(BA) Bachelor of Arts
Drama and Literature
Current
University of Essex
University of Essex
Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies
Colchester Campus
Honours Degree
Full-time
English
Dance, Drama and Performance
BA QW24
08/05/2024
Details
Professional accreditation
None
Admission criteria
- A-levels: BBB - BBC or 120 - 112 UCAS tariff points from a minimum of 2 full A-levels, including B in one essay based subject.
- BTEC: DDM - DMM or 120 - 112 UCAS tariff points from a minimum of the equivalent of 2 full A-levels. The acceptability of BTECs is dependent on subject studied and optional units taken - email ugquery@essex.ac.uk for advice.
- Combined qualifications on the UCAS tariff: 120 - 112 UCAS tariff points from a minimum of 2 full A levels or equivalent. Tariff point offers may be made if you are taking a qualification, or mixture of qualifications, from the list on our undergraduate application information page.
- IB: 30 - 29 points or three Higher Level certificates with 555-554.
- IB Career-related Programme: We consider combinations of IB Diploma Programme courses with BTECs or other qualifications. Advice on acceptability can be provided, email Undergraduate Admissions.
- QAA-approved Access to HE Diploma: 6 level 3 credits at Distinction and 39 level 3 credits at Merit, depending on subject studied - advice on acceptability can be provided, email Undergraduate Admissions.
- T-levels: We consider T-levels on a case-by-case basis, depending on subject studied. The offer for most courses is Distinction overall. Depending on the course applied for there may be additional requirements, which may include a specific grade in the Core.
Contextual Offers:
We are committed to ensuring that all students with the merit and potential to benefit from an Essex education are supported to do so. For October 2024 entry, if you are a home fee paying student residing in the UK you may be eligible for a Contextual Offer of up to two A-level grades, or equivalent, below our standard conditional offer.
Factors we consider:
- Applicants from underrepresented groups
- Applicants progressing from University of Essex Schools Membership schools/colleges
- Applicants who attend a compulsory admissions interview
- Applicants who attend an Offer Holder Day at our Colchester or Southend campus
Our contextual offers policy outlines additional circumstances and eligibility criteria.
For further information about what a contextual offer may look like for your specific qualification profile, email ugquery@essex.ac.uk.
If you haven't got the grades you hoped for, have a non-traditional academic background, are a mature student, or have any questions about eligibility for your course, more information can be found on our undergraduate application information page. or get in touch with our Undergraduate Admissions Team.
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) code
English language requirements for applicants whose first language is not English: IELTS 6.0 overall, or specified score in another equivalent test that we accept.
Details of English language requirements, including component scores, and the tests we accept for applicants who require a Student visa (excluding Nationals of Majority English Speaking Countries) can be found here
If we accept the English component of an international qualification it will be included in the academic levels listed above for the relevant countries.
English language shelf-life
Most English language qualifications have a validity period of 5 years. The validity period of Pearson Test of English, TOEFL and CBSE or CISCE English is 2 years.
If you require a Student visa to study in the UK please see our immigration webpages for the latest Home Office guidance on English language qualifications.
Pre-sessional English courses
If you do not meet our IELTS requirements then you may be able to complete a pre-sessional English pathway that enables you to start your course without retaking IELTS.
Pending English language qualifications
You don’t need to achieve the required level before making your application, but it will be one of the conditions of your offer.
If you cannot find the qualification that you have achieved or are pending, then please email ugquery@essex.ac.uk
.
Requirements for second and final year entry
Different requirements apply for second and final year entry, and specified component grades are also required for applicants who require a visa to study in the UK. Details of English language requirements, including UK Visas and Immigration minimum component scores, and the tests we accept for applicants who require a Student visa (excluding Nationals of Majority English Speaking Countries) can be found here
Additional Notes
If you’re an international student, but do not meet the English language or academic requirements for direct admission to this degree, you could prepare and gain entry through a pathway course. Find out more about opportunities available to you at the University of Essex International College
Course qualifiers
A course qualifier is a bracketed addition to your course title to denote a specialisation or pathway that you have achieved via the completion of specific modules during your course. The
specific module requirements for each qualifier title are noted below. Eligibility for any selected qualifier will be determined by the department and confirmed by the final year Board of
Examiners. If the required modules are not successfully completed, your course title will remain as described above without any bracketed addition. Selection of a course qualifier is
optional and student can register preferences or opt-out via Online Module Enrolment (eNROL).
