BA English Literature
About this course
BA (Hons) in English Literature, an undergraduate degree focused on the study of literary texts, genres, and cultural history from the medieval period to the present day. Core topics include Research Methods, Historical Research, Ethics & Professional Practice, and Global & Comparative Perspective. Students complete a substantial independent piece of work in their final year through the Project module, receiving guidance via individual tutorials. The first year introduces foundational literary forms and criticism through compulsory study in Changing Literatures, Other Worlds: Dystopias and Futures, Adventures in Criticism, Romantic Ecologies: Literature, Environment and Climate Crisis, and Creative and Critical Conversations, alongside optional choices such as Class: Narratives of Exclusion and Belonging and American Power, American Protest. In the second year, compulsory modules include Shakespeare: Before and After, World Literatures in English, and Right/Write to the World: Displacement, Social Movements, Political Action, while optional modules cover American Modernities: US Literature 1930 to the Present, Encounters with the Premodern, 1350-1700, and Modernism. The final year centres on the compulsory Project module alongside an extensive selection of optional modules spanning topics such as American Crime Fiction, The Brontës in Context, Global Capitalism and the Novel, and Queer Literature.
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: BBB IB: 120 tariff points - typically H5 H6 H6 or equivalent
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Real offers for this course
Applicants have posted 1 UCAS decision for BA English Literature (Q320) at the University of Kent for 2027 entry so far. The published offer is BBB at A level.
What students say
Based on about 27 final-year students who answered (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Teaching on my course: 96%
- Learning opportunities: 88%
- Assessment and feedback: 86%
- Academic support: 97%
- Organisation and management: 84%
- Learning resources: 96%
- Student voice: 90%
Do students stay on the course?
Based on about 45 students who started
- Continued on course: 80%
- Left higher education: 15%
- Moved to a lower qualification: 5%
What graduates do next
Based on about 23 graduates who answered, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Working: 70%
- Working and studying: 15%
- Unemployed: 10%
Most common jobs
- Administrative occupations: 20%
- Sales occupations: 15%
- Business and public service associate professionals: 10%
- Elementary occupations: 10%
- Teaching Professionals: 5%
- Find their work meaningful: 75%
- Feel on track for their future plans: 50%
- Use what they learnt on the course: 45%
Where graduates work (5 years on)
Based on about 360 graduates, across similar courses at this university
- North East: 1%
- North West: 2%
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 1%
- East Midlands: 2%
- West Midlands: 2%
- East of England: 17%
- London: 29%
- South East: 40%
- South West: 4%
- Wales: 1%
- Scotland: 1%
Who gets in
Based on about 25 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- A levels: 95%
- Other HE qualification: 5%
Accreditation & quality ratings
TEF 2023 (whole university): Silver overall, Silver for student experience, Silver for student outcomes.
Modules
- Changing Literatures
- Other Worlds: Dystopias and Futures
- Adventures in Criticism
- Romantic Ecologies: Literature, Environment and Climate Crisis
- Creative and Critical Conversations
- Class: Narratives of Exclusion and Belonging
- American Power, American Protest
- Shakespeare: Before and After
- World Literatures in English
- Right/Write to the World: Displacement, Social Movements, Political Action
- American Modernities: US Literature 1930 to the Present
- Becoming America: From Poe to The Great Gatsby
- Encounters with the Premodern, 1350-1700
- Modernism
- Reading Victorian Literature
- The Contemporary
- When Novels Were Novel: Eighteenth-Century Literature
- The Project
- A Woman’s Tale: Writing Female Identity and Experience in Medieval Europe
- American Crime Fiction
- Animals, Humans, Writing
- The Brontës in Context
- Centres and Edges: Modernist and Postcolonial Quest Literature
- Cross-Cultural Coming-of-Age Narratives
- The End of Empire: Post-Imperial Writing in Britain
- Foundations of Activism
- Global Capitalism and the Novel
- Innovation and Experiment in New York, 1945-2015
- Magic, Marvels and Monsters in Medieval Literature
- Marlowe vs Shakespeare
- Perceptions, Pathologies, Disorders: Reading and Writing Mental Health
- Places, Journeys, Borders
- Queer Literature
- Representing World War Two
- #ShakeRace: Shakespeare and Racial Politics
- The End of the World
- The Gothic: Origins and Exhumations
- The Love Poem: Romantic Language from Thomas Wyatt to Taylor Swift
- The New Woman: First Wave Feminism and Women’s Writing, 1880-1920
- The Unknown: Reading and Writing Creative Non-Fiction and Autofiction
- Virginia Woolf and the Novel
Questions about this course
How much do graduates of BA English Literature at University of Kent earn?
The median salary is £27,000 after 15 months, £24,000 after 3 years, £30,000 after 5 years. After five years the middle half of graduates earn between £23,500 and £36,000. The £30,000 median after five years is £2,000 more than the UK median for Literature in English.
What do graduates of BA English Literature at University of Kent do next?
85% were in work or further study 15 months after finishing (Graduate Outcomes 2023-24).
Are students happy with the teaching on BA English Literature at University of Kent?
96% of final-year students were positive about the teaching in the National Student Survey 2025-26.
What grades do I need for BA English Literature at University of Kent?
The typical offer is BBB at A level. The average entrant had 103 UCAS points.
How many students continue on BA English Literature at University of Kent?
80% of students continued into their second year, and 15% left higher education.