Students sat on sofa in a room full of books

English & Creative Writing BA(Hons)

Join a celebration of literature and writing and experiment in all forms.

Key details
Location
Falmouth Campus
Course duration
3 years / 4 years
Attendance
Full-time / Placement year
UCAS code
W8Q3/PY47

Course overview

Find your passion and pursue it, as you investigate and specialise in areas including poetry, children’s fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting and digital games.

You’ll read critically and widely, analyse and create in equal measure and develop technical skills essential in any number of careers. You’ll also gain practical experience with our partners in publishing, literary festivals and professional writing.

You will:

  • Learn, debate and create under the guidance of academics, industry professionals and diverse guest speakers
  • Design and run a collaborative project such as a sitcom, podcast or illustrated anthology, working with business, education and community partners
  • Attend our guest lecture series, where you’ll build relationships and contacts within all facets of the literary world
  • Participate in literary events, such as Falmouth Book Festival and the North Cornwall Book Festival
  • Take inspiration from The Lighthouse – the workspace at the heart of our community
  • Gain industry-ready skills by writing, editing or promoting FalWriting, our student-led online magazine
  • Use our state-of-the-art Soundhouse and edit suites to record audience ready productions

The placement year pathway for this course is new for entry year 2023 and is subject to validation.

Course details

On this English & Creative Writing degree, you'll have the opportunity to gain a BA(Hons) degree over three years or study English & Creative Writing BA(Hons) with a placement year option.

This english and creative writing degree seeks to capture and analyse the most vital contemporary writing (across all formats and media) within the context of a rich literary, historical and theoretical past, developing your critical and creative eye.

Learn, debate and create under the guidance of leading academics, industry professionals and diverse guest speakers, whether in The Lighthouse, our state-of-the-art campus facilities, or any of our immediate and beautiful natural spaces.

By making your own choices, you'll build skills in areas like poetry, fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting, and digital games. Be the voice of your community by writing, editing or promoting Falwriting – our student-led online magazine – gaining vital (and CV-boosting), industry-ready skills.

Live collaborative projects will allow you to make priceless personal connections. Work directly with industry, educational, and community partners, creating a clear path to your desired industry or area of further academic study.

BA(Hons) English with Creative Writing course video

During the first year of BA English & Creative Writing, you'll explore the basics of creative writing, english literature and publishing – all key areas for aspiring writers to be familiar with. While providing an introduction to the subject, this course also breaks the mould of most English degrees with modules like Exploding the Canon: Writing Then and Now and Breaking the Rules: Remix and Writing Back. Each week, you'll learn through a mix of lectures, workshops and tutorials.

Modules

Writing: Craft & Contexts

This module explores the practice of writing as a discipline and a craft and asks you to debate ideas about writing, authorship, genre, creativity and audience.

Exploding the Canon: Writing Then & Now

How do the literatures of the past infuse the fictions of the present and what do these literatures reveal about us as we are now and us as we once were?

Publishing Cultures

In this module, you'll encounter publishing as a literary and cultural tradition that is dynamic and in a constant state of flux. You will consider the role of technology on the production and dissemination of written texts in the contemporary world.

Breaking the Rules: Remix and Writing Back

A challenging, radical and 'breaking the rules' creative writing module, which covers remix and writing back in theory and practice.

Literatures of Revolution

From the revolutionary ideas of Darwin's theories of evolution to postcolonial revelations, LGBTQi movements and the #MeToo phenomena, literature and other textual forms reflect and create society. How do contemporary notions revolutionise texts and how do texts inform revolutionary ideas?

Publishing Studio: Technologizing the Word

A practical and intermedia publishing module, which might include book design, zine making, performance and exhibition as publication and screen-based media.

This year is all about narrowing down to your specialisation. Want to be a screenwriter? There's a module for that. Want to write for games? There's a module for that too. You can take modules in poetry, creative non-fiction or radio and theatre. You'll take two core modules, but otherwise you'll create your own personalised degree, focusing on your specific interests. You will progress to higher levels of analysis and creation, honing your skills as a writer and a critic. You will learn how to research, plan, pitch and build a profile as a writer.

Modules

Society and the Self

What is the role of identity in literature? How does literature represent the world's diversity? Who communicates identity and how?

Writing Now: Prize Winners, Bestsellers & Controversial Content

What wins prizes? What wins readers? What makes a bestseller? What is literature doing now, and where is it going?

