The Department of English has around 600 undergraduate and 140 postgraduate students

Postgraduate study

The Department of English offers a friendly and lively intellectual community at both our Exeter and Cornwall Campuses.

Our Masters programmes include MA Creative Writing or MA English Studies, with a variety of pathways, and the MA Writing, Nature and Place in Cornwall which takes literary study out of the classroom and into the outside world.

We welcome applications for MPhil/PhD research in all areas of English studies. Academic staff in the Department currently supervise over 80 MPhil and PhD students.

  • 1st in the UK for world leading research in English1
  • Ranked in the UK’s top 10 for English in The Times Good University Guide 2012; The Sunday Times; The Complete University and Guardian guides 2012
  • 93% for Overall Satisfaction in the National Student Survey (2011)2
  • Flexible English Studies MA with seven specialist pathways and a broad range of modules
  • Popular Creative Writing MA with opportunities to participate in a thriving writing and arts events programme attended by top writers and performers
  • Unique postgraduate opportunities at our stunning £100 million Cornwall Campus, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research
  • Biggest film-related archive in the UK outside the British Film Institute and unique resources in 19th-century fiction and culture

1RAE 2008 based on the percentage of research categorised as 4*
2the percentage of students who agreed they were satisfied