Careers

The difference between not wanting to do a one-minute monologue a few years ago, and now… the confidence to go out there and do that has come from being thrown into uni life.

Leila Khan, BSc (Hons) