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BA ART AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

  • UCAS code
    QW31
  • Typical offer
    BBB
  • Year of entry
    2021
  • Course duration
     4 years
  • Year of entry
    2021
  • Course duration
     4 years
View all

COVID-19 update


Find out about how we'll be delivering our courses in 2020.

Our BA Art and English Literature degree lets you engage in substantial practical work in the studio, develop your understanding of ideas and theories in contemporary art, and explore English literature from every era and across the globe.

You will see how debates across the creative arts are reflected in dynamic ways across the two subjects. 

Join a lively community at Reading School of Art. You can explore a vast range of media, experiment with emerging art forms and develop as an artist. You will complement your practical art with modules in contemporary art theory and the history of art. The studios are busy places with events, screenings, performances and exhibitions regularly taking place. You will receive a dedicated space, accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and a studio tutor to help develop your individual and professional practice.

Trips to museums and art galleries help prompt thoughts on how art is displayed and received. You will gain professional experience by taking part in your own exhibitions, public art commissions and events. Your teaching staff are artists, curators and researchers of international standing and will encourage regular exhibitions and open debate.

In your English literature modules, you will read more of authors and genres that you may already know (from tragedy to Gothic, from Shakespeare and Dickens to Plath and Beckett). But you will also encounter aspects of literary studies that may be less familiar to you, from children’s literature to publishing studies and the history of the book. Our academics have published research on everything from medieval poetry to contemporary Caribbean and American fiction.

As you progress through your degree, your module choices become more diverse and specialised: you can do archive work on Studying Manuscripts, or look at the politics of literature in Class Matters. Everyone in the English Department, from new lecturers to professors, teaches at every level of the degree: this gives you the benefit of our expertise and makes you part of the conversation about our research and its impact outside the classroom.

We place a strong emphasis on small-group learning within a friendly and supportive environment. In your first and second years, you will have a mix of lectures (which can be quite large) and seminars (which will never have more than 16 people).

Placements and collaborations are actively encouraged throughout this joint degree, and there is also the option to experience life in another country by studying abroad. Throughout your course you will receive advice and guidance in career development.

Placement

All students are encouraged to work with different artists and designers in hosting events and exhibitions. External exhibitions have included Urban Utopia, a partnership between Fine Art and Deutsche Bank where 35 students curated their work in the new Capitol building, Bracknell, and an exhibition at the Beaconsfield Gallery in London.

You are also expected to undertake placement opportunities. Past students have enjoyed internships at Studio Voltaire and the Frieze Art Fair. Others have performed at the ICA, taken part in an Arts Council-supported film project at the Museum of Rural Life and participated in an international exhibition at the Seoul Institute of Arts in South Korea. Alternatively, in English, a unique Communications at Work module enables you to combine the study of the practical use of English with a short placement.

Find out more about career prospects and placement opportunities.

Regular field trips to national and international museums, art institutions and galleries allow you to consider the diverse conditions in which art is displayed and received. There are also many opportunities for you to apply to study abroad: Reading School of Art has links with universities in countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, France, Switzerland and Finland.

Learn more about studying abroad.

Overview

You will see how debates across the creative arts are reflected in dynamic ways across the two subjects. 

Join a lively community at Reading School of Art. You can explore a vast range of media, experiment with emerging art forms and develop as an artist. You will complement your practical art with modules in contemporary art theory and the history of art. The studios are busy places with events, screenings, performances and exhibitions regularly taking place. You will receive a dedicated space, accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and a studio tutor to help develop your individual and professional practice.

Trips to museums and art galleries help prompt thoughts on how art is displayed and received. You will gain professional experience by taking part in your own exhibitions, public art commissions and events. Your teaching staff are artists, curators and researchers of international standing and will encourage regular exhibitions and open debate.

In your English literature modules, you will read more of authors and genres that you may already know (from tragedy to Gothic, from Shakespeare and Dickens to Plath and Beckett). But you will also encounter aspects of literary studies that may be less familiar to you, from children’s literature to publishing studies and the history of the book. Our academics have published research on everything from medieval poetry to contemporary Caribbean and American fiction.

As you progress through your degree, your module choices become more diverse and specialised: you can do archive work on Studying Manuscripts, or look at the politics of literature in Class Matters. Everyone in the English Department, from new lecturers to professors, teaches at every level of the degree: this gives you the benefit of our expertise and makes you part of the conversation about our research and its impact outside the classroom.

We place a strong emphasis on small-group learning within a friendly and supportive environment. In your first and second years, you will have a mix of lectures (which can be quite large) and seminars (which will never have more than 16 people).

Placements and collaborations are actively encouraged throughout this joint degree, and there is also the option to experience life in another country by studying abroad. Throughout your course you will receive advice and guidance in career development.

