Literature and Creative Writing at UEA
Find out more about studying Literature and Creative Writing at UEA, and browse our other courses.
Find out moreBA (Hons) Literature and History
Course
options
Key Details
- Award
- Degree of Bachelor of Arts
- UCAS Course Code
- QV31
- Course Length
- 3 years
- Course Start Date
- September 2025
Clearing entry requirements are subject to change, if you have your results confirmed, please contact us on 01603 294933 to secure your place. Visit Clearing to find out more.
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Why you should choose us
19th
UEA is ranked 19th overall for research quality in English Language and Literature
The Times Higher Education REF 2021 AnalysisCourse Overview
Do you love learning about the past and the stories we tell ourselves about it? Do you want to know more about how fact and fiction interconnect? Do you want to bring the past and present together in new and innovative ways? Then join us on this dynamic History and English Literature degree!
Studying literature and history together will give you a unique window on the world. You'll be a sensitive literary reader of historical sources with a deep understanding of how social, cultural and political contexts shape the written word. You'll have the chance to explore topics from medieval history to contemporary fiction.
You'll begin your English and history degree by developing a foundation in both areas. As you progress, you'll be able to decide the balance between your two subjects. You might take an equal number of modules in both. Or you might start to specialise in one or the other according to your growing interests. Either way, inspirational and committed lecturers will support your learning in both subjects.
Your home will be the medieval city of Norwich: the 'City of Stories'. Norwich is a UNESCO City of Literature, rich in historical and cultural artefacts. It's also a lively cultural centre with a vibrant literary and performance community. You might find yourself attending an event at the National Centre for Writing or exploring astonishing historic documents at the Norfolk Record Office.
You'll graduate from your Literature and History degree as a skilled reader and a powerful communicator. You'll have the chance to attend specialist employability events like 'Working With Words'. You might take up job-related opportunities alongside your degree. Like joining UEA's award-winning student newspaper, Concrete! You'll have the adaptable skillset you need to embark upon a range of exciting careers. Our graduates now work in industries such as heritage, marketing, teaching and publishing (hear from former student Izzy here!).
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Placement Year and Study Abroad
You have the option to apply to study abroad for one semester of your second year. Studying abroad is a wonderfully enriching life experience – you’ll develop confidence and adaptability and will have the chance to deepen your understanding of literature and history while learning about another culture. At UEA, you’ll also be surrounded throughout your degree by the many students we welcome from around the world.
For further details, visit the Study Abroad section of our website.
Instead of a semester abroad, you can choose to do a short placement as part of your studies during your second year. This placement, a minimum of 80-hours in length, would be in a creative, cultural, charity, heritage, media or other appropriate organisation. You’ll secure your own placement with appropriate university support. This will take place alongside two other modules in the Spring semester.
Note that you can also choose to study this course with a Placement Year (spending much of your third year on a work placement) or a Year Abroad (taking advantage of studying with one our partners from across the globe).
Study and Modules
Structure
In your first year, you’ll unite your two subjects from day one. You'll cover the historical span of English Literature and explore how your subjects can illuminate one another. You’ll explore the global history of English itself, from its origins in multilingual medieval society to the extraordinary literatures which are still being forged today from the legacies of colonialism and its resistance. You’ll also be able to choose from topics such as medieval, early modern or modern history, and even specialist subjects like witchcraft. Or you might choose to take a module from another Humanities subject, experimenting for instance with languages or American studies.
Compulsory Modules
Optional A Modules
(Credits: 40)Optional B Modules
(Credits: 20)Important Information
Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
Teaching
Your academic year will be split into two semesters: Autumn and Spring. You’ll take three modules in each semester of your first year, with between seven and nine hours of contact time per week. You’ll enjoy compelling lectures, packed with new ideas, from our world-leading teams of literary critics and historians. In two-hour seminars, you’ll learn through lively discussion with your fellow students, guided by your seminar leader. You'll also have the chance to explore your own ideas in one-on-one tutorials, and you'll have an academic adviser to support you through your whole degree with everything from choice of modules to launching your career.
If you’d like to get a sense of what sorts of books you might read on the Literature side of your course during your first year, take a look at our list of suggested (but entirely optional) reading for incoming Literature students!