None
Rules of assessment
Rules of assessment are the rules, principles and frameworks which the University uses to calculate your course progression and final results.
Additional notes
None
External examiners
Dr Christina Papagiannouli
Research Fellow
University of South Wales
External Examiners provide an independent overview of our courses, offering their expertise and help towards our continual improvement of course content, teaching, learning, and assessment.
External Examiners are normally academics from other higher education institutions, but may be from the industry, business or the profession as appropriate for the course.
They comment on how well courses align with national standards, and on how well the teaching, learning and assessment methods allow students to develop and demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed to achieve their awards.
External Examiners who are responsible for awards are key members of Boards of Examiners. These boards make decisions about student progression within their course and about whether students can receive their final award.
Programme aims
To offer a varied, flexible and distinctive curriculum focused on the study of English literature and encompassing several genres and periods.
Understand the methodology necessary for undertaking a close analysis of a text passage or film extract.
Acquire the critical terminology to identify and name the literary devices at work in a text.
Work in a small group to prepare a presentation that demonstrates the skills involved in the close reading of an unseen text.
Appreciate the relationship between the written and the spoken language.
To encourage students to exercise their own judgements in the reading of both primary and secondary texts.
To acquaint students with a range of contextual, conceptual and comparative frameworks.
To provide the knowledge and skills (critical inquiry and argument, imaginative understanding, written and spoken communication and presentation) that will not only stand students in good stead for more specialised academic study, but will also enhance their graduate careers.
To enable study of a wide range of dramatic texts, from Ancient Greek to the present day .
To provide students with an understanding of the principal developments in European Theatre .
To encourage understanding (both theoretical and practical) of the performance logic of dramatic texts.
Learning outcomes and learning, teaching and assessment methods
On successful completion of the programme a graduate should demonstrate knowledge and skills as follows:
A: Knowledge and understanding
A1: A range of English literature from the early modern period to present-day, including knowledge of a variety of genres (poetry, fiction, and drama)
A2: A range of Western theatre theorists, which might include: Aristotle, Brecht, Artaud, Grotowski, and Stanislavski
A3: The theatrical or performance logic contained within any text written for performance on the stage
A4: The major figures in the field, and the major literary tendencies or movements covered by the degree scheme
A5: The complex relationship between literature and culture (an appreciation of the way in which literary texts are embedded in their cultural and historical milieux, and an awareness of their role in creating cultural change)
A6: The key critical debates that have informed the field (and some familiarity with the most recent critical interventions)
A7: The basic methods of critical analysis and argument
A8: Specialised study in the final year in areas students have identified as being of particular interest
A9: A range of English and European drama and theatre, from classical Greek to the present-day
A10: The complex relationship between drama and theatre (an appreciation of the way in which dramatic texts are embedded in particular theatre cultures)
A11: Major theatre genres which might include: Didactic theatre, Expressionism, Naturalism, Surrealism, Epic, Theatre of the Absurd
Learning methods
1-10 are acquired through lectures, classes and continuously assessed coursework (with regular feedback, both oral and written, from tutors).
The lectures offer surveys of the major periods of literature covered in the scheme and address the major approaches and issues (mainly 1-4, but also 7-10).
The classes, on the other hand, tend to focus in more detail on textual examples, and give emphasis to student discussion and/ or presentation, preparing their argumentative skills for formal assessment.
Classes and workshops are particularly pertinent to 8 and 11.
Drama workshops allow a practical grasp of 11.
In Year 3, the format for LT courses changes to a two-hour seminar, which may include informal lectures/ presentations by the teacher and gives further scope for students to practise their oral communication skills as well as to pursue more specialised areas of interest (5, 6).
In addition, students are expected to extend and enhance the knowledge and understanding they acquire from classes and lectures by regularly consulting archival materials related to the course.
This independent research is then consolidated in essay work.
In TH subjects which include a workshop, students are encouraged to work both independently and as a group in preparation of end-of-course presentations.
