MA English
About this course
MA in English. Core topics include Communication & Writing, Research Methods, and Laboratory Techniques. Students can complete an independent dissertation on a chosen topic within English literature in their final year.
Written by AI from the university's course page and module list. It can get details wrong, so check the official course page before you rely on it.
Entry requirements
A level: BBC IB: 32 points including 5, 5, 5 at HL. SL in English is also required. SQA Highers: BBBB. BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma: DMM in related subjects. Note: BTEC Level 3 Extended Certificate (Subsidiary Diploma) achieved at Distinction level, is normally acceptable in lieu of one A Level at grade B.) GCSE English (or equivalent) is required at Grade C/4 or above. GCSE Mathematics at Grade C/4 is also required for Accountancy, Economics and Finance programmes. Irish Leaving Certificate: Five subjects at Higher at H3.
See the highest paying Languages & English degrees in the UK →
What students say
Based on about 8 final-year students who answered (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Teaching on my course: 96%
- Learning opportunities: 94%
- Assessment and feedback: 87%
- Academic support: 100%
- Organisation and management: 91%
- Learning resources: 92%
- Student voice: 86%
Do students stay on the course?
Based on about 15 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Continued on course: 80%
- Left higher education: 15%
- Moved to a lower qualification: 5%
What graduates do next
Based on about 17 graduates who answered, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Working: 65%
- Working and studying: 10%
- Further study: 10%
- Unemployed: 5%
Most common jobs
- Teaching Professionals: 15%
- Elementary occupations: 10%
- Administrative occupations: 10%
- Business and public service associate professionals: 10%
- Customer service occupations: 10%
- Find their work meaningful: 70%
- Feel on track for their future plans: 50%
- Use what they learnt on the course: 50%
Where graduates work (5 years on)
Based on about 65 graduates, across similar courses at this university
- North East: 6%
- North West: 4%
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 2%
- London: 6%
- South East: 4%
- South West: 1%
- Wales: 1%
- Scotland: 75%
Who gets in
Based on about 25 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- A levels: 100%
Modules
- Getting Started at the University of Aberdeen
- Acts of Reading
- Controversial Classics
- Rethinking Reading
- Academic Writing for Language & Literature
- Encounters with Shakespeare
- The Tragedy of Knowledge
- Power, Empire and Equality
- Page and Stage: Renaissance Writings 1500 - 1640 (EL30CP)
- Knights, Virgins and Viragos: Chaucer and Medieval Writing (EL35DQ)
- Modernism: Make IT New (EL30FF)
- American Voices: Self and Society, 1850 - 1930 (EL30RD)
- Fallen Women and Self - Made Men (EL35VC)
- Romanticism (EL30XR)
- Sympathy for the Devil: Scottish Short Stories (EL30QA)
- Haunted Texts (EL35KN)
- Art and Atrocity: Representations of Violence and Trauma (EL35UT)
- Creative Writing: Creativity and Craft (EL35YB)
- Britain and the Nineteenth - Century World (EL35SB)
- Landmarks of Modern Austrian Literature
- Playful Fictions: Cervantes, Borges, Cortazar
- Landscapes of Film and Literature (FS35ZB)
- English Dissertation
- Not the Queen's English (EL40SC)
- Staging the City: Renaissance Urban Drama (EL40AD)
- Literature and Medicine (EL40HQ)
- Wandering Women: Literature, Place and Environment (EL40JA)
- The Corpo - Reality of Postcolonial Dystopias (EL40IQ)
- Creative Writing: the Essential Skills (EL40PB)
- Brief Encounters (EL40TL)
- All for One: the Politics of Love and Friendship in Literature (EL40WH)
- British Poetry of the 20th Century (EL40YN)
- Controversy and Drama: Marlowe to Revenge Tragedy (EL45CT)
- Literature and Music (EL45HC)
- Vulnerable Bodies, Precarious Lives (EL45KF)
- Screenwriting: the Narrative Within the Frame (EL45TM)
- Amnesty, Amnesia, Archive (EL45UU)
- Sex and Death: Exploring the Forbidden in Gothic Fiction (EL45VA)
Questions about this course
How much do graduates of MA English at University of Aberdeen earn?
The median salary is £26,000 after 15 months, £20,500 after 3 years, £27,500 after 5 years. After five years the middle half of graduates earn between £21,000 and £34,000. The £27,500 median after five years is £1,500 less than the UK median for English studies.
What do graduates of MA English at University of Aberdeen do next?
85% were in work or further study 15 months after finishing (Graduate Outcomes 2023-24).
Are students happy with the teaching on MA English at University of Aberdeen?
96% of final-year students were positive about the teaching in the National Student Survey 2025-26.
What grades do I need for MA English at University of Aberdeen?
The typical offer is BBC at A level, or 32 points in the IB. The average entrant had 163 UCAS points.
Does MA English at University of Aberdeen include a placement year or year abroad?
The course has an optional year abroad.
How many students continue on MA English at University of Aberdeen?
80% of students continued into their second year, and 15% left higher education.