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english and creative writing degree

hey! im thinking of doing an english and creative writing degree but i dont know where to start looking.. any recommendations? thank you :smile:

Reply 1

Sav055

Original post by backsplash

hey! im thinking of doing an english and creative writing degree but i dont know where to start looking.. any recommendations? thank you :smile:

I'm not sure where you live or if you are on about university but these are the universities I looked at when I thought about that degree in England. I think they have a good place on the league table too.
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/a-z/english-with-creative-writing/
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/english/english-creative.aspx
https://courses.leeds.ac.uk/i438/english-literature-with-creative-writing-ba
https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/132/english-literature-and-creative-writing

Reply 2

InspiredPleb

Don't want to dissuade you from taking the degree, as I'm the last person to shill STEM degrees as something everyone should take, but whatever degree a person wants to do they need to think through it. Will lectures be significantly better for you than joining a good writing website, finding a good writing group / society, or practicing through entering competitions?

If you're really passionate about taking either or both subjects and have a good plan for your future, that's great. I've heard good things about Lancaster's Eng Lit and CW combined course, but you probably want to do your own research to make a conclusion.

The Complete University Guide has subject ranking league tables, but don't take them as gospel. Student satisfaction ratings are pretty important to consider and the COVID faff may have impacted rankings. Pester friends and people online who are interested in your subject area where they're considering going, pester past students, dig up reviews on various uni rating sites, it's how I've been (attempting) to make a decision.
https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/creative-writing
https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/english

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 3

Loughborough University

Official Rep

Original post by backsplash

hey! im thinking of doing an english and creative writing degree but i dont know where to start looking.. any recommendations? thank you :smile:

Hi @backsplash,

I don't know if you were able to attend our Virtual Open Day on Saturday but the pages are still live and you can access them here and find out what it's like to study at Loughborough. There is a host of information on our English and Liberal Arts pages where you can watch videos, presentations and read our course information which will hopefully give you an insight into whether or not Loughborough is the place for you.

Let me know if you have any questions.
Bindu

Reply 4

hannc21

There are a LOT of unis that offer English as a subject, so it can be overwhelming to narrow it down to just 5...

My recommendation would be to have a look around using the UCAS seach tool, and decide what kind of English you want to do exactly... Do you want to combine creative writing with english language, literature, linguistics, or just study writing on its own?
There are also a lot of combined degrees, where you can study english with another language.

When I applied, I looked through all the courses on UCAS and made a looong list of possible unis on google doc/word. Then I went through the course pages for all of them, and deleted any ones that I didn't like the look of.
I considered things like - Does the course have a study abroad year? What kind of clubs/societies does the uni have? What kind of vibe does the city/town have? What's the accomodation like? How far away from home do I want to move?
It's okay if you don't have the answers to these yet!

Once you've found a few courses you like the look of, book some open days! theyre a great place to learn about the courses and ask any questions about applying or uni life.
Good luck! :smile:

Reply 5

Keele Rep

Official Rep

Original post by backsplash

hey! im thinking of doing an english and creative writing degree but i dont know where to start looking.. any recommendations? thank you :smile:

Hey @backsplash!

As others here have said, there are a lot of universities that offer English and Creative Writing as a degree subject so probably the best thing to do is to do a search on UCAS (as @hannc21 has suggested) and then take a look at the course structure and modules to see which ones interest you. You can then take a look more widely at the universities you're interested in - look at their accommodation, location, facilities, student support etc. - and consider a virtual or in person open day visit to those that are your main contenders.

When looking at your course, think about what you want to get out of your degree. How much of the course is weighted to English and how much to Creative Writing? Are there opportunities to write creatively in the mode that interests you the most? Are there any work placement or internship elements? Could you take a year abroad if you wanted to? Or learn a language alongside your degree programme? What specialisms do the creative writing staff have - are they play/screenwriters, novelists, poets? Are there any opportunities for publication at the university or built into the course - and do you learn about pitching your work? On the literature side, how is this integrated into the creative practise - do the two elements of the course compliment each other?

Most universities put example course structure and module descriptors on their website so you can get a good idea of what they're offering - you can find Keele's at https://www.keele.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/2021entry/englishliteratureandcreativewriting/, for example.

A lot of universities also now have Unibuddy, which allows you to chat to current students about their course and experiences. For example, Ellie is one of our current 2nd year English Literature undergraduates at Keele and is available to chat with at https://api.unibuddy.co/og/keele-university/buddies/students/5f20482e364ac90374f5cc5b?buddyPosition=share.

You can also register an interest in our upcoming open days at https://www.keele.ac.uk/discover/opendays/undergraduateopendays/ - we're currently reviewing whether these will be virtual, in-person, or a mixture of both depending on UK government guidelines! I'm a current PhD student in English Literature there and I love it - the department is very friendly and the staff are, in my experience, excellent. I've not done Creative Writing but quite a few of my friends do and they really enjoy their modules, and the support they get from supervisors and tutors. There are also events such as Keele Hall Reads (where authors and practicing writers come to give readings, with occasional open mic sessions for anyone to read), as well as a yearly Creative Writing Anthology for students to publish work in.

Hope that helps!

Amy Louise :smile:

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 6

CatInTheCorner

Original post by backsplash

hey! im thinking of doing an english and creative writing degree but i dont know where to start looking.. any recommendations? thank you :smile:

Hey! A sibling is at QMUL doing english and creative writing and loves it, says the lecturers are great and the work seems manageable. Good luck looking, the resources above are perfect :smile:

Reply 7

Clare123123

Original post by Loughborough University

Hi @backsplash,
I don't know if you were able to attend our Virtual Open Day on Saturday but the pages are still live and you can access them here and find out what it's like to study at Loughborough. There is a host of information on our English and Liberal Arts pages where you can watch videos, presentations and read our course information which will hopefully give you an insight into whether or not Loughborough is the place for you.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Bindu

This link no longer works .. do you have a link for liberal arts

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