Optional modules

Satire and Scandal
Poetry
Screenwriting
Magic and the Impossible
Fiction
Creative Non-Fiction
Games
Radio & Theatre

You can choose to take an optional placement year after your second year on a three-year programme.

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the RealWORKS employability team. 

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying. 

How you’ll study during your placement year 

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks. 

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation. 

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth. 

The final year of your English & Creative Writing degree is a culmination of the tools and knowledge gained in your first and second years. At this level, you will be working on two major 40-credit modules. In the first, Collaborative Project, you'll work in real-world collaborations; for instance, with community groups, sound projects, work placements and writing projects. We've had students create podcasts, poetry collections, and a range of community projects with partners such as Mind, the National Trust and others.

In the second module, Dissertation and Portfolio, you'll create a sustained piece of work, which you can continue or pitch after graduation. For the portfolio, you will have weekly 30-minute tutorials with your supervisor, allowing you to focus closely on your own writing. You can still choose option modules in the first study block, and in the second we ask you to consider experimentation and adaptation.

Modules

Collaborative Project

In this module you'll consider the writer's role as part of a creative eco-system, and/or literature's role in the creative economy through working on a live collaborative project. The project can be a placement in the writing-related industries, a case study or live brief with a business (for example, literary festivals, creative agencies, publishing houses, the heritage sector), or a collaborative project with peers culminating in an event performance or piece of creative practice.

Dissertation and Portfolio

Create an independent extended piece of creative writing or a collection of creative pieces in a genre, form, topic of your choosing, which sits alongside an extended essay on an area of publishing studies or English literature related to your creative piece.

Experiment and Adaptation

Engage with some of the limits of textuality, testing the boundaries of understanding, meaning and communication. By looking at how texts can be remediated, how they morph and repeat, you'll analyse how texts sit within the time and place of their production, but also how they can innovate and shift.

Optional modules

We Have Never Been Human
Crime and Dark Fiction
Children and Young Adult

The modules above are those being studied by our students, or proposed new ones. Programme structures and modules can change as part of our curriculum enhancement and review processes. If a certain module is important to you, please discuss it with the Course Leader.

From module information to course aims and assessment criteria, discover the three year degree full course details

 

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How you'll learn

On top of your regular lectures, seminars and workshops, you'll take on live briefs from creative industry partners, and attend lectures and seminars with high-profile guest speakers and our Writers in Residence, like Matt Haig, Philip Marsden, Lionel Shriver, Iain Sinclair, Don Paterson and Simon Armitage.

You'll support your self-directed learning with significant weekly tutor contact time, and have the chance for regular one-to-one tutorials. There'll also be opportunities to gain regular work experience by writing or working for our student journal of new writing.

At Falmouth, we use a 'digitally enhanced learning & teaching' approach. Your experience will always be predominantly in-person, including seminars, tutorials and studio teaching, with some, more targeted elements, being online either live (synchronous) or pre-recorded (asynchronous). You can read more here.

How you'll be assessed

100% of your assessment will be coursework.

Assessment methods

  • Coursework and e-learning exercises
  • Live creative industry briefs
  • Final year creative writing portfolio

Staff

Our academics provide a huge range of expertise, including 20th and 21st century literature, digital texts, Victorian literature, gender studies, literature and environment, and print culture.

Some members of staff only teach on specific modules, and your course might not feature every staff member who teaches on the course.

Dr Jennifer Young staff picture

Dr Jennifer Young

Head of Writing and Journalism

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Dr David Devanny

Course Leader, BA(Hons) Creative Writing

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Dr Luke Thompson

Course Leader, MA Professional Writing

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Dr Ruth Heholt staff picture

Dr Ruth Heholt

Dr Ruth Heholt, Associate Professor of Dark Economies and Gothic Literature

Ruth Heholt is associate professor of Dark Economies and Gothic literature at Falmouth University, U...

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John Finnegan staff profile

John Finnegan

Module Leader, MA Writing for Script & Screen

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Rupert Loydell

Senior Lecturer, English & Writing

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Jane Pugh

Associate Lecturer, School of Film and Television

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Dr Marshall Moore

Course Leader and Senior Lecturer

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Facilities

  • Digital labs, lecture theatres and seminar rooms.
  • Libraries housing 140,000 books, 17,000 DVD and video titles, and exhaustive electronic and journal resources.
  • The Lighthouse – a dedicated writers' room and events space
  • The Soundhouse – podcasting facility
  • The Shed – dedicated study area
Through the window of the newsroom with lecturer talking to journalism students.
SoWJ Newsroom through window lecturer talking

Media Equipment and Facilities

Our industry-level facilities offer everything you need to practice and produce animation, film, TV,...

