English Keele University

Overview

This English, B.A degree from Keele University enables you to build advanced skills applicable to a huge variety of careers and take advantage of the placement opportunities embedded throughout the programme to prepare for your chosen career, benefiting from hands-on insights, work experience with skilled practitioners and collaboration with your peers.

With our English degree at Keele you will engage your imagination with texts from near and far and from the past and present, and develop your understanding of the cultures that they are part of and the ways that they reflect, generate or contradict the ideas of their time. This programme ranges from the classics of literature to contemporary writing such as graphic novels and Young Adult and Children’s Fiction: you’ll get the chance to study poetry, drama and fiction from the Medieval period right up to the present day. You’ll become a skilled critic of literature and build key skills in communication, creativity and critical thinking. You’ll be shown how to develop well-evidenced and reasoned arguments that will culminate in your final-year ‘English Project’ where, with the support of an academic supervisor, you will either complete an extended piece of research or create your very own scholarly edition of a text of your choosing. Benefit too from Keele’s vibrant Creative Writing culture: you can work on your own creative writing skills if you want to, and regularly hear published poets and novelists reading their work in our lively Keele Hall Readings series.

Just as we encourage you to make the most of your time at Keele, we also prepare you for life after university, and even help you kick-start your own career. You’ll have the opportunity to engage with projects and placements, drawing on our extensive network of existing placement partners or using our support to find your own opportunity. This allows you to combine your degree programme with practical experience, apply your learning to real-world situations, and enhance your CV.

Career opportunities:

A degree in English prepares you for a broad range of careers because it gives you multiple skills that are transferable to all sorts of different workplaces. You will be a confident writer, researcher and presenter with a critical and creative approach that will encourage you to share ideas in the workplace. You will develop core skills that will enable you to work independently and in collaboration with colleagues to communicate effectively and demonstrate your attention to detail and problem-solving skills.

These are just a few of the professions that welcome English graduates: 

• Accountancy
• Advertising
• Charity/ Third Sector
• Civil Service
• Creative Industries
• Law
• Retail Management
• Journalism
• Publishing
• Broadcasting
• Copywriting
• Marketing
• Public Relations
• Editorial
• Librarian
• Teaching