Drama and Theatre Studies with Integrated Foundation Year

UCAS code: W44F

Here's what Royal Holloway, University of London says about its Drama and Theatre Studies with Integrated Foundation Year course.

Our Integrated Foundation Year for Arts and Humanities will take you through a carefully-designed programme to help you to progress confidently onto your undergraduate degree.

Arts and Humanities subjects, like Drama and Theatre Studies, provide key ways of understanding our complex world, its histories, and current debates facing contemporary society. Identity, political and social conflict, our interaction with new digital and genetic technologies, our stewardship of the environment are all issues where the voice of creative and critical thinking are key. Literary texts, films, plays and digital games offer important ways in which societies have debated - and continue to represent - their values and their futures.

The Foundation Year provides progressive structures in which you are able to gain knowledge and understanding of approaches to humanities study and your chosen degree subject.  All Foundation Year students take ‘Global Perspectives’, then four subject-based courses provide approaches to the study of arts and humanities subjects, giving you critical skills to explore a range of literary, visual, and cultural forms, including plays, films, and digital media. 

Once you have completed your Foundation year, you progress onto the full degree programme, BA Drama and Theatre Studies.

Choosing to study Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway will put you at the centre of one of the largest and most influential Drama and Theatre departments in the world. Here, you'll grapple with the big questions: about ourselves and our cultures, about how we make meaning and tell stories, and about ourselves in relation to other cultures, other times, and other forms of storytelling.

You'll create performances, analyse texts, and bring a range of critical ideas to bear on both.  On this course the text and the body, thinking and doing, work together. There's no barrier between theory and practice: theory helps you understand and make the most of practice, while practice sheds light on theory. By moving between the two, you'll find your place as an informed theatre-maker, and by studying a variety of practices, by yourself and with others, you'll get knowledge of the industry as a whole, and learn how your interests could fit into the bigger picture.

We are top-rated for teaching and research, with a campus community recognised for its creativity. Our staff cover a huge range of theatre and performance studies, but we're particularly strong in contemporary British theatre, international and intercultural performance, theatre history, dance and physical theatre, and contemporary performance practices.

You'll be taught in incredible performance spaces you won't find anywhere else, each perfectly enhancing our teaching and research strengths.

In your Foundation Year, teaching methods include a mixture of lectures, seminars, workshops, individual tutorials, and supervisory sessions. Outside of the classroom you’ll undertake guided independent reading and study. You will also be assigned a Personal Tutor, who’ll be with you for the duration of your degree, and will have regular scheduled sessions to support learning and the development of study skills. Assessments are varied; quizzes, short written exercises, essays, examinations, poster preparation and presentation, blog/vlogs, short digital films, dissertations and personal development plans. In addition the Foundation Year offers a full range of skills-based training and also the opportunity to take a micro-placement to enhance your employability.

Once you progress onto your full degree course, you’ll be an active partner in your learning process. Our most important teaching tool is the seminar/workshop, a two to three hour class with a maximum of 20 students consisting of discussion, presentation of your research and practical experimentation, with or without written texts.

IT applications are used to explore many aspects of the subject, and we support your capability in this area through an Information Technology Skills course. Private study and preparation remain essential parts of every course, and you will have access to many online resources and the university’s comprehensive e-learning facility, Moodle.

You will also take a study skills course during your first year, designed to equip you with and enhance the writing skills you will need to be successful in your degree. This course does not count towards your final degree award but you are required to pass it to progress to your second year.

Assessment methods match the course content. For most course units, you will be assessed on two pieces of work, one of which is usually an essay, while the other might be an assignment such as a seminar presentation or a performance. Practical assignments include model box set designs, lighting designs, acting, directing and stage management tasks, physical theatre and movement presentations, or work with schools and other community groups. You will sometimes be assessed as part of a group. We do not operate formal timed examinations.