English Literature and History
Entry requirements
A level
Specific subjects/grades required for entry: English Literature at grade A or English - Language & Literature at grade A. History at grade A. Specific subjects excluded for entry: General Studies and Critical Thinking. Information: Applicants taking Science A-levels that include a practical component will be required to take and pass this as a condition of entry. This refers only to English A Levels.
Access to HE Diploma
We require 60 credits with a minimum of 45 credits at level 3 (or equivalent). Applicants may be required to meet additional subject-specific requirements for particular courses at Durham.
Cambridge International Pre-U Certificate - Principal
To include English Literature and History
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
To include 6, 6, 6 from Higher Level subjects to include English and History.
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma
Additionally an A Level in English Literature (or English Language & Literature) at grade A, plus an A Level in History at grade A OR OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma DDD, and an A level in English Literature (or English Language & Literature) and an A Level in History with grades A* and A Where A Levels are unavailable we also accept IB Higher Levels and Cambridge Pre-U’s as an alternative. Please contact us if you have a different Level 3 qualification you wish to use.
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Additionally an A Level in English Literature (or English Language & Literature) at grade A, plus an A Level in History at grade A OR BTEC Extended diploma DDD, and an A level in English Literature (or English Language & Literature) and an A Level in History with grades A* and A Where A Levels are unavailable we also accept IB Higher Levels and Cambridge Pre-U’s as an alternative. Please contact us if you have a different Level 3 qualification you wish to use.
Scottish Advanced Higher
Specific subjects/grades required for entry: English at grade A. History at grade A.
Scottish Higher
We will normally make offers based on Advanced Highers. If an applicant has not been able to take 3 Advanced Highers, offers may be made with a combination of Advanced Highers and Highers, or on a number of Highers.
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
Joint Honours in English and History is a cross-disciplinary course, which develops and assesses skills that are common to both disciplines alongside others that are specific to each. The course offers you the opportunity to acquire a range of both literary-critical and historical knowledge, develops the ability to deploy and contextualise a number of subject-specific skills in each discipline, and locates these skills and forms of knowledge in relation to one another.
**Year 1**
In the first year, you will take three modules in English Literature and three modules in History.
Examples of optional modules in English:
Introduction to Drama
Introduction to the Novel
Introduction to Poetry
Romance and the Literature of Chivalry
Epic and Literature of Legend
Classical and Biblical Backgrounds to English Literature.
Examples of optional modules in History:
Beyond the Northlands: The Vikings and their World
Decline and Crisis: Europe 1300-1500
Early Modern England: A Social History
Society and Culture in China under Ming and Qing Dynasties
Reformation Europe
The Century of Revolution
Making History
The Birth of Western Society, 300-1050 AD.
**Year 2**
In English, you have a wide choice from among lecture and seminar modules, but must take either Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism or Shakespeare. In History, you are offered modules that provide time-depth and focus on a closely defined period, and modules that are broader and more wide ranging, typically offering a widely delimited chronological and geographical approach.
Compulsory modules in English:
EITHER / OR
Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism
Shakespeare
(although both may be selected).
Examples of optional lecture modules in English (taught by weekly lectures and four one-hour tutorials):
Chaucer
Old English
Old Norse
Old French
Renaissance Literature
Victorian Literature
Literature of the Modern Period
Examples of optional seminar modules in English (taught by fortnightly two-hour seminars):
Jane Austen
Arthurian Literature
Toni Morrison: Texts and Contexts
The Brontës
Shakespeare’s History Plays
Romantic Plays and Players (a maximum of one may be selected).
Examples of optional modules in History:
Conversations with History
Hard Times: British Society, 1818-1902
Robin Hood
The Book of Hours in Medieval Life and Art
The Court: Art and Power in Early Modern Europe
Selling the Tudor Monarchy
Political Culture in Japan since 1688
**Year 3**
In English, the combination of a range of optional lecture modules and Special Topics is designed to broaden and deepen your knowledge base and analytical skills. In History, the syllabus encourages the detailed study and analysis of historical events, trends and problems by means of a Special Subject (requiring close study of a highly specialised topic using primary source materials) and a Dissertation. The third year also includes the possibility of choosing ‘reflective’ modules which oblige students to study a particular historical problem that will lead them to reflect upon the problematical nature of the historical enterprise, on its technique, historiography and subjectivity.
**Study Abroad**
You may apply to study abroad for an additional year between Levels 2 and 3 (transferring from BA Hons in English Literature and History to BA Hons English Literature and History with a Year Abroad). Supported by the International Office and the Department’s International Co-ordinator, you can put yourself forward for the following study abroad options:
The Overseas Exchange programme university-wide links with institutions in North America, the Far East, Australasia etc.
Successful year abroad applicants will take a course of study chosen in consultation with the International Co-ordinator and the host institution. Modules relating to literary study should normally comprise a minimum of 50% of those taken. There should not be significant overlap between modules taken on the Year Abroad and modules taken in Durham.
