Course summary
This is a Connected Degree Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course. Overview Take your love of literature to a higher level and refine your writing skills with academic rigour on our English and Creative Writing degree course. Explore literature through an academic lens in theory and in practice, enhancing your understanding of each through participation in the other. You'll learn to analyse literature as a critic, historian and linguist, and from the perspective of future creators, storytellers, playwrights and poets – all of which will transform your writing skills. Develop techniques for producing short stories, poetry and plays, and learn to dissect, critique and perform your own writing. By the end of your degree, you’ll open up professional career paths and postgraduate routes eager for writing and literary expertise, including editing and publishing, teaching, and broadcasting. Course highlights
- Take part in Portsmouth's annual Comic Con for the latest developments in creative writing and literature, popular culture, fan communities, and technology – course lecturers and students are panelists
- Build your writing portfolio by contributing to our course blog The Eldon Review and our local news zine Star & Crescent
- Contribute to cultural preservation projects with staff members, such as the Portsmouth Literary Map and the Writing Literary Portsmouth blog, to enhance your research practice
- Learn from experts in both creative writing and English literature: from published novelists and industry-active writers, to renowned specialists of 19th to 21st-century literature and culture
- Gain valuable professional experience by taking an optional placement
- Spend a year or a semester studying abroad to discover another culture and way of learning
- Take advantage of our extra-curricular Institute-Wide Language Programme to improve your linguistic skills and earn credits
- creative writing (prose, poetry, script)
- advertising and marketing
- arts and events management
- local and community broadcasting
- teaching
- stand-up comedy
- travel industry
- novelist
- poet
- playwright
- teacher
- copywriter
- journalist
- theatre manager
- editorial assistant
- BBC Radio 1
- Red Magazine
Modules
Year 1 Core modules in this year include:
- Body Politics (40 credits)
- Telling Tales (20 credits)
- The Short Story: Murder, Madness and Experimentation (20 credits)
- Tips, Tricks, Techniques (20 credits)
- True Stories (20 credits)
- Literary Prizes and Public Acclaim (20 credits)
- Bloody Shakespeare: the Politics and Poetics of Violence (20 credits)
- Creative Writing and Critical Thinking (20 credits)
- Crime Writing (20 credits)
- Dystopian and Apocalyptic Environments: Ecocrisis in the Literary Imagination (20 credits)
- Engaged Citizenship Through Interdisciplinary Practice (20 credits)
- Finding Form - Fiction (20 credits)
- Finding Form - Nonfiction (20 credits)
- Finding Form - Speculative Fiction (20 credits)
- Press and Public Relations (20 credits)
- Professional Experience (20 credits)
- Puritans to Postmodernists: American Literature (20 credits)
- Research in Practice (20 credits)
- Screenwriting (20 credits)
- Space, Place and Being (20 credits)
- Student Enterprise (20 credits)
- Women's Writing in the Americas (20 credits)
- Advanced Screenwriting (20 credits)
- Consuming Fictions: Food and Appetite in Victorian Culture (20 credits)
- Creative Writing Dissertation (40 credits)
- Dissertation (English Literature) (40 credits)
- Finding Form - Fact and Fiction (20 credits)
- Holocaust Literatures (20 credits)
- Magical Realism (20 credits)
- The Gothic (20 credits)
- Time, Temporality, Contemporary Fiction (20 credits)
- US Masculinities (20 credits)
- Writing Project (With Publishing) (20 credits)
Assessment method
You’ll be assessed through:
- short stories
- a novel in progress
- a screenplay
- a collection of poems
- a video production
- presentations
- reports
- a research portfolio
- examinations
- dissertation/project
- Year 1 students: 8% by written exams, 17% by practical exams and 75% by coursework
- Year 2 students: 8% by written exams and 92% by coursework
How to apply
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:
- QW38
- Institution code:
- P80
- Campus name:
- Main Site
- Campus code:
- -
Points of entry
The following entry points are available for this course:
- Year 1
- Year 2
- Year 3
Entry requirements for advanced entry (i.e. into Year 2 and beyond)
We welcome applications for advanced entry. If you’d like to apply for advanced entry, you need to select the required year when you complete your UCAS application.
This course may be available at alternative locations, please check if other course options are available
Entry requirements
Qualification requirements
UCAS Tariff - 112 - 120 points
A level - BBB - BBC
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016) - DDM - DMM
Access to HE Diploma
Scottish Higher
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate (first teaching from September 2016)
Scottish Advanced Higher
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme - 25 points
Welsh Baccalaureate - Advanced Skills Challenge Certificate (last awarded Summer 2024)
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017) - H3, H3, H3, H3, H4 - H3, H3, H3, H3, H3
Cambridge International Pre-U Certificate - Principal
GCSE/National 4/National 5
T Level - Not accepted
Additional entry requirements
Portfolio
Applicants without a relevant subject or experience will be asked to provide a portfolio to support their application.
English language requirements
Test | Grade | Additional details |
---|---|---|
IELTS (Academic) | 6 | English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.0 with no component score below 5.5. |
PTE Academic | 54 | An overall score of 54 with a minimum of 51 in each skill. |
TOEFL (iBT) | 79 | 79 with a minimum of 18 in Reading, 17 in Listening, 20 in Speaking and 17 in Writing. |
Cambridge English Advanced | Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) taken after January 2015. An overall score of 169 with no component score less than 162. | |
Cambridge English Proficiency | Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) taken after January 2015. An overall score of 169 with no component score less than 162. | |
Trinity ISE | Pass | Trinity College Integrated Skills in English (ISE) Level III with a Pass in all 4 components |
Student Outcomes
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
EU | £9535 | Year 1 |
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 |
International | £17200 | 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
Provider information
University of Portsmouth
University House
Winston Churchill Avenue
Portsmouth
PO1 2UP