English with Integrated Foundation Year

English literature is the study of literary texts across the full range of periods, genres and traditions in the English language, developing your ability to read carefully, think critically and argue persuasively about how language creates meaning, how literature reflects and shapes culture, and why the texts we have inherited matter. It is one of the most intellectually rigorous of the humanities disciplines and one that develops capabilities, particularly precision with language and the construction of evidence-based argument, that are valued across almost every professional context.

Royal Holloway and Bedford New College's Integrated Foundation Year for Arts and Humanities provides a thorough, skills-building first year designed to give you everything you need to begin degree-level English study with confidence. The programme then continues over four years in total full time. The structure includes a sandwich year with embedded work placement opportunities and a year abroad, giving you professional experience and international academic exposure within the degree.

The typical entry tariff for this programme is around 136 UCAS points, reflecting the foundation entry route.

You will read widely across literary history, from medieval texts and early modern drama through the Romantic and Victorian periods to twentieth-century and contemporary literature, developing both a broad cultural map and the close reading skills to engage with individual texts in depth. Critical theory, from feminist criticism and postcolonial theory to structuralism and ecocriticism, provides a range of analytical frameworks for approaching texts from different perspectives. The foundation year builds the academic literacy and analytical skills needed to engage with this material at degree level.

Graduates of English programmes work in education, publishing, journalism, law, public relations, broadcasting, the civil service, marketing, arts administration and a wide range of other professional contexts. The discipline's emphasis on writing and critical thinking makes its graduates competitive across virtually every sector that values communication. The work placement experience gives Royal Holloway graduates a practical foundation that helps them transition effectively into professional life.

Postgraduate study in English literature, creative writing, publishing, journalism or education is a natural continuation.