Studying with the School of English

This content is an extract from a PowerPoint presentation delivered by Dr Kiron Ward, Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary Literature in the School of English, at the undergraduate open day on Saturday 3 November 2024.

Dr Ward shared details about studying English at St Andrews aimed at prospective students. If you have any questions about general admissions procedures at the University, please email admissions@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Slide 1: Topics covered in this presentation

Why study English?
Structure of the undergraduate degree at St Andrews
Structure of the English programme
What it's like to study English at St Andrews

Slide 2: Enjoying reading and studying English are not the same

Studying English involves:

Analysis – describing, questioning, discussing
Comparison – finding patterns, processing information
Thinking with texts – novels, poetry, plays, philosophy, news, propaganda, television, comics, film and more
Communication – speaking, writing, presenting

Slide 3: Full-time undergraduate degree structure

English offers a four-year degree programme, which consists of two sub-honours years and two Honours years.

Two sub-honours years

Three modules per semester, including one English Literature module in each semester

To progress to Honours, students must pass a number of sub-honours modules, including all required English Literature sub-honours modules, with a minimum grade of 7 out of 20 and obtain an average of 7 out of 20 across your two second-year English modules.

Two Honours years

Two modules per semester
Single Honours students take eight English modules over two years
Joint Honours students take between three and five English modules alongside the same number of modules in their other chosen degree subject

Slide 4: Common subject combinations at sub-honours level

English – History – Philosophy
English – Art History – Film Studies
English – Comparative Literature – French
English – Psychology – Social Anthropology
English – Classical Studies – Divinity

These are not mandatory combinations, you can mix and match subjects provided you have any necessary pre-requisites and there are no timetable clashes between your chosen subjects.

Interdisciplinary research projects

Students can also apply to join one of a range of Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) from the second semester of their first year. These 'live' research projects, led by staff teams from a range of Schools, offer students the opportunity to learn and gain research skills within teams comprised of students from all year groups and different disciplinary backgrounds. Students can take VIP modules across multiple semesters, at sub-Honours and at Honours level.

Slide 5: English sub-honours modules (Years 1 and 2)

The first- and second-year sub-honours modules are intended to give students a solid foundation across all periods and genres of English literature. You will study literature from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present and works ranging across prose, poetry and drama.

Some examples of English modules:

EN1003 Culture and Conflict: An Introduction to Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature considers Victorian, Modernist and Contemporary Literature, featuring authors such as Brontë, Dickens, Stevenson, Eliot, Woolf, Selvon, Kay and Paterson.
EN1004 Empires and Revolutions: Literature 1680-1830 looks at the Restoration, Eighteenth-century and Romantic Literature, featuring authors such as Behn, Swift, Pope, Burns, Wheatley, Wordsworth, Austen, Shelley and Hogg.
EN2003 Medieval and Renaissance Texts features Old English, Middle English, Older Scots and Renaissance verse, featuring authors such as Beowulf, Chaucer, Henryson, Donne and Milton.
EN2004 Drama: Reading and Performance discusses drama from the Renaissance period to the present, featuring authors such as Shakespeare, Cary, Wilde, Beckett, Churchill, Walcott and tucker green.

Slide 6: Module schedules

Module content and module schedules change from year to year. A semester runs for 12 weeks, which includes ten weeks of teaching, an independent learning week, and an exam revision week. Usually, each week will include lectures and a tutorial on a particular text covered by the module and its associated literary genre.

The schedule for week 2 of Culture and Conflict: An Introduction to Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature, for example, might include two lectures on Wuthering Heights, on Monday and Tuesday, a lecture on the Victorian Gothic on Thursday, and a tutorial discussion on Emily Brontë and the novel on Friday. Week 5 might be an introductory lecture on Modernism on Monday, two lectures on The Waste Land, on Tuesday and Thursday, and a tutorial on Robert Louis Stevenson and the work at the end of the week.

Slide 7: Sub-honours teaching and assessment

Teaching: Three one-hour lectures and one hour-long tutorial per week

Lectures: Lectures are given by various staff members based on their research expertise. Multiple lectures on a single text demonstrate the range of approaches that can be taken to analysing a text.

Tutorials: Students meet in small groups of 6 or 7 students with the same tutor for a whole semester to engage in in-depth group discussion of the texts being studied. Tutors are the first point of contact for questions about modules. For specific questions about the lectures, students can contact a lecturer directly or visit them during their weekly office hours.

Assessment: Two essays of between 1500 and 2000 words and an exam.

Slide 8: The Writing Lab

The Writing Lab is a joint initiative between the School of English and CEED (the Centre for Educational Enhancement and Development). The project is intended to help sub-honours and Honours students develop their skills in English and Creative Writing at university level.

The writing lab offers tutor-led workshops on essay writing as well as one-to-one bookable appointments offering support for academic writing. For more information, visit the The Writing Lab website.

Slide 9: English Honours modules (Years 3 and 4)

Students typically take two 30-credit English modules per semester, a total of eight modules over two Honours years.