Placement

All students are encouraged to work with different artists and designers in hosting events and exhibitions. External exhibitions have included Urban Utopia, a partnership between Fine Art and Deutsche Bank where 35 students curated their work in the new Capitol building, Bracknell, and an exhibition at the Beaconsfield Gallery in London.

You are also expected to undertake placement opportunities. Past students have enjoyed internships at Studio Voltaire and the Frieze Art Fair. Others have performed at the ICA, taken part in an Arts Council-supported film project at the Museum of Rural Life and participated in an international exhibition at the Seoul Institute of Arts in South Korea. Alternatively, in English, a unique Communications at Work module enables you to combine the study of the practical use of English with a short placement.

Find out more about career prospects and placement opportunities.

Regular field trips to national and international museums, art institutions and galleries allow you to consider the diverse conditions in which art is displayed and received. There are also many opportunities for you to apply to study abroad: Reading School of Art has links with universities in countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, France, Switzerland and Finland.

Learn more about studying abroad.

Entry requirements A Level BBB | IB 30 points overall

Select Reading as your firm choice on UCAS and we will guarantee you a place if you achieve one grade lower than the published offer.

Typical offer

BBB, including grade B in A level English Literature or related subject. Related subjects include: English Language, English Language and Literature, Drama and Theatre Studies, Creative Writing.

All suitable applicants will be interviewed and will need to supply a portfolio of their work.

International Baccalaureate

30 points overall including 5 at higher level in English Literature or related subject.

Extended Project Qualification

In recognition of the excellent preparation that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) provides to students for University study, we can now include achievement in the EPQ as part of a formal offer.

BTEC Extended Diploma

DDM (modules taken must be comparable to A level subjects specified)

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0, with no component below 6.0

For information on other English language qualifications, please visit our international student pages.

Alternative entry requirements for International and EU students

For country specific entry requirements look at entry requirements by country.

Pre-sessional English language programme

If you need to improve your English language score you can take a pre-sessional English course prior to entry onto your degree.

  • Find out the English language requirements for our courses and our pre-sessional English programme

Structure

  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 3
  • Year 4

Core modules include:

  • Art studio
  • Reading objects, writing images
  • Genre and context
  • Poetry in English

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Core modules include:

  • Art studio including career management skills

Optional modules include:

  • Critical collaborative methods
  • Aesthetic and anti-aesthetic
  • Visual thinking and material writing
  • International study visit
  • Introduction to old English
  • Lyric voices
  • Renaissance texts and cultures
  • Chaucer and medieval narrative
  • Contemporary art and theory
  • Early modern theatre practice
  • Formations of modernism
  • Restoration to revolution
  • The Romantic Period
  • Modernism in poetry and fiction
  • Victorian literature
  • Contemporary fiction
  • Writing America
  • Writing and revising
  • Restoration to revolution: 1660-1789
  • Shakespeare
  • Writing genre, identity
  • Writing, genre and the market
  • The business of books

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Core modules include:

  • Art studio

Optional modules include:

  • Image action text
  • Affect, aesthetics and the event
  • Utopias and other worlds
  • Landscape and memory
  • Independent study
  • Family romances: genealogy, identity, and imposture in the nineteenth-century novel
  • Holocaust testimony: memory, trauma and representation
  • Restoration literary culture: drama and poetry, 1660-1700
  • 'Eyes on the prize': literature of the US Civil Rights Movement
  • American poetry: Bishop to Dove
  • Black British fiction
  • Children's literature
  • City of death and desire: Henry James and Venice
  • Class matters
  • Classical and Renaissance tragedy
  • Colonial explorations
  • Contemporary American fiction
  • Decadence and degeneration: literature of the 1890s
  • Dickens
  • Editing the Renaissance
  • Fiction and ethnicity in post-war Britain and America
  • Hitchcock
  • Holocaust fiction
  • Irish poetry after Yeats
  • James Joyce
  • John Milton: poet of the English Republic
  • Literature and the railway
  • Margaret Atwood
  • Modern epic
  • Modern Scottish fiction: from Jean Brodie to Trainspotting
  • Modern and contemporary British poetry
  • Nigerian prose literature: from Achebe to Adichie
  • Nineteenth-century American fiction
  • Packaging literature
  • Psychoanalysis and text
  • Samuel Beckett
  • Science in culture
  • Shakespeare on film
  • The eighteenth-century novel: sex and sensibility
  • The writer's workshop: studying manuscripts
  • Victorian and Edwardian children's fantasy
  • Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury
  • What is the contemporary?
  • Writing global justice
  • Writing women: nineteenth-century poetry

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Core modules include:

  • Art studio
  • English dissertation

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Fees

New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £9,250* per year

New international students: £17,320 per year

*UK/Republic of Ireland fee changes

UK/Republic of Ireland undergraduate tuition fees are regulated by the UK government. These fees are subject to parliamentary approval and any decision on raising the tuition fees cap for new UK students would require the formal approval of both Houses of Parliament before it becomes law.