Media Equipment and Facilities
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Penryn library group study area

Library Facilities

Offering extensive collections, our two libraries provide a wealth of digital resources, magazines, ...

Library Facilities
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Sports Centre - Outside
Sports Centre

Sports Centre

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Sports Centre

Careers

Our graduates have worked as:

  • PR Coordinator at Superdry
  • Media Editor at Business Insider
  • Editor at Parragon Books
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Meet the accidental author juggling multiple book deals


Graduate Adrian Martin has just published his second book Stone Ruins and City Smoke and is currently signed to two deals with Dark Edge Press and Spellbound Books - find out Falmouth's creative community helped him do it. 

Read more

How to apply

Apply via UCAS

Ready to join us? You can apply through UCAS. You'll need to reference the course and University code (F33).

Apply now

Applying as an international student? 

International students can apply for a course through UCAS, via an agent or directly with the university. For more information about how to apply as an international student, visit our international applications page.

International applications

Course route UCAS code
English & Creative Writing BA(Hons) three year degree W8Q3
English & Creative Writing BA(Hons) with placement year PY47

We consider all applications on their own individual merit and potential. We invite all applicants to an interview day or audition to give them the opportunity to demonstrate this along with what inspires and motivates them in their field. Applicants will also be able to show their portfolio or give a performance depending on the course. We welcome applications from all subject backgrounds, whether you’ve specialised in STEM, the arts or humanities.  

Course route Entry requirements
BA/BSc(Hons) three year degree 104 – 120 UCAS Tariff points
BA/BSc(Hons) four year degree with placement year 104 – 120 UCAS Tariff points

Check the title of your course to see if it's a BA or BSc award. UCAS Tariff points will primarily be from Level 3 qualifications such as but not limited to A-levels, T Levels, a BTEC/UAL Extended Diploma or a Foundation Diploma. 

Check how many points your qualifications are worth

For applicants whose first language is English we require you to have or be working towards GCSE English Language Grade 4 (C), or equivalent. 

If English is not your first language you will need to meet the same standard which is equivalent to the IELTS Academic 6.0 overall score, with at least 5.5 in Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. We accept a range of in country equivalencies and approved tests.  

If you need a student visa to study in the UK, you may need to take a recognised language test. You can read our English Language Requirements for more information.

For starting your studies in 2023

UK applications: 25 January 2023 (for equal consideration)

Applications after the 25 January will be considered on a first-come, first-served as long as there are places available. Apply for this course now.

International fee payers

International fee payers can apply throughout the year. But we recommend applying as early as possible, to make time for visa and travel arrangements.

What we're looking for

We want someone who:

  • Is enthusiastic and knows about the subject
  • Can articulate why they want to study English
  • Has writing skills
  • Shows an emerging understanding of literature’s role in the past and present
  • Is enthusiastic and interested in writing as part of the creative industries

Fees, costs & funding

Tuition fees

Annual tuition fee Student
£9,250 per year Full-time UK
£17,460 per year Full-time EU/international
Annual tuition fee Student
£9,250 per year Full-time UK
£17,460 per year Full-time EU/international
£1,850 per placement year Full-Time UK and EU/international

Tuition fees are set annually and are subject to review each year. The University may therefore raise tuition fees in the second or subsequent years of a course, in line with inflation and/or the maximum permitted by law or Government policy. Students will be notified of any changes as soon as possible. 

The figures above don't include accommodation and living costs

Typical course costs

  • £300-£400 - Recurring annual costs
  • £500 - Optional study visits and placements for the course duration

If you need to bring equipment or materials with you, these will be outlined in your Welcome Letter.

Ask a student

What better way to find out about life at Falmouth University than by asking our current students?

From course details and academic support, to the social scene and settling in, our students are ready and available to answer any questions you might have. Simply set up your account, send them a question and they'll get back to you within 24 hours.

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Open Days and events

From visiting campus to online application advice, get all the information you need about joining our creative community.

Experience Falmouth
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