Independent Learning
You'll already be developing skills in independent reading and research, with a framework of guided tasks provided by your lecturers to help you get the most out of whatever book or topic you're studying. You'll explore the library, discovering a wealth of new resources. You might discover student societies where you’ll meet like-minded literature and history lovers who’ll enjoy nothing more than discussing your favourite topics with you. You'll finish the year equipped with the skills you need to make the most of your journey through literature and history.
Assessment
Assessment
On the literature side of your degree, all your work is assessed by written coursework: you'll develop renewed enthusiasm for writing academic essays, and will express your thinking in a diverse variety of forms, like reviews or personal reflective writing. In history, you'll be assessed by a dynamic mix of essays, presentations, document commentaries, and (occasionally) group projects, to help build your skills in collaboration and confidence in presenting to new audiences.
Feedback
To prepare for coursework, you'll receive feedback on pieces of 'formative' work from your tutors in one-to-one tutorials. Feedback on assessed work will be returned within 20 working days (after it has been carefully marked and moderated). As your first year does not count toward your overall degree result, it's a great time to experiment and take risks.
Structure
Your second year of study will allow you to pursue and deepen your literary and historical interests. You’ll select six modules from a range of options in literature and history. In History, you might learn about eras from the Roman period to the contemporary. On the English side of the course, you can explore literature from the medieval to the present day.
You can choose options which will enable you to develop new skills in creative writing, or in writing for professional creative industries like journalism or publishing. You can cultivate connections between your two subjects by examining the same period from each disciplinary perspective – you might find yourself immersed in Victorian novels in an English Literature module and studying the social upheavals of the same period in a history module.
Compulsory Modules
Optional A Modules
(Min Credits: 40, Max Credits: 60)Optional B Modules
(Min Credits: 40, Max Credits: 60)Optional C Modules
(Min Credits: 0, Max Credits: 20)Important Information
Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
Teaching
You’ll study three modules in each of the Autumn and Spring semesters, with between seven and nine contact hours per week. Lectures and seminars will enable you to get to grips with a variety of periods of literature and history. You'll have the option to take literature seminars in more vocational areas like journalism or publishing (using our state-of-the-art Media Suite), while selected history modules may include thought-provoking field trips or field work, where you’ll consider history in a real-world setting (such as Norwich Castle Museum). You might also take a placement as part of a Humanities-wide module. And you'll continue to benefit from the support of your academic adviser.
Independent Learning
You'll continue to benefit from the guidance and support of your tutors through regular exercises designed to help you focus your reading and writing outside of the seminar room. You’ll deepen your command of the craft of literary criticism and of historical research and analysis, discovering where your true passions lie in both subjects, and developing a sophisticated sense of the similarities and differences between them. You'll finish the year with a real sense of how your academic studies will underpin your future career.
Assessment
Assessment
You'll continue to submit coursework for all your literature modules, taking your essay writing to new heights (in projects of around 2500 words) and becoming increasingly daring in your work. In history, you'll be assessed by coursework, document analyses, presentations, quizzes and exams; this range of assessments helps you to master both careful planning and thinking on the spot. While essay writing remains the cornerstone of your degree work, in literature you might also experiment with 'creative criticism', for instance by writing a short story to show off what you've learnt about that form.
Feedback
You'll continue to have the support and feedback of your tutors, which your academic adviser can help you incorporate into your work. Formative work might take all sorts of forms, from videos and podcasts to conference papers. As your marks begin to count toward your final degree classification, you might draw on the support offered by our Learning Enhancement Team (who are there to help with everything from study skills to academic writing).
Structure
Your third year will be all about pursuing your passions, on both sides of your history and English literature degree. You can choose from a multitude of specialist options, which might cover topics from the Middle Ages to Thatcher’s Britain, from the trailblazing women writers of the Renaissance to feminist writing today, from medieval monsters to contemporary hardboiled detective fiction. You can also undertake a dissertation, if you wish, in either literature or history. Although you must continue to study both subjects in your final year, the precise balance between literature and history modules in your final year is up to you: the result of the particular blend of interests you’ve developed during your degree.
