BA English and Drama
Royal Holloway, University of London
About this course
BA in English and Drama, an undergraduate degree combining the critical study of literature with practical theatre-making and performance analysis. Core topics include Research Methods, Critical & Analytical Thinking, and Entrepreneurship. Students may undertake an optional placement year or spend a year abroad. The first year introduces foundational concepts through compulsory modules such as Reorienting the Novel, Introduction to Poetry, Critical Foundations: Thinking As A Critic, Theatre and Performance Making 1, and Theatre and Text 1. The second year advances learning with compulsory study in Shakespeare from Page to Stage, Theatre and Ideas 2, and Theatre and Performance Making 2, alongside a broad selection of optional modules covering medieval literature, Renaissance drama, Romanticisms, and modernism. In the final year, students complete core independent work through the Final Year Project - Dissertation, Group Project, and Final Year Project - Special Study, while choosing from specialized options in contemporary fiction, advanced Shakespeare, and screenwriting.
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: ABB-BBB (Required subjects: A Level B in an essay-based subject We require English Language and Mathematics GCSE at grade 4 (C)) IB: 6,5,5 at Higher level or 32 points overall. Including 5 in an essay-based subject at Higher Level
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What students say
Based on about 15 final-year students who answered (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Teaching on my course: 90%
- Learning opportunities: 75%
- Assessment and feedback: 81%
- Academic support: 91%
- Organisation and management: 68%
- Learning resources: 85%
- Student voice: 70%
Do students stay on the course?
Based on about 15 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Continued on course: 85%
- Left higher education: 15%
What graduates do next
Based on about 22 graduates who answered, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Working: 70%
- Working and studying: 10%
- Further study: 15%
- Unemployed: 5%
Most common jobs
- Teaching Professionals: 15%
- Business and public service associate professionals: 15%
- Sales occupations: 10%
- Teaching and Childcare Support Occupation: 10%
- Elementary occupations: 10%
- Find their work meaningful: 80%
- Feel on track for their future plans: 70%
- Use what they learnt on the course: 55%
Where graduates work (5 years on)
Based on about 135 graduates, across similar courses at this university
- North West: 3%
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 3%
- East Midlands: 3%
- West Midlands: 2%
- East of England: 12%
- London: 38%
- South East: 27%
- South West: 7%
- Wales: 3%
- Scotland: 2%
Who gets in
Based on about 15 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
- Reorienting the Novel
- Introduction to Poetry
- Critical Foundations: Thinking As A Critic
- Theatre and Performance Making 1
- Theatre and Text 1
- Shakespeare from Page to Stage
- Theatre and Ideas 2
- Middle English Poetry
- Tolkien's Roots
- Medieval Dream and Vision
- Strange Fictions: Romance in the Middle Ages
- Renaissance Literature
- Intensive Shakespeare: Comedy, History, Tragedy
- Drama and Witchcraft
- Early Modern Bodies
- Literature after the Conquest: 1066-1340
- Victorian Literature
- Romanticisms
- Creative Writing: Structure and Style
- Literature of the Fin de Siècle, 1883-1903
- Contemporary Debates in Literary and Critical Theory
- Modernisms
- Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Adaptation
- Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Casting
- Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Tragedy
- Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Knowledge and the Body
- Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Time
- Theatre and Ideas: Ideas of Gender and Sexuality
- Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Money
- Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Acting
- Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Live Art
- Theatre and Ideas: Ideas of Race and Indigeneity
- Theatre and Ideas: Arts Entrepreneurship
- Theatre and Performance Making 2
- Theatre and Performance Making: Scenography
- Theatre and Performance Making: Dance and Theatre
- Theatre and Performance Making: Theatre Directing
- Theatre and Performance Making: Devising
- Theatre and Performance Making: Playwriting
- Theatre and Performance Making: Acting for Camera
- Dancing Bodies, Global Culture
- Theatre and Culture: Cultures of Memory
- Theatre and Culture: Aesthetics of Anxiety
- Theatre and Culture: Theatre for Young Audiences
- Theatre and Culture: Southeast Asian Theatre and Performance
- Theatre and Text: Greek Tragedy
- Theatre and Text: Staging the Real
- Theatre and Text: Dramaturgy
- Theatre and Text: Decoding debbie tucker green
- Literature and the Digital
- British Drama from Shaw to Priestley
- Writing as a Critic
- Final Year Project - Dissertation
- Group Project
- Final Year Project - Special Study
- Ideas in Contemporary Fiction
- On Murder
- Advanced Shakespeare: The Problem Plays
- Literature and Philosophy
- James Joyce: Revolutions of the Word
- Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
- Reading Like a Victorian
- First World War Literature
- The Girl in the Book
- Children's Literature
- The Post-Colonial Novel
- Literature, the Digital and the Creative Industries
- Byron, Modernity and Europe 1780-1830
- Poetic Practice
- Violence, Sex and Magic in Medieval Literature
- Visual and Verbal in the Long Nineteenth Century
- The New York Schools: Poetry, Painting and Music in the 1950s
- The 1930s British Fiction and the Road to War
- Special Author: Virginia Woolf
- Special Author: Chaucer
- Special Author: Charles Dickens
- Special Author: Herman Melville
- Reading the Waste Land
- Screenwriting
- English Dissertation
Questions about this course
How much do graduates of BA English and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London earn?
The median salary is £25,000 after 15 months, £22,500 after 3 years, £28,000 after 5 years. After five years the middle half of graduates earn between £23,000 and £34,500. The £28,000 median after five years is the same as the UK median for Literature in English.
What do graduates of BA English and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London do next?
90% were in work or further study 15 months after finishing (Graduate Outcomes 2023-24).
Are students happy with the teaching on BA English and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London?
90% of final-year students were positive about the teaching in the National Student Survey 2025-26.
What grades do I need for BA English and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London?
The typical offer is ABB at A level, or 32 points in the IB. The average entrant had 149 UCAS points.
Does BA English and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London include a placement year or year abroad?
The course has an optional placement year and an optional year abroad.
How many students continue on BA English and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London?
85% of students continued into their second year, and 15% left higher education.