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Creative Writing and Philosophy and Ethics (Professional Placement Year) at Bath Spa University - UCAS

Bath Spa University

Degree level: Undergraduate

Creative Writing and Philosophy and Ethics (Professional Placement Year)

Course options

2025 - 2026
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Bath Spa University has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework. These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.

Open days

30Nov
Bath Spa University undergraduate open day
Undergraduate
11Jan
Bath Spa University undergraduate open day
Undergraduate

Course summary

Passionate about ideas? Love writing? Join our vibrant community of creative thinkers, supported by award-winning authors and leading philosophy minds.

  • Your projects, your way, with our support. Including literary festivals, publications, podcasts - we’ll help you find your voice across a wide range of genres.
  • Combine professional skills and opportunities with subject knowledge in an innovative combination of subjects.
  • Explore the next stage in your career - we’re industry focused with an emphasis on developing your professional practice and employability. Our graduates have gone on to work with leading employers in a wide range of roles.
Join us at Bath Spa University where writing is the thing we love to do and one of the main things we love to talk about. Apply your knowledge of philosophy to contemporary challenges, issues and debates. Our innovative Philosophy and Ethics course has been designed to enable you to acquire specialised subject knowledge alongside practical and professional skills. In our workshops, you’ll find friends for life who, like you, want to spend time in a writing world of imagination, creativity and experimentation. You’ll address the key questions which underpin all academic disciplines and concepts, and how they are fundamental to our study of history, literature, the arts and sciences. You’ll enjoy working on our unique campus, surrounded by wildlife and a beautiful 18th-century landscape, perfect for creative inspiration. Creative Writing at Bath Spa University is a challenging, exciting and flexible programme, designed to help you develop your writing craft and find your writing path. You’ll be taught by exceptional published writers with years of industry experience and knowledge to share with you. It’s not just about writing craft - you’ll also learn vital professional skills. We'll help you gain experience in industry and meet writers and creative practitioners from the professional literary world. Through your modules, projects and student society activities, you’ll leave with a portfolio of work that demonstrates your skills and abilities. Like so many of our graduates, you’ll be ready for a career in the creative industries or postgraduate study. By working collaboratively across the Humanities, our Philosophers develop expertise in their own subject alongside the skills and approaches that will equip them for the next stage in their careers: learning to work with others, planning and implementing a project, making a pitch to a potential employer, and evaluating and acting on different options. Combined Honour Awards At Bath Spa University many of our undergraduate programmes can be combined, so you don’t have to limit yourself to one subject. If you choose to study a combined award then in Year One you’ll start by studying both subjects in equal depth. From Year Two you can choose whether to continue with equal numbers of modules from each subject, or whether you want to select additional modules in one or the other. Upon successful completion of the programme you will graduate with a joint degree. More about the Professional Placement Year A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where you undertake a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between your second and final years of undergraduate study. You can engage in multiple placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) yourself, with support from the Careers team.

Modules

Year one The course is carefully designed to enable you to explore and experiment with your writing and understand the foundations of writing craft. In addition to learning how to give and receive feedback from other writers in the BSU writing workshop, you’ll be experimenting with an array of different writing forms and genres. In addition, you’ll develop your skills in philosophical thinking, and follow a broad curriculum which allows you to ask questions, challenge your own assumptions, interrogate evidence, data and opinions. You’ll also attend lectures from visiting writers and members of staff who will talk to you about their writing lives and experiences in the industry. Year two You’ll take a mixture of core and optional modules from a list that includes, for example, genre fiction, life writing, short stories, form and listening in poetry, and writing for screen. This range will enable you to specialise in a particular form or genre of writing. The second year combines the academic study of Philosophy with the acquisition of professional skills and the application of your knowledge and understanding to a defined problem or idea. You will also take the project module, Professional Portfolio, designed to help you develop the skills you need as a professional writer. You will be assigned a member of staff to be your project supervisor. They will help guide and advise you as you develop your idea. Year three is your professional placement year Final year The final year of the programme is designed to consolidate your writing practice and support your progression into a writing-related career. You will take a dissertation-equivalent module in at least one of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, scriptwriting or writing for young people. Achievement, consolidation, creativity: your final project in the third year brings all this together. You’ll identify your own area of study, develop your proposal and put it into practice. This might be an extended piece of academic writing, an exhibition, community project, or the creation of digital resources. Alongside that you have a choice of career-focused modules which include Live Literature and Professional Practice which offer you the opportunity to develop your own industry-facing creative projects.

Assessment method

Assessment is based on 100% coursework (no exams). Most modules will require you to submit a portfolio of creative writing along with a reflective or contextual essay in which you describe what you have learned in class, what you have learned from the set texts and working on your own writing.

How to apply

29Jan

This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.

Application codes

Course code:
SE65
Institution code:
B20
Campus name:
Main Site
Campus code:
-

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 4

Entry requirements

Qualification requirements

English language requirements

TestGradeAdditional details
IELTS (Academic)6IELTS 6.0 - for visa nationals, with a minimum score of IELTS 5.5 in each element.

Student Outcomes

Operated by the Office for Students
70%
Employment after 15 months (Most common jobs)
85%
Go onto work and study

The number of student respondents and response rates can be important in interpreting the data – it is important to note your experience may be different from theirs. This data will be based on the subject area rather than the specific course. Read more about this data on the Discover Uni website.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

England £9535 Year 1
Northern Ireland £9535 Year 1
Scotland £9535 Year 1
Wales £9535 Year 1
Channel Islands £9535 Year 1
Republic of Ireland £9535 Year 1
EU £17430 Year 1
International £17430 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

No additional fees or cost information has been supplied for this course, please contact the provider directly.
Creative Writing and Philosophy and Ethics (Professional Placement Year) at Bath Spa University - UCAS