Optional A Modules
(Min Credits: 30, Max Credits: 90)Optional B Modules
(Min Credits: 30, Max Credits: 90)Optional C Modules
(Min Credits: 0, Max Credits: 30)Important Information
Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their constituent modules, the University will endeavour to consult with students and others. It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff. In some cases optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. Where this is the case, the University will inform students.
Teaching and Learning
Teaching
In English Literature, this is your chance to explore cutting-edge literary topics in depth, in our three-hour seminars, each taught by a subject-specialist. In History, you’ll also enjoy longer seminars taught by leading experts in the field. If you decide to pursue a dissertation in either literature or history as one of your module choices, you'll work one-on-one with either a literary critic or historian who's passionate about your chosen topic.
Independent Learning
While retaining the support and guidance of your seminar leaders, you'll bring together all the skills and confidence you've developed in independent research, critical writing and thinking, as you master the fields of literary and historical study that have come to matter the most to you.
Assessment
Assessment
In your study of literature, you'll perfect the craft of essay writing in more substantial and independently conceived projects (3500-5000 words), and you might choose to embark on an 8000-word dissertation on a topic of your choice. If you wish, you might continue to experiment with the forms in which you express your ideas about literature. In history, your final year will be assessed through a combination of coursework and document work, along with examinations, and an extended essay in your specialist subject or dissertation, if you decide to do one.
Feedback
You’ll receive detailed and focused feedback to help hone your abilities even further, enabling you to graduate at the end of your final year with highly developed skills in writing and argument which are hugely valued by employers.
Employability
After the Course
On completing your History and Literature degree, you could go on to work in the arts, media, publishing, the heritage industry, politics, charities and NGOs, teaching or the commercial sector. You’ll be equipped with skills of critical reading, independence, time management, teamwork and more, which are highly valued by employers. You’ll also be well placed to study for a postgraduate degree.
Our award-winning Careers Service is here to support you in launching your career by advising with CV writing, internships, and much more. Every year we run an event, Working with Words, where you’ll have the chance to meet and hear from successful UEA alumni from across the creative industries.
UEA also has its own in-house publishing project, Egg Box, along with many other exciting initiatives that give you opportunities to turn your love of English literature and history into a foundation for your future career.
Careers
Examples of careers you could enter include:
- Media
- Marketing
- Heritage and Museums
- Publishing
- Events Management
- Journalism
Discover more on our Careers webpages.
Entry Requirements
- This course is open to
UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.
We welcome and value a wide range of qualifications, and we recognise that some students might take a mixture of different qualifications. We have listed typical examples that we accept for entry.
You should hold or be working towards the specified English and Mathematics requirements and one of the examples of typical entry qualifications listed below. If your qualifications aren’t listed, or if you are taking a combination of qualifications that isn’t specified, please contact Admissions.
- English and Mathematics
All applicants must hold or be working towards GCSEs in English Language and Mathematics at minimum grade C or grade 4.
In place of Mathematics GCSE we can also consider Functional Skills Level 2 Mathematics.
We accept a wide range of English Language qualifications, please see our English Language equivalencies page.
- Contextual Offers
UEA are committed to ensuring that Higher Education is accessible to all, regardless of their background or experiences. One of the ways we do this is through our contextual admissions schemes.
- Typical UK Entry Requirements
A levels
AAB including English Literature or one of the subjects listed below.
Contextual offer: BBB including English Literature or one of the subjects listed below:
English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Sociology, Drama, Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology or Law.
BTEC
Level 3 Extended Diploma: DDD plus A-Level grade B in English Literature or one of the subjects listed below.
Contextual offer: DDM plus A-Level grade B in English Literature or one of the subjects listed below:
English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Sociology, Drama, Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology or Law.
Combinations of BTEC and A levels
Diploma: DD plus B at A-Level in English Literature or one of the above subjects.
Contextual: DD plus C at A level in English Literature or one of the above subjects.
Extended Certificate: D plus AB at A-Level including English Literature or one of the above subjects.
Contextual: D plus BB at A Level including English Literature or one of the above subjects.
BTEC in Public Services, Uniformed Services and Business Administration are all excluded from our BTEC offers.
Access to HE Diploma
Access to Humanities and Social Sciences Pathway. Pass Access to HE Diploma with Distinction in 36 credits at Level 3 and Merit in 9 credits at Level 3.
