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English

Entry requirements


A level

B,B,B

Including English Literature, or Language and Literature, or Language. A level General Studies is not accepted.

Access to HE Diploma

D:30

Pass with 45 Level 3 credits including 30 Distinctions and a number of merits/passes in subject specific modules.

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

33

With three Higher Level subjects at 655 including English Literature, or Language and Literature, or Language at grade 5.

Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)

H2,H2,H2,H2

Including English Literature, or Language and Literature, or Language.

Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)

DDM

Including English Literature, or Language and Literature, or Language.

Scottish Advanced Higher

B,B,C

Grade B in English Literature, or Language and Literature, or Language is required.

Scottish Higher

B,B,B,B,C

Grade B in English Literature, or Language and Literature, or Language is required.

T Level

M

Each application will be considered on its individual merits. Where the T Level subject area does not directly match the degree programme being applied for, the personal statement and reference will be particularly important in demonstrating interest, enthusiasm and suitability for the subject.

UCAS Tariff

120-136

We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.

About this course


This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.

Course option

3years

Full-time | 2024

Other options

4 years | Part-time | 2024

Subject

English studies

**Our BA English degree gives you the opportunity to develop the critical and verbal skills needed for confident, effective reading of literary texts and criticism.**

- Bold, flexible, and richly diverse, the BA in English offers you a world of literature and language. You will be taken on a thrilling intellectual and imaginative journey from the Caribbean, New York, and Victorian London, to the American South via 1980s Northern Ireland, South Korea, Zimbabwe, Belarus, India, and Algeria. Along the way, we encourage you to ask big, complex, and often challenging questions about how to read literature in all its cultural, artistic, and political contexts ranging from the analysis of bear-baiting in Early Modern drama, the role of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th century novel to the impact of the #metoo and Black Lives Matter movements on 21st-century literature, film, and culture.

- You will travel across histories, cultures, and languages and be encouraged to engage in a huge variety of debates around, for example, gender and sexual identity, the Transatlantic slave trade, climate change, feminism, Caribbean writing, indigenous literature and philosophical ideas about what it means to be human across time.

- With a focus on both creative and analytical thinking as well as on rigorous communication and research skills, your degree in English is full of choice, offering you the opportunity to design your own curriculum. You could specialise in the study of language and communication, or in ‘world literature’, or in American literature and culture. You’ll also have a chance to take up one of our Work Placements, two of which are with Poetry London, and take a Creative Writing module specifically designed for BA English students.

**Why study the BA English at Goldsmiths**
- Diversity of texts – Read both traditional and non-traditional texts alongside other cultural works such as films, photography, museums, and visual arts.

- Work placements – you’ll have the option to do a work placement as part of your course.

- Transferable skills & Careers Support – our degree prepares you for a range of careers by developing your communication, analytical, and research skills.

- Intensive pastoral care and academic support – we offer three years of support for your essay writing and research skills as well as a dedicated pastoral care system tailored to your individual needs.

- Experience London – our location allows you access to the wealth of cultural institutions and opportunities that London offers right on your doorstep.

Modules

Year 1
In your first year, you will take the following compulsory modules.
Explorations in Literature
Approaches to Text
Introduction to Poetry
The Short Story

You will also choose two of the following option modules:
Introduction to US Literature and Culture: America and its Discontents
Introduction to Comparative Literature
Understanding Language in Use
Identity, Agency & Environment 2

Year 2
In your second year, you will study the following compulsory modules.
Literature and Power in the Victorian Period
Goldsmiths' Social Change Module

You will also choose three modules from a range characterised by wide literary, historical, and contextual scope, of which at least one must encompass pre-1800 literature. You will also have the opportunity to complete the Goldsmiths Elective which allows you to take a relevant module from another department across the College.

Modules may vary from year to year, but recent modules have included:
(Re)writing America: from the nineteenth century to the present day
18th-Century Literature
Aesthetics
Black British Literature
Classical Epic and Contemporary Literature
Contemporary Indigenous Literatures: Place, Politics and Identity
Contemporary London Poetry
Creating the Text
Discourse and Society
Modern American Fiction
Moderns
Old English
Renaissance Worlds
Sensibility and Romanticism: Revolutions in Writing and Society
Shakespeare
Sociolinguistics: Language use, Variation, and Identity
Staging Women’s Voices: Feminism and Writing (Enlightenment to now)
Work Placement (English)

Year 3
In your final year, you'll complete a 6,000 - 8,000 word dissertation on a topic of your choice, and choose 3 to 6 modules depending on their credit value.

Modules may vary from year to year, but recent examples have included:
American Gothic
Approaches to Language and the Media
Caribbean Women Writers
Contemporary Indigenous Literatures: Place, Politics and Identity
Creating the Text
Decadence
Language and Gender
Modern American Fiction
Modernism and Drama (1880-1930)
Moderns
Poetry since 1945
Renaissance Worlds
Sensibility and Romanticism: Revolutions in Writing and Society
Shakespeare’s Sisters: Contemporary Women’s Writing 1960s to the present
Studies in Literature and Film
The Art of the Novel
The Emergence of Modern America: American Literature 1890–1940
Word Power: How Words are Born, Live, and Die
Work Placement (English)
Writing Lives
Dustbowl to Dreamfactory: American Cinema & Writing in the 1930s
Writing, Culture and Society

Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.

Assessment methods

You’ll be assessed by a variety of methods, depending on your module choices. These include coursework, examinations, group work and projects.

The Uni


Course location:

Goldsmiths, University of London

Department:

English and Creative Writing

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What students say


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

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

77%
UK students
23%
International students
23%
Male students
77%
Female students
70%
2:1 or above
21%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
B

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 (non-specific)

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.

£18,200
med
Average annual salary
93%
low
Employed or in further education
45%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

14%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
12%
Other elementary services occupations
10%
Childcare and related personal services

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 (non-specific)

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

£17k

£23k

£23k

£25k

£25k

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...

Higher entry requirements
University of Nottingham | Nottingham
History of Art and English
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 104-141
Lower entry requirements
Brunel University London | Uxbridge
English with Creative Writing
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time 2024
UCAS Points: 112-136

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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.

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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:

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

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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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