Modules
**Year 1**
In the first year, you will take three modules in English Literature and three modules in History.
Examples of optional modules in English:
Introduction to Drama
Introduction to the Novel
Introduction to Poetry
Romance and the Literature of Chivalry
Epic and Literature of Legend
Classical and Biblical Backgrounds to English Literature.
Examples of optional modules in History:
Beyond the Northlands: The Vikings and their World
Decline and Crisis: Europe 1300-1500
Early Modern England: A Social History
Society and Culture in China under Ming and Qing Dynasties
Reformation Europe
The Century of Revolution
Making History
The Birth of Western Society, 300-1050 AD.
**Year 2**
Compulsory modules in English:
EITHER / OR
Theory and Practice of Literary Criticism
Shakespeare
(although both may be selected).
Examples of optional lecture modules in English (taught by weekly lectures and four one-hour tutorials):
Chaucer
Old English
Old Norse
Old French
Renaissance Literature
Victorian Literature
Literature of the Modern Period
American Poetry.
Examples of optional seminar modules in English (taught by fortnightly two-hour seminars):
Jane Austen
Arthurian Literature
Germanic Myth and Legend
Toni Morrison: Texts and Contexts
The Brontës
Evelyn Waugh
Shakespeare’s History Plays
Romantic Plays and Players (a maximum of one may be selected).
Examples of optional modules in History:
Conversations with History
Hard Times: British Society, 1818-1902
Robin Hood
The Book of Hours in Medieval Life and Art
The Court: Art and Power in Early Modern Europe
Selling the Tudor Monarchy
Political Culture in Japan since 1688
Soviet Socialism in the Cold War: The USSR, 1945-1991
From Vikings to Crusaders: The Formation of the Scandinavian Kingdoms, 900-1200
Colonial British America, 1600-1776.
**Year 3**
In English, the combination of a range of optional lecture modules and Special Topics is designed to broaden and deepen your knowledge base and analytical skills. In History, the syllabus encourages the detailed study and analysis of historical events, trends and problems by means of a Special Subject (requiring close study of a highly specialised topic using primary source materials) and a Dissertation. The third year also includes the possibility of choosing ‘reflective’ modules which oblige students to study a particular historical problem that will lead them to reflect upon the problematical nature of the historical enterprise, on its technique, historiography and subjectivity.
Compulsory modules:
One from:
Dissertation in English
Dissertation in History (40 credits).
Examples of optional lecture modules in English (taught by weekly lectures and four one-hour tutorials):
Old English
Old Norse
Old French
Restoration and 18th Century Literature
Literature of the Romantic Period
Post-War Fiction and Poetry
American Fiction
Medieval Literature.
Examples of optional special topics in English (taught by fortnightly two-hour seminars):
Literature, Cinema and Neuroscience
Shakespeare on Film
Resistance in South Asian Postcolonial Literature
Writing Prose Fiction
Reading Joyce’s Ulysses
B. Yeats
Keats and Shelley
Elizabeth Bishop and Twentieth Century Verse
Nonsense Literature
Creative Writing Poetry
Writing Mountains in the Early Twentieth Century
Seamus Heaney
Jewish American Fiction
Science and the Literary Imagination
Mind and Narrative.
Examples of optional modules in History:
A World Turned Upside Down: Radicalism in the English Revolution
From War to Cold War: US Foreign Policy, c. 1944-1948
Politics and Polemics: Medieval German Kings and their Chroniclers, c. 1024-1125
Revolution and History
The Ruin of the World: Roman to Barbarian Gaul, 400-500
Medieval Iceland: Settlement, Sagas, Civil War
Popular Cultures in Early Modern England 1500-1640.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
St Mary's College
Van Mildert College
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Stephenson College
John Snow College
Hatfield College
Trevelyan College
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Josephine Butler College
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No college preference
Collingwood College
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University College
English Studies
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.
English studies (non-specific)
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.
English studies
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
English is one of the most popular degree subjects and in 2015, more than 11,000 students graduated with English degrees - although this does represent a fall from recent years. As good communication is so important to modern business, you can find English graduates in all parts of the economy, although obviously, you can't expect to get a job in science or engineering (computing is a different matter - it's not common but good language skills can be useful in the computing industry). There's little difference in outcomes between English language and English literature degrees, so don't worry and choose the one that suits you best. More English grads took another postgraduate course when they finished their degree than grads from any other subject - this is an important option. Teacher training was a common choice of second degree, as was further study of English, and journalism courses. But many English graduates changed course and trained in law, marketing or other languages -or even subjects further afield such as computing, psychology and even nursing. This is a very flexible degree which gives you a lot of options
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
English studies
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£23k
£27k
£32k
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.
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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.
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Graduate field commentary:
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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?
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