EU student fees

With effect from 1 August 2021, new EU students will pay international tuition fees. For exceptions, please read the UK government’s guidance for EU students.

Additional costs

Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

Careers

As well as the practical experience gained on this degree our students also graduate with a range of transferable skills, such as self-motivation, time management and strategic thinking. You will enter the job market as a self-confident graduate with well-developed skills in oral communication, research and writing, together with a high level of cultural literacy and critical sophistication.

Overall, 92% of our art graduates are in work or further study within 15 months of the end of their course [1]. Many of our graduates develop successful careers as artists, writers and curators. These include a number of famous alumni, such as Turner Prize-nominated artists, and PhD students who are award-winning artists and curators at influential museums.

Others have found employment in galleries, education, art therapy and film and video production. Our graduates have excelled in fields as diverse as law, business administration, web design, teaching and journalism. Recent employers include Tate, Whitechapel Gallery, Christies, Microsoft, the BBC, Victoria & Albert Museum, and Manolo Blahnik.

[1] Graduate Outcomes Survey 2017/18; First Degree responders from Art.

ONCAMPUS Reading


International students can enrol on the Undergraduate Foundation Programme (UFP) in Art and Design with a guaranteed opportunity for progression to Art, Design, Film and Theatre degrees at the University of Reading.

To find out more, please visit the ONCAMPUS Reading website.

Contextual offers


We make contextual offers for all our courses.

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2020
2021
Undergraduates
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Subjects A-B

  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Animal Science
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Architectural Engineering
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Building and Surveying
  • Business and Management, Accounting and Finance

Subjects C-E

  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Classical Studies
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management
  • Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
  • Creative Writing
  • Drama
  • Ecology
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environment

Subjects F-G

  • Film & Television
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Foundation programmes
  • French
  • Geography
  • German
  • Graphic Communication and Design

Subjects H-M

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • International Development
  • International Foundation Programme (IFP)
  • International Relations
  • Italian
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics
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  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Museum Studies

Subjects N-T

  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacology
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate Studies
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Psychology
  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Spanish
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Surveying and Construction
  • Teaching
  • Theatre

Subjects U-Z

  • Wildlife Conservation
  • Zoology

Subjects A-C

  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Animal Sciences
  • Archaeology
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Business (Post-Experience)
  • Business and Management (Pre-Experience)
  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Ancient History
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management and Engineering
  • Consumer Behaviour
  • Creative Enterprise

Subjects D-G

  • Data Science
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Energy and Environmental Engineering
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environmental Science
  • Film, Theatre and Television
  • Finance
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Geography and Environmental Science
  • Graphic Design

Subjects H-P

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • Information Management and Digital Business
  • Information Technology
  • International Development and Applied Economics
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Management
  • Medieval History
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Microbiology
  • Nutritional Sciences
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Project Management
  • Psychology
  • Public Policy

Subjects Q-Z

  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Social Policy
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Strategic Studies
  • Teaching
  • Theatre
  • Typography and Graphic Communication
  • War and Peace Studies
  • Zoology

Subjects A-B

  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Animal Science
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Architectural Engineering
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Building and Surveying
  • Business and Management, Accounting and Finance

Subjects C-E

  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Classical Studies
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management
  • Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
  • Creative Writing
  • Drama
  • Ecology
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environment

Subjects F-G

  • Film & Television
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Foundation programmes
  • French
  • Geography
  • German
  • Graphic Communication and Design

Subjects H-M

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • International Development
  • International Foundation Programme (IFP)
  • International Relations
  • Italian
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics
  • Medical Sciences
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Museum Studies

Subjects N-T

  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacology
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate Studies
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Psychology
  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Spanish
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Surveying and Construction
  • Teaching
  • Theatre

Subjects U-Z

  • Wildlife Conservation
  • Zoology

Subjects A-C

  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Animal Sciences
  • Archaeology
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Business (Post-Experience)
  • Business and Management (Pre-Experience)
  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Ancient History
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management and Engineering
  • Consumer Behaviour
  • Creative Enterprise

Subjects D-G

  • Data Science
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Energy and Environmental Engineering
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environmental Science
  • Film, Theatre and Television
  • Finance
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Geography and Environmental Science
  • Graphic Design

Subjects H-P

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • Information Management and Digital Business
  • Information Technology
  • International Development and Applied Economics
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Management
  • Medieval History
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Microbiology
  • Nutritional Sciences
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Project Management
  • Psychology
  • Public Policy

Subjects Q-Z

  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Social Policy
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Strategic Studies
  • Teaching
  • Theatre
  • Typography and Graphic Communication
  • War and Peace Studies
  • Zoology

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