T levels
Not accepted
Foundation Year options:
If you do not meet the academic requirements for direct entry, you may be interested in one of our Foundation Year programmes such as: BA English Literature with a Foundation Year
- Further Examples of Typical Entry Requirements
International Baccalaureate
33 points overall including 5 in HL English, History, Global Politics or Psychology.
Irish Leaving Certificate
4 subjects at H2, 2 subjects at H3 including English Literature or one of the following subjects: English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Sociology, Drama, Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology or Law.
Scottish Highers
AAAAA including English Literature, or one of the following subjects: English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Sociology, Drama, Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology or Law.
Scottish Advanced Highers
BBC, including English Literature or one of the following subjects: English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Sociology, Drama, Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology or Law.
A combination of Advanced Highers and Highers may be acceptable.
- Deferred Entry
We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year. We believe that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry on your UCAS application.
- Admissions Policy
Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all undergraduate applicants.
- This course is open to
UK and International fee-paying students. Choose UK or International above to see relevant information. The entry point is in September each year.
We welcome and value a wide range of qualifications, and we recognise that some students might take a mixture of different qualifications. We have listed typical examples that we accept for entry.
You should hold or be working towards the specified English and Mathematics requirements and one of the examples of typical entry qualifications listed below. If your qualifications aren’t listed, or if you are taking a combination of qualifications that isn’t specified, please contact Admissions.
- English and Mathematics
All applicants must hold or be working towards GCSEs in English Language and Mathematics at minimum grade C or grade 4.
In place of Mathematics GCSE we can also consider Functional Skills Level 2 Mathematics.
We accept a wide range of English Language qualifications, please see our English Language equivalencies page.
- Typical International Entry Requirements
A levels
AAB including English Literature or one of the subjects listed below:English Language and Literature, English Language, History, Ancient History, History of Art, Archaeology, Anthropology, Classical Civilisation, Classical Studies, Politics, Government and Politics, Sociology, Drama, Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies, Psychology or Law.
International Baccalaureate
33 points overall including 5 in HL English, History, Global Politics or Psychology.
We accept many international qualifications for entry to this course. For specific details about your country, view our information for International Students.
- INTO UEA
If you do not meet the academic and/or English language requirements for direct entry our partner, INTO UEA offers progression on to this undergraduate degree upon successful completion of a preparation programme. Depending on your interests, and your qualifications you can take a variety of routes to this degree.
- English Foreign Language
Applications from students whose first language is not English are welcome. We require evidence of proficiency in English (including writing, speaking, listening and reading):
-
IELTS: 6.5 overall (minimum 5.5 in all components)
We also accept a number of other English language tests. Review our English Language Equivalencies for a list of example qualifications that we may accept to meet this requirement.
Test dates should be within two years of the course start date.
If you do not yet meet the English language requirements for this course, INTO UEA offer a variety of English language programmes which are designed to help you develop the English skills necessary for successful undergraduate study.
-
- Deferred Entry
We welcome applications from students who have already taken or intend to take a gap year. We believe that a year between school and university can be of substantial benefit. You are advised to indicate your reason for wishing to defer entry on your UCAS application.
- Admissions Policy
Our Admissions Policy applies to the admissions of all undergraduate applicants.
Fees and Funding
Tuition Fees
View our information for Tuition Fees.
Scholarships and Bursaries
We are committed to ensuring that costs do not act as a barrier to those aspiring to come to a world leading university and have developed a funding package to reward those with excellent qualifications and assist those from lower income backgrounds. View our range of Scholarships for eligibility, details of how to apply and closing dates.
Course Related Costs
Please see Additional Course Fees for details of course-related costs.
How to Apply
Apply for this course through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS), using UCAS Hub.
UCAS Hub is a secure online application system that allows you to apply for full-time undergraduate courses at universities and colleges in the United Kingdom.
Your application does not have to be completed all at once. Register or sign in to UCAS to get started.
Once you submit your completed application, UCAS will process it and send it to your chosen universities and colleges.
The Institution code for the University of East Anglia is E14.
View our guide to applying through UCAS for useful tips, key dates and further information: