Program Overview

BA (Hons) English and Film

The BA (Hons) English and Film course explores the middle ground between two of the world’s most important storytelling forms. This joint honours course delves into a wide range of content from the Renaissance to today’s global, digital, and multimedia landscapes.

Course Overview

As a BA (Hons) English and Film student, you'll explore a wide range of content from the Renaissance to today’s global, digital, and multimedia landscapes. Both literature and film will be analysed in all their forms to understand how they reflect and shape society, while considering their connections to other cultural expressions like art, music, and popular culture. Our decolonised curriculum will encourage you to question shared assumptions about the world and help you understand how and why representation matters.

Features and Benefits

• Explore both mainstream ‘Hollywood’ style cinema and less commercial screen work from around the globe.
• Access to the many conferences, readings, research programmes, festivals and competitions run by the department.
• We are a world-class English department — 70% of our research impact is rated as world-leading (REF21).
• Staff include award-winning poets and writers, including winners of the Costa First Novel Award and the Ted Hughes Award.
• Engage with the Manchester Children’s Book Festival, a year-long programme of events and activities.
• We’ll help you build your own network among our many partners within the creative and culturally rich city of Manchester, a UNESCO City of Literature.
• You can take the four-year route, spending a year studying abroad, or boost your career prospects with a placement in industry.

Year 1

Year 1 is split evenly between film-specific units and units introducing literary study. Your units in Year 1 will introduce you to the key skills and ideas needed throughout your degree.

Core Modules

• Reading and Writing Mancunia (Literature): This module supports you to acquire university-level reading and writing skills and welcomes you into the multicultural creative communities of Manchester: a UNESCO City of Literature.
• The Art and History of Cinema: This module introduces core concepts in cinema history and helps you to develop a critical vocabulary for film analysis.
• Framing Narrative: This module introduces you to a range of narrative forms from the classical to the contemporary.
• Screens, Streams, and Platforms: The era of online streaming has made it feel like all films are a click away, that anyone can be a director or star, and that there is entertainment designed by algorithm just ‘for you’.

Year 2

In Year 2 there are core modules on film and a choice of option modules from the wider English programme.

Core Modules

• The Politics and Pleasures of Cinema: Cinema offers viewers several simultaneous joys while serving as a lightning rod for political debate and discussion.
• Promoting Screen Cultures: Promotional strategies for film and TV are often as crucial to their success as the content itself, from Hollywood trailers to independent viral social media campaigns.
• Literature, Theory, and Culture: This module encourages you to engage with key theoretical approaches to English studies.

Option Modules

• Manchester City of Literature: This module will explore the organisations and activities that make up Manchester’s UNESCO City of Literature network.
• Fit for the Future: The module will take you through the various stages of recruitment from identifying strengths and skills, to job searching and CVs.
• Global Challenges: Green Literature, Film and Media: This module will analyse the current climate crisis applying the methodologies of creative writing, English literature, or film and media studies.
• 19th Century Writing to Modernism: A module that is about reading in context, focussing on the relationship between aesthetic form, thematic content and historical context in a diverse range of texts and genres from the 19th to early 20th centuries.

Year 3

If you choose one of our four-year routes, Year 3 will be spent on placement or studying abroad.

Core Modules

• Shared Futures: This work integrated learning module provides you with the opportunity to deepen and recontextualise the range of transferable skills you have developed by responding to live client briefs from our cultural partners.
• Independent Project: Screen Studies: This module will allow you to develop an independent project that builds upon the skills developed in your first and second year.

Option Modules

• Fit for the Future: The module will take students through the various stages of recruitment from identifying strengths and skills, to job searching and CVs.
• American Sounds and the City: American Sounds and the City combines the study of American literature, film and music to explore the soundscapes of the American city.
• Study Abroad Semester: The Study Abroad module will involve study for one semester at an approved partner University overseas.

Entry Requirements

• Typical Offer: 104-112 UCAS tariff points
• IELTS Score: 6.0 overall with no component below 5.5, taken within two years of course start date
• UK Students:
  • Level 3 qualifications: 104-112 UCAS tariff points
  • GCSE grade C/4 in English Language or equivalent
• International Students:
  • IB Diploma with minimum 26 points overall or 104 UCAS Tariff points from three Higher Level subjects
  • IELTS: 6.0 overall with no component below 5.5, taken within two years of course start date

Fees and Funding

Tuition fees for the 2026/27 academic year are still being finalised for all courses.

Careers Support and Prospects

• Employed or in Further Study: 88.7% of our UK-domiciled, full-time, first degree graduates are employed or in further study 15 months after graduation.
• Explore Your Options and Build Sought-After Skills: Through our Careers Service, you will be supported and encouraged to get ready for further study or working life, including starting your own business.
• Graduate Outcomes: Our groundbreaking research with industry means we have unrivalled business connections that can help open doors to your dream career.

Related Courses

• BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing
• BA (Hons) Film and Media Studies