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Creative Writing at Durham University - UCAS

Course options

2024 - 20252025 - 2026
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There are other course options available which may have a different vacancy status or entry requirements – view the full list of options

Open days

10Feb
Durham University - Postgraduate Online Open Week
Postgraduate

Course summary

Our MA in Creative Writing is an exciting and rewarding course, taught with academic rigour by award-winning writers. It will help sharpen your practical knowledge of writing poetry and prose fiction and develop your knowledge and understanding of twentieth and twenty-first century literature. The teaching and research provided offers a combination of conceptual and theoretical reflection, analysis of historical and cultural contexts, pays close attention to literary texts and primary sources, and enables the imaginative creation of new writing. You will be supported with writing workshops and one-to-one tutorials where you will be encouraged to express and develop your own ideas. You will be based in an environment where your curiosity and imagination as well as your intellectual discipline and the individual nature of your responses is respected and valued. Alongside the teaching modules you will have access to an extensive events programme, which includes the sharing of work and expertise by leading researchers and writers. We are one of the most well-regarded English departments in the country. We are, in addition, one of few English departments in the world to teach and research in literature produced in Britain from the early medieval period to the present day as well as in anglophone literature from across the globe. Consequently, with the learning opportunities provided by the department’s world-leading scholars, our course will give you the freedom to study broadly or to specialise, but always within a support structure where you will always be able to develop your own creative writing ideas. Course Structure All the MA programmes offered by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities consist of three components:

  • a Major Research Project to the value of at least 60 credits
  • Core Modules to the value of 0-90 credits, depending on the programme
  • Elective Modules, making up the total number of credits to 180; some of these modules will be defined as Recommended Electives for particular programmes.
For students studying the MA in Creative Writing, the Research Project (60 credits) is an extended critical essay on a subject of your own choosing and a portfolio of creative work, consisting of new works written after you have completed the workshop-style modules. You will be steered in your choice of essay topic by the module convenor. Exploring a particular subject in depth, it will encourage the development of sophisticated argument, the marshalling of evidence, the reading of the relevant criticism and contextual material, and the appropriate high level of bibliographical and presentational skills. You will also be required to choose one from the following two core modules below:
  • Creative Writing Poetry (30 credits)
  • Creative Writing Prose Fiction (30 credits)

Modules

You will choose 90 credits of elective modules from across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, so that your total number of credits adds up to exactly 180.

Assessment method

Assessment on the course is rigorous and very much focused, as you would expect, on your written work. You will be expected to produce essays, a portfolio of poetry or prose fiction as well as an extended essay for your research project. We also want to understand how you see yourself and your own work so there will also be an assessment based on a self-critique.

How to apply

International applicants

If you are an international student who does not meet the requirements for direct entry to this degree, you may be eligible to take a pre-Masters pathway programme at the Durham University International Study Centre.

Entry requirements

Students are usually required to have an Honours Degree at 2:1 level or higher or overseas equivalent from a recognised national or international university. Students should submit a sample of 4-6 poems or 2,000 words of fiction.

English language requirements

Durham University welcomes applications from all students irrespective of background. We encourage the recruitment of academically well-qualified and highly motivated students, who are non-native speakers of English, whose full potential can be realised with a limited amount of English Language training either prior to entry or through pre-sessional and/or in-sessional courses. It is the normal expectation that candidates for admission should be able to demonstrate satisfactory English proficiency before the start of a programme of study, whether via the submission of an appropriate English language qualification or by attendance on an appropriate pre-sessional course. Acceptable evidence and levels required can be viewed by following the link provided.

English language requirements

https://www.durham.ac.uk/study/international/entry-requirements/english-language-requirements/

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

England £6900 Year 1
Northern Ireland £6900 Year 1
Scotland £6900 Year 1
Wales £6900 Year 1
Channel Islands £6900 Year 1
EU £15200 Year 1
International £15200 Year 1

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

The tuition fees shown are for one complete academic year of study and are set according to the academic year of entry. Fees will be subject to an annual inflationary increase and are expected to rise throughout the programme of study. The fee listed above is for the first year of the course only.

Sponsorship information

For further information see the course listing.

Creative Writing at Durham University - UCAS