Assessment methods
Formal assessment of students' knowledge and understanding (1-4, 6, 7-10) takes place through coursework essays and unseen written examinations.
Students are expected to analyse texts in the light of the contextual, conceptual and comparative frameworks offered to them during the scheme, whilst also formulating their own arguments and displaying critical competence (5).
Outcome 11 is assessed formally in drama workshop presentations.
In LT units, class contribution is assessed, a process which gives formal weight to preparation, comprehension, and oral communication and argumentation.
B: Intellectual and cognitive skills
B1: Analyse and interpret
B2: Read complex texts and comment cogently on them
B3: Reason critically and argue coherently
B4: Identify critical literary positions and interrogate them
B5: Make and account for connections between texts and their contexts
B6: To think independently and to make connections between familiar and new ideas
B7: Think on their feet, grasping complex issues of dramatic structure and relating these to the fashioning of a performance
Learning methods
Intellectual and cognitive skills are initiated through lectures in Year 1 and 2, and further developed in seminars, as well as one-to-one tutorials where appropriate.
The seminar- based work of Year 3, like that of Years 1 and 2, encourages critical discussion arising from the analysis and interpretation of texts with an emphasis on being able to reason cogently, argue coherently and present one's own viewpoint persuasively.
Year 3 students are guided towards the acquisition of a reflective understanding of the arguments they and others propose, the analyses they and others offer, and the critical positions they and others employ.
This is done through in situ feedback (formally and informally, as appropriate) in oral and written presentations, group based critical discussions and the analysis and interpretation of texts and critical positions.
Therefore, Year 3 further develops and hones skills 1-5, but it is also where cumulatively 6 comes into its own (see also Independent Study), and where we seek evidence of the successful deployment of skill 6 in the assessment.
Skill 7 is addressed in the course of drama workshops.
Assessment methods
The seminars are intended as practice sessions for skills 1-6.
Students translate the skills acquired there collectively into individually assessed essays.
In turn, the essays prepare students for the exam.
As the summative assessment for any given course, the exam tests their ability both to demonstrate and to sustain the same skills in controlled conditions.
Drama workshop presentations (skill 7) are formally assessed.
C: Practical skills
C1: A vocabulary and a critical terminology for the analysis of literary texts
C2: A capacity for working independently and under guidance
C3: The use of accepted conventions of presenting essays, references and bibliographies, and an ability to challenge these
C4: The utilisation of a knowledge of literary and generic conventions
C5: The use of a critical methodology in written work, employing reasoned argument to appreciate and evaluate a literary text
C6: An effective style or range of styles to convey a range of responses as readers of literary texts
C7: A range of methods to perform a bibliographical search.
C8: The ability to present effective practical theatre projects
C9: The ability to plan, manage and conduct a group activity
Learning methods
Skills 1 and 4 are introduced in lectures and developed through classes (first and second years) and through seminars (third year).
Guidance on skills 2, 3, and 5-7 is given in teaching, in supervision of essays, and in Departmental Handbooks.
The strategy ensures that, having acquired a basic command of them, students exercise these skills in the third year in more specialised modules.
Skills 8 and 9 are addressed in practical workshops.
Assessment methods
Assessment is by essays and examinations.
Provision is made for selected students to be assessed on an Independent Study project in the third year in lieu of a taught module.
The project has a presentation element which consists of 20% of the final mark.
Essay questions are designed to test all skills.
Examination questions test skills 1 and 4-6.
Skills 8 and 9 are assessed in the course of a formal presentation before examiners.
D: Key skills
D1: Clear, focused, relevant and effective written expression and oral communication
D2: Use appropriate IT to research and present materials.
D3: Management of projects and timetables. Finding, understanding and organising information.
D4: Ability to "read" an argument in seminar discussion; ability to respond effectively; ability to work in a variety of group contexts
D5: Receptivity to feedback in the form of written comments on coursework and oral communications.
Learning methods
The five relevant key skills are implicit throughout the degree, and are supported in their development by seminar work, feedback on essays, and key skills packages.
Assessment methods
D1-2, 3-5 are assessed through coursework and dissertations; D4 is assessed through a participation mark.