English Literature BA (Hons) (with Foundation Year)
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UCAS Code: Q321|Duration: 4 years|Full Time|Hope Park
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
The city of Liverpool is the perfect place for literature lovers to study. There is a rich cultural scene with literary organisations, festivals, and performances, independent bookshops, and the famous Central Library. The Reader Organisation in the beautiful Calderstones Park is a short walk from the Hope Park campus where English Literature at Liverpool Hope is taught. The BA English Literature programme will offer you the opportunity to explore literature across different genres and periods as well as the history, ideas, people and places that shape it and are shaped by it. Throughout our course, we emphasise how literary texts address and influence the most important issues facing society today.
Key features of our programme include:
- Study of a wide range of literature from different historical periods, and critical and theoretical writings that help us to better understand them. The course includes fiction, poetry, drama and a range of non-fiction prose including autobiography, slave narratives, essays and travel writing. You will study well-known authors, but will also have the chance to explore work by writers who will be new to you, and who offer fresh, alternative perspectives on the themes and ideas we examine
- An emphasis on literature’s relationship to sustainability and the environment, work and employability, travel and global perspectives, and health, happiness and well-being
- A focus on books, publishing, and reading that includes working with historically important items from Liverpool Hope’s collection of rare books and manuscripts, digital approaches, and creative hands-on learning
- A strong commitment to individual student support through small group teaching and personal tutors
- Employability awareness and skills development embedded in our curriculum and enhanced by activities and events.
Our English Literature programme is taught by experienced tutors with internationally recognised expertise in their fields. Our staff are active researchers and writers who publish books and articles that are rated highly. In the last national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) English was identified as the strongest subject for research outputs in the University: over 80% of publications by staff in English at Liverpool Hope were rated "world leading" or "internationally excellent".
We pride ourselves on offering a stimulating and challenging degree that allows each student to develop not only sophisticated knowledge and interpretations of a broad selection of literature but also highly sought-after skills including critical analysis, problem-solving, and effective communication. Our graduates are informed, independent, and imaginative thinkers who go on to a range of wide range of careers including publishing, the creative industries, journalism, marketing, teaching, and further academic study.
Course structure
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, seminars that are typically smaller groups, and tutorials which typically have no more than 10 students in the first year. You also have the opportunity to have a one-to-one meeting with your tutor each week.
If you are studying English Literature as a single honours degree, in your first year of study there are approximately 12 teaching hours each week, which reduce to approximately 10 teaching hours in your second and third years. If you are studying English Literature as a combined honours degree, in your first year of study there are approximately 6 teaching hours each week, which reduce to approximately 5 teaching hours in your second and third years. On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend around 23 hours each week studying independently.
Assessment and feedback
You will be assessed by a range of methods including essays, portfolios of assignments, creative assignments, peer presentations, and written exams. In the final year, building on work completed in your first two years, you undertake an independently researched dissertation (or shorter research project if you are studying combined subjects), which you present at an internal Research Showcase.
Feedback is supplied electronically within four working weeks of the assessment deadline. You will also be offered regular opportunities to discuss feedback one-to-one with your tutor.
Curriculum overview
Please note that the curriculum is subject to validation processes.
Foundation Year
The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree. Further details can be found here.
Year One
The first year covers a wide range of skills, approaches, texts and contexts, and in doing so it prepares you for the three years of your degree. All students will be given an orientation to the study of literature at university, discovering the pleasure and value of the subject both for yourself and for wider society. Indicative areas of study for lectures and seminars are Literature, Society, and Environment, which examines the relationship between English Literature and its contemporary political and social contexts, and Keywords, which develops an understanding of key terms for the critical study of literature. The Writing Workshop tutorial will develop crucial skills in research and critical writing that will support you throughout your degree and beyond.
At single honours, you will begin to explore a broader range of literary genres and approaches with a particular emphasis on popular literature. Indicative areas of study may include the debts that modern fantasy fiction owes to early literary periods and popular storytelling such as medieval epic and chivalric romance, and nineteenth-century adventure fiction. The tutorial strand, Reading Matters, examines the diverse range of contexts in which literature impacts on individuals, societies, and cultures.
Year Two
Year Two offers more in-depth study of different literary periods and contemporary approaches to literature such as global and interdisciplinary perspectives. Indicative areas of study for the second year include the theme of border crossing, which examines literature in relation to questions of travel, race, colonisation, and empire. The Power of the Page and The Business of Books focus on the publication and consumption of books in historical and contemporary contexts; you will make use of the rare books and manuscripts in Liverpool Hope’s Special Collections as well as digital archives and examine the role of the book in shaping knowledge and culture and help you to consider your own roles as readers, consumers, and potential future workers in the cultural industries. Tutorials at this level of study will feature single-author studies, with the choice of authors offered based on staff’s particular specialisms.
At single honours, you will further strengthen your understanding of literature in its social and cultural contexts. Indicative areas of study may focus on Work and Play, analysing the representation of work and leisure in literary texts and its relation to everyday experience; literary theory; and aspects of contemporary literature. The tutorials will focus on archives and the role that social and cultural documents and objects can play in enhancing our study of literary texts.
Year Three
The final year of study offers you a range of choices in the topics you study. Topics will vary from year to year, based on the current research and teaching interests of the staff teaching the options. You will also complete an extended, independent research project or dissertation supported by a tutor with research specialisms relating to your area of study. Tutorials at this level support you to develop advanced skills in research and communication for your research projects or dissertations.
At single honours, there is a focus on health and wellbeing and indicative content includes an analysis of the relationship between texts, the mind, and the body to examine the literary representation of health and ways in which the impact of reading, whether as pleasure, therapy, or harm, has been imagined and theorised historically and in the present day. Tutorials will provide further support for dissertation preparation.
Entry requirements
There may be some flexibility for mature students offering non-tariff qualifications and students meeting particular widening participation criteria.
Careers
A degree in English Literature opens many doors. English graduates can enter a wide range of careers and many of our graduates go on to employment in fields such as publishing, education, journalism, broadcasting, marketing and public relations.
The degree will help you to develop communication skills, research skills, and project planning skills that will be useful whatever career you choose.
Your CV will be enhanced by the skills you develop: a sophisticated level of analytical thinking, highly developed communication skills, excellent organisational skills and advanced writing skills.
Many graduates go on to study for a postgraduate degree.
Enhancement opportunities
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
As well as your tuition fees, you also need to consider the cost of key books and textbooks, which in total will cost approximately £200.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2025/26 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is also available with Foundation Year as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: