Are the English and Publishing course worth the price?

Hellooo

I'm an EU student looking for a university that offers a worthwhile education. Seeing that the prices are exorbitant, I don't want to take any risks. Can anyone who has studied/is studying the English Literature and Publishing courses tell me what it's like and if it's really worth the loan? (also if I based my ps on literature is there any chance I'll get into publishing?)

Reply 1

elfess

Hiiii

I'm not doing English at Bath Spa, but I'm doing it at another uni in London. So I don't know how good Bath Spa is for English.

In general you can go into a wide range of jobs from studying English, and publishing would be something that you can do with an English degree. A degree in English gives you a lot of skills, teaching you how to write well, to research and of course it teaches you about literature. It's really beneficial in growing your mind in my opinion, and I'm only in my first year.

It takes a lot of hard work, and a lot of independent study. My course is vary varied and we get to cover a wide range of topics, like medieval literature or feminism for example. Queen Mary is really good for English and we get a lot of support. You'll probably also get a lot of support from you seminar leaders and your personal adviser, and there's usually a careers office to help you look for jobs while you're still studying, or after you graduate.

Quite often we also have speakers in and we go on trips to help further our learning. For example we went to the Globe theatre a few weeks ago to do a Shakespeare workshop. The globe is in London, but a good university in my opinion will set up things similar to that for its students.

Here are some more links about going into publishing from an English degree -

http://thesyp.org.uk/how-do-i-get-a-job-in-publishing/

http://www.brightknowledge.org/knowledge-bank/arts-and-humanities/careers-and-courses/what-can-i-do-with-an-english-literature-degree

If you're going to get a loan through student finance, it's not really that bad. I don't know about EU students, but generally you don't have to start paying it back until you're earning over £21,000 a year. I'm pretty sure they just erase it after like 30 years if you haven't paid it back yet. But like I said you might want to research it some more because I don't know for EU students.

I would encourage you to find out as much as you possibly can about the degree at Bath Spa, and other information about Bath Spa. For example: their ratings for English, student satisfaction and their employment rates for graduates. It would also be worth asking current students and even trying to go to an open day if you can manage it. Though I didn't go to an open day for my uni and I think I still picked the right one.

This is a list for the best uni's for English - http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?s=english

I hope this helped! :smile:

(edited 9 years ago)

Bath Spa University

Bath

Reply 2

Nerdz

Thanks for your reply! I'll look into the publishing business and the tuition fees some more, thanks for the recommendations! :biggrin:

Reply 3

yabbayabba

I do English and in my final year, so I've experienced most of uni. Thankfully I'm paying the old fees of 3.5k which I even think is too much for an English degree, but at least it's reasonable. 9 grand is taking the piss and you'll be doing exactly what students who paid 3.5k did, there's no extra value added for you.

Contact hours are one of the lowest of all students (about 6 a week) and most of your learning is self taught. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I did English but I wouldn't have done it for 9 grand a year. It's just not worth the money unless you absolutely need the degree to get to where you want to be e.g. be an English teacher.

A publishing degree sounds a little dubious tbh. It's not really an undergraduate course of study.. A publishing degree is certainly not required to get into the industry. And not to be snobbish but Bath Spa isn't that respected either.

Tbh I would stay in your country and do a comparable course there but for less.

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Reply 4

Nerdz

Original post by yabbayabba

Thanks for your honesty! I was thinking the same thing, that it's way too much money to expect from people. I'm looking into Scottish universities because they have much lower prices, and a few around Europe :smile:

I probably won't bother applying to Bath in this case! Again, thanks for your reply.

Reply 5

yabbayabba

Original post by Nerdz

I probably won't bother applying to Bath in this case! Again, thanks for your reply.

Yeah EU students get free tuition in Scotland don't you? (Strange as English students are also in the EU.. but I won't go into how unfair that is and start slagging off Scottish unis). As long as you can fund your living costs I would just do an English degree in Scotland, makes more sense. And it makes sense to study English literature in an Anglophone country so maybe your home country wouldn't be as good, I dont know.

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Reply 6

Nerdz

Original post by yabbayabba

It is quite unfair, but then so are english unis for having everyone pay £9,000 a year. The whole system kinda sucks. Here in France it's pretty much free unless it's a Grande Ecole, but as you said, it's better for me to study english somewhere that speaks english. I'm also going to look into some places around Europe just in case!

Reply 7

yabbayabba

Original post by Nerdz

Ah t'es français(e), cool! Yeah I'm lucky I don't pay 9k. I'm glad I could stay in my own country for uni and pay 3k, which is a lot, but I don't mind that. I'd avoid any publishing courses tbh, that would be more suitable as a postgraduate course really. If i were you i'd apply for straight English literature courses in Scotland (St Andrews and Edinburgh are the most competitive and best regarded). Bon courage avec UCAS! Do you want to work in the UK afterwards or go back to France?

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