaching and advertising and in web content. Be aware that freelancing and self-employment is common is common in the arts, as are what is termed 'portfolio careers', having several part-time jobs or commissions at once - although graduates from this subject were a little more likely than many other creative arts graduates to be in conventional full time permanent contracts, so that might be worth bearing in mind.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Creative writing
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£17k
£21k
£24k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
Explore these similar courses...
This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Course location and department:
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
Have a question about this info? Learn more here
The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
Have a question about this info? Learn more here