This programme combines the BA in English with a Minor pathway in Game Design Studies – a new and distinctive provision in the study of interactive audiovisual media.

Programme in detail

During your first year, you will follow a suite of optional English modules designed to build the academic foundations for your next two years of study in English literature and language. You will have a free choice of English modules in Years 2 and 3, enabling you to tailor the study of literature and language in a combination that suits you. Literature modules cover a breadth of genres and eras, while language modules examine the development and uses of the English language in a range of contexts.

Your Minor pathway will introduce you to the study of video games, which includes topics such as the history and development of gaming cultures, the complex nature of interactive media, and the critical issues that accompany engagement with virtual worlds, multicursal narratives, and dynamic musical content. Digital games represent one of the fastest growing forms of entertainment media: consequently, there is a growing need for many jobs that are not only in the games industry, but in surrounding industries as well. This programme develops a wide range of skills that prepare students for employment at various entry points in the job market, including content creation, publishing, journalism, and marketing.

Our graduates leave to take up a very wide range of careers. A number take up jobs in journalism, broadcasting, or advertising; some begin as management trainees in a variety of businesses; others start their careers in retailing, computing, librarianship, the arts or the Civil Service. Many go on to train further as teachers, or as solicitors or accountants; some pursue careers in teaching English as a foreign language.