Program Overview

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English and History

Course Overview

The English and History course at Bishop Grosseteste University offers a unique blend of literary and historical studies, allowing students to explore the rich cultural heritage of the past and its impact on the present.

Why Study This Course

This course specialises in social and cultural history, encouraging students to study the past with empathy and see it from different, sometimes challenging perspectives. The English team are all research-active lecturers who are passionate about the study of literature and its positive impact on the individual and wider society.

Course Summary

Studying English at BGU provides an exciting and wide-ranging engagement with the power of human creativity and the rich heritage of literary expression. You will study great works of literature from Sophocles to Ali Smith, Bernardine Evaristo, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, directing your own path of learning through module options including creative and environmental writing, crime fiction, American and World Literature, drama and children’s literature, film studies, Victorian, Romantic, and contemporary literature.

While studying a History course at BGU, you will explore a range of fascinating topics spanning a number of historical eras, in a variety of local, national and global contexts; from pirates in the early modern Atlantic World to civil rights campaigners in the 1960s. As well as learning about the people in the past on this undergraduate degree, you will investigate how people today engage with history and consider how the past can be brought alive.

Key Facts

• Award: BA (Hons)
• UCAS code: QV31
• Duration: 3 years
• Mode of study: Full time
• Start date: September 2025
• Awarding institution: Bishop Grosseteste University
• Institution code: B38

Course Modules

Year 1

• Introduction to Literary Studies
• The Gothic: Transgressive to Shock
• Poetic License: Lines and Lyrics
• Shakespearean Worlds
• Histories of Identity: Sexuality, Race, Class and Gender
• The Early Modern British Isles: From Reformation to Revolution
• The Historian’s Craft: Doing History at University
• The merrie folk of Late Medieval England: from king to the poorest widow

Year 2

• Victorians Unbound
• Literature & Identity: Self or Subject?
• People and Places: Researching Local and Regional History
• The City in Global History: The Rise of Urban Societies in the Modern Age
• Writing Multicultural Britain
• Literature for Children and Young Adults
• Reading the Popular
• Becomings: Women & Writing
• Modern Drama: The Inconstant Stage
• The Dark Arts: A History of Magic, Witchcraft and Folklore
• The Long Weekend: Britain between the wars

Year 3

• The Future Unwritten: Late 20th- and 21st- century Literature
• Romantic Horizons
• English Dissertation
• ‘The Sun Never Set and the Blood Never Dried’: The British Empire in the 19th Century
• History Dissertation
• The Global Cold War
• Tales from Medieval England: Monsters, Margins, and Manuscripts
• Modernism: Make It New!
• Writing the Environment
• Kill Your Masters: The French and Haitian Revolutions

Entry Requirements

You will normally need 96-112 UCAS tariff points (from a maximum of four Advanced Level qualifications). We welcome a range of qualifications that meet this requirement, such as A/AS Levels, BTEC, Access Courses, International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge Pre-U, Extended Project etc.

How You Will Be Taught

There is no one-size-fits-all method of teaching at BGU – we shape our methods to suit each subject and each group, combining the best aspects of traditional university teaching with innovative techniques to promote student participation and interactivity.

Assessment

Assessment in English Literature is designed to give you the oral, written, and digital skills to be confident and successful. Through a staged process of development, you will learn how to express yourself persuasively and reflectively across a range of media. You will write short essays and a long dissertation, deliver oral arguments and create presentations, build portfolios and develop personal projects. There are no exams.

In History, we believe in utilising assessments that will accurately test your key skills, knowledge and understanding. We select only those assessments that will enable you to learn, improve and progress over the course of the degree programme and which will prepare you for challenges beyond university, such as job interviews, creative presentations, professional exchanges of ideas, report writing and project management.

Careers & Further Study

Studying English Literature at BGU equips you to succeed in a diverse range of professions, including creative and professional writing, publishing, editing, human resources, public policy, journalism, social media, and public relations fields, marketing, technology, librarianship, teaching, and a wide range of creative and media industries.

Studying History at BGU enhances your employability by focusing on highly desirable and transferable critical thinking and analytical skills, professional writing practices and the art of constructing persuasive arguments.

Fees & Funding

A lot of student finance information is available from numerous sources, but it is sometimes confusing and contradictory. That’s why at BGU we try to give you all the information and support we can to help to throughout the process. Our Student Advice team are experts in helping you sort out the funding arrangements for your studies, offering a range of services to guide you through all aspects of student finance step by step.

Support

Studying at BGU is a student-centred experience. Staff and students work together in a friendly and supportive atmosphere as part of an intimate campus community. You will know every member of staff personally and feel confident approaching them for help and advice, and staff members will recognise you, not just by sight, but as an individual with unique talents and interests.

We will be there to support you, personally and academically, from induction to graduation.