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Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa University - UCAS

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2024 - 20252025 - 2026
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Course summary

For any writer inspired by the natural world, other cultures and the power of place.

  • A world-leading course in two powerful genres dealing with today’s greatest challenges.
  • Offers you the skills and experiences to become a published writer of books, articles and online.
  • Taught remotely and part-time over two years, to fit around your lifestyle.
Do you enjoy writing about the environment, your travels, encounters with wildlife, people and places, past and present? Would you like to become a working writer, or to enrich your writing for pleasure? Today’s writing about nature and travel welcomes all of those themes and more, and in this unique and inspiring Nature and Travel writing degree course we will look at the potential of your writing and of these dynamic genres – including where they overlap with memoir, history, culture, science, wellbeing and other genres in today’s marketplace. Over two years of mainly evening sessions, you'll be immersed in the world of great nature and travel writing, with talks from top authors and editors, seminars from our seasoned tutors, creative friendships with your peers and an exploration of both the classics and the cutting edge in our genres. You'll write extended pieces of up to 4,000 words, essays on critical topics, and a final Portfolio of up to 18,000 words. You'll also learn about the commercial aspects of getting published, organising writing trips, establishing an online presence and building a writer’s career. A highlight of the course is our practical approach to becoming a working writer. This includes making actual pitches to real newspapers and magazines, based on an independent field trip which you will make in order to experience writing on the road for real. By the end of the course, you'll be prepared to operate as a professional-quality writer in our genres. By then, many of our students have already appeared in highly respected newspapers, magazines and websites. Our graduates have been widely published, including by Penguin Books, Bloomsbury, Granta, Bradt, National Trust and others. Their prizes have included the Stanfords New Travel Writer of the Year, BBC Countryfile’s New Nature Writer of the Year, the Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers, the Footnote x Counterpoints Writing Prize, and short/longlists for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing and the Richard Jeffries Prize. A thread running through the course is the creative journey that each student is making, which is different for each person. We support that with a Personal Journey project that supports your individual vision for who you want to become as a writer. Our students come from all backgrounds, ages and levels of experience and skill. Some want to build a writing career and others are happy with a life-affirming hobby. We welcome all of these and see them as contributing to the richness of our learning and writing. The 2024-26 course begins on 30 September 2024, with a four-night in-person residential event in Bath, for which you will need to find your own accommodation. After this, it will be taught online, usually on weekday evenings, and will end in September 2026. There is no formal teaching in the months of July, August or September.

Modules

Writing in the Field (30 credits) A broad introduction to the skills and techniques required to write from personal experience, whether about people, landscapes, the natural world, or a combination of all three. By using fieldcraft techniques, based on looking, listening, feeling and thinking, we explore ways of writing about the world around us. Context, History and Genres in Creative Non-Fiction (30 credits) An overview of the way the various genres of creative non-fiction writing (for example, Travel Writing, the New Nature Writing, plus other relevant genres such as Popular Science and Environmental Writing) have developed over time, from the past to the present, and how this both reflects and shapes social, cultural, historical and environmental issues in Britain and around the world. Advanced Travel and Nature Writing (30 credits) Continuing from what we covered in Writing in the Field, you’ll develop new ways of writing about the world, pushing the boundaries of your writing style and content in order to learn what works best for you as a writer. Professional Skills in Travel and Nature Writing (30 credits) Featuring advice from senior practitioners, editors and publishers, this is a practical guide to getting your work published across a range of different media and outlets, including newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, books and on TV and radio. You’ll also learn to plan a trip requiring commissions, and do a pitch and interview of an idea for publication. A Portfolio of Travel and Nature Writing (60 credits) A 20,000 word portfolio of your best work, in a range of styles and formats, together with a reflective diary on your progress through the year.

Assessment method

You’ll be assessed through a combination of formative and summative assessments. This will include creative writing pieces, critical and analytical essays, presentations and a broad portfolio of your writing.

Entry requirements

We’re looking for individuals with: - A real passion for either the natural world and/or places and people - A love of travel and/or nature writing - Above all, an urge to write and be published. Ideally you should have a first degree (for example, BA/BSc), but this is not compulsory, depending on your other experience. Interviews are held online through the year, on a first-come-first served basis. Please submit two to four pieces of your writing before the interview, ideally showing an ability to write non-fiction narrative or feature journalism.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

England £4528 Year 1
Northern Ireland £4528 Year 1
Scotland £4528 Year 1
Wales £4528 Year 1
Channel Islands £4528 Year 1
Republic of Ireland £4528 Year 1
EU £8823 Year 1
International £8823 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.
Nature and Travel Writing at Bath Spa University - UCAS