Program Overview

BA (Hons) English, Media and Cultural Studies with Foundation Year

Why study this course with LJMU?

• Extensive range of texts studied, from Milton, Woolf and Dickens to Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro and Arundhati Roy
• Taught by leading scholars who have published books on many topics, from Sherlock Holmes to Irish rock music and teenage bedroom culture
• Large range of option modules to choose from depending on your interests
• Work placement opportunities in Britain and overseas in teaching, public relations, international development, charities, tourism, the media, creative and heritage sectors
• 97% of students surveyed said academic support on our English courses was good or very good (National Student Survey 2024)
• 95% of students surveyed said the teaching staff on our media courses were good at explaining things (National Student Survey 2024)

About your course

The BA (Hons) English, Media and Cultural Studies with Foundation Year at Liverpool John Moores University gives you an opportunity to look at how literary and media texts address their audiences.

You will achieve this through the study of media institutions, publishing and journalism, as well as forms of applied communication in practical areas including, public relations, social marketing, fiction, documentary, video games, magazines and new media. You will also examine cultural trends and practices, including popular music, youth culture, world literature, neo-Victorianism, social media, travel, and fashion. Your study of literature will be defined by an eclectic choice of texts, from the classics to popular fiction.

We are interested in traditional authors such as William Blake, Charles Dickens and Virginia Woolf and in contemporary writers such as Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro and Arundhati Roy. Alongside British literature we study American literature and culture and Irish, postcolonial and world writing.

We introduce you to many different types of text such as detective novels, children's fiction, fairy tales, ballads, prison testimonies, African American slave narratives, travel writing, protest literature, diaries and letters. Our diverse portfolio of options lets you explore new topics and choose your own pathway through the degree as your interests develop.

The programme is designed with your future employability in mind, so you are encouraged to develop transferable skills such as research, formats for professional writing, communication, problem-solving, teamwork and independent working.

Some modules ask you to engage in collaborative blogging, contributing to online archives and improving your digital skills. Although we focus on theoretical and critical study, we incorporate applied case studies and work-related learning into many aspects of the programme, including a period of work experience with a local or national organisation.

Foundation Year

The Foundation Year is ideal if you have the interest and ability to study for a degree, but do not have the qualifications to enter directly onto the English, Media and Cultural Studies honours degree programme yet.

Once you pass the Foundation Year (level 3) you will progress directly onto the first year of the honours degree. If you are a full-time UK student, you will qualify for student financial support for the full duration of your course (subject to eligibility criteria).

Course modules

Foundation Year

• Preparing for Academic Success (30 credits)
• Investigating Liverpool (30 credits)
• War: Conflict in the Humanities and Social Sciences (30 credits)
• Peace: the Pursuit of Harmony in Humanities and Social Science (30 credits)

Year 1

• Media Texts (20 credits)
• Literary and Cultural Theory (20 credits)
• Media Institutions and Audiences (20 credits)
• Professional Writing (20 credits)
• Liverpool Legacies (20 credits)
• Critical Keywords for English (20 credits)

Year 2

• Public Communication (20 credits)
• AI and the Humanities (20 credits)
• Body, Mind and Soul: seventeenth-century literature and culture (20 credits)
• Public Relations (20 credits)
• Popular Journalism: Research in Practice (20 credits)
• Modernism and Modernity (20 credits)
• Poetry Matters (20 credits)
• Postcolonial Writing: Power, Art and Protest (20 credits)
• Mediating Popular Culture (20 credits)
• Romanticism: Revolution, Reaction and Representation (20 credits)
• Short Cuts: Writing in Brief (20 credits)
• The Victorians: Realism and Sensation (20 credits)
• English Independent Study (20 credits)
• Study Year Abroad - EMCS (120 credits)
• Study Semester Abroad English and Media and Cultural Studies (60 credits)

Year 3

• Life Stories: Telling Tales and Keeping Secrets in Auto/Biographical Writing (20 credits)
• Forms of Slavery (20 credits)
• Gender Trouble (20 credits)
• Writing Race in Britain (20 credits)
• Words and Music (20 credits)
• Working Class Writing (20 credits)
• Theories 2.0 (20 credits)
• Feminist Fictions: Contemporary Women’s Writing and the Politics of Feminism (20 credits)
• English Independent Study (20 credits)
• Our House: Representing Domestic Space (20 credits)
• Digital Writing (20 credits)
• C21: British Fiction Now (20 credits)
• Race in America (20 credits)
• English and Media and Cultural Studies Dissertation (40 credits)
• Shakespeare (20 credits)
• Terrorism and Modern Literature (20 credits)
• Mediating Diversity (20 credits)
• Vamps and Villains: Exploring Gothic Fiction (20 credits)
• Social and Digital Media (20 credits)
• World Literature: Writing from the Periphery (20 credits)
• Screen Media (20 credits)
• Britain, Brexit, Europe and the Media (20 credits)
• Media and Cultural Industries (40 credits)
• Crime, Horror and the Media (20 credits)
• Transitions: Identities in the Interwar Years (20 credits)
• Violence in Nineteenth-Century Literature (20 credits)
• Green Victorians (20 credits)
• Mind Readings (20 credits)
• Space and place: travel writing at home and abroad (20 credits)
• Developments in Contemporary Writing and Publishing (20 credits)
• Modern Fiction and Environment Crisis (20 credits)
• Black Lives in American Literature (20 credits)
• Migrants to the Screen (20 credits)
• Popular Fiction and Publishing (20 credits)

Professional accreditation

This course has strong links with local, national and international media organisations providing excellent opportunities for student work placements and research projects. They include: Sky Sports, Liverpool Echo, Juice FM, Odeon Cinema, Everyman Theatre, The Royal Court, National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, TATE Liverpool and the BBC.

Your Learning Experience

Teaching Support Assessment

• Excellent facilities and learning resources
• Active blended learning approach
• Combination of face-to-face and online learning
• Support from personal tutor and course lecturers
• Virtual learning environment and online discussion boards

Career paths

The career paths followed by our graduates are varied in nature.

Alumni can be found working in advertising, marketing, public relations, museums, arts administration, media production, the publishing industry, retail, leisure and charitable organisation management, educational administration, accountancy, the social services, teaching and the Civil Service.

Tuition fees and funding

Home International

• Foundation first year: £5,760
• Second and subsequent years: £9,535

Entry requirements

• Grades/points required from qualifications: DDD (72)
• GCSEs and equivalents: Grade 4 or grade C or above in English Language and Mathematics/Numeracy
• A levels: DDD (maximum of 20 AS points accepted)
• BTECs: Extended Diploma: MMP
• Access awards: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
• International Baccalaureate: 72 UCAS points from IB Composite parts
• OCR Cambridge Technical: Extended Diploma: MMP
• Irish awards: Irish Higher - Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications
• T levels: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications

International requirements

• Other international requirements: International applications will be considered in line with UK qualifications. Any Applicant whose first language is not English will be required to have IELTS 6.0 (minimum 5.5 in each component) or acceptable equivalent.