Single Honours students must take students eight English literature modules, including at least one module from each of the following categories:

Group A: Medieval
Group B: Renaissance to Restoration
Group C: Augustans, Romantics Victorians
Group D: Honours dissertation option

Joint Honours students take between three and five English modules, including at least one Group A, B, or C category module, so they have taken one module on literature written before 1900. A fourth-year Honours dissertation is optional but not compulsory for Joint Honours students.

Beyond these set requirements, you can tailor your module choices to suit your interests.

Slide 10: Selection of English Honours modules by category

English Honours module offerings change from year to year. The only individual module that is guaranteed to run every year is the Honours dissertation module. The other module categories will always be represented by a range of different module options.

This short list of module offerings from previous years is for illustration purposes only and is broadly representative of the range of modules offered in any given year, however, no individual module in these categories is guaranteed to run in future years:

Group A: Medieval

Beowulf
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Older Scots Literature
Old English Poetry
Arthurian Ideals in Middle English Romance

Group B: Renaissance to Restoration

Tragedy in the Age of Shakespeare
Milton
Women and Authorship in Renaissance England
Literature, Nature and Science in early modern England

Group C: Augustans, Romantics, Victorians

Revolution and Romanticism
The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Novel
Literature in the Enlightenment
Labour, Leisure and Luxury in Literature of the Eighteenth Century
Romantic Gothic

Group E:

Contemporary Fiction
Contemporary World Literature
Literature and Human Rights
Playwriting
Twentieth-Century British and Irish Drama
Queer Theory and Literature
Modern Experimental Poetry

Visit the module catalogue for a full list of School of English and other modules.

Slide 11: English Literature Honours modules

Each year Honours students in their third and fourth year can choose from a wide variety of Honours Modules. The School of English offers between 40 and 50 Honours modules in each academic year. Each Honours module is designed and taught by a specialist in the subject.

These modules may cover:

A literary period, for example, Courtly Literature in Middle English or Modernist Literature: Making it new?
A particular genre, such as The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Novel or The Shape of the Poem
A national literature, for example, The Country and the City in Scottish Literature or Voicing America: Colonisation to Civil War
A particular theme or theory, for example, Postcolonial Literature and Theory or Queer Theory and Literature
Individual authors, such as Chaucer, Milton, Austen or Woolf
Creative writing, including writing poetry, prose or plays
Cultural studies, for example, Literature and Culture of Sport or Reading Popular Music

The following are examples of Honours modules that ran in 2024-2025 with links to the module catalogue, which provides further details on the module content and learning outcomes:

To explore past module offerings further, visit the module catalogue.

Slide 12: Honours teaching and assessment

Teaching: Usually two contact hours per week, either a one-hour lecture and a one-hour tutorial or a two-hour seminar which blends elements of the two teaching styles. Usually capped at 20 students per group so there is room for in-depth discussion.

Assessment: A standard model is two essays (2500 words each) and a two-hour exam, but module coordinators can devise their own assessment methods based on the nature of the module content. Variations include: module projects, longer essays, or oral presentations.

Your degree result is calculated from your marks at Honours level only.

Slide 13: Equality, diversity and inclusion

The School of English is committed to creating an inclusive environment that supports equality and diversity. The School aims to achieve fair and equal representation, enabling all members to contribute and reach their potential.

This commitment is evident in the wide range of studied texts by diverse authors at both sub-honours and Honours levels and the module content at Honours level, including:

Postcolonial Literature and Theory
Women and Authorship in Renaissance England
Jane Austen
Forming Freedom: African American Writing
Twentieth Century Crime Fiction: Gender and Genre

In the School, we believe that greater diversity in the curriculum does not mean rejecting the canon, but instead re-opening the canon to include forgotten texts and new voices which might otherwise be unheard.

Find out more about the School's commitment to accessiblity, inclusion and student support, as well as the EDI events run by our students, on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion webpages.

Slide 14: English-related extracurricular activities

The School of English, its students, the Students' Association and the wider St Andrews community offer a number of opportunities to get involved and develop your English skills, such as:

Volunteer with StAnza, Scotland’s annual Poetry Festival in St Andrews
Write for student newspapers, The Saint or The Stand
Join Inklight, the University’s Creative Writing Society
Get involved in performing arts, from improv to opera, with the Mermaids Performing Arts Fund, the Byre Theatre and the Barron Theatre
Participate in On the Rocks, the student-run arts festival in St Andrews
Join the student-run St Andrews Radio (STAR)
Get involved with student-led EDI reading groups, information sessions, celebrations and events
Learn all about bees and beekeeping at the School of English beehives at St Andrews Botanic Garden

Slide 15: Popular careers for English graduates

English graduates from St Andrews take up careers in writing fiction, poetry, drama and journalism, as well as translation services, publishing, teaching, the media, the civil service, advertising, libraries and information management, marketing, and public affairs.

Recent graduates have gone on to careers as writers and editors with Oxford University Press, Penguin Books and Harper Collins, in arts administration with the Barbican Centre and Sotheby’s, in public policy at the Scottish Executive and the British Council, and in the financial sector through KPMG and Santander, or have taken up internships with the United Nations.

Find out more about what a St Andrews degree can do for you.

Slide 16: Why St Andrews?

Research-led Teaching
Top employers for internships and jobs
Diverse module offerings across periods, genres and approaches

English modules are available through a range of study options, including part-time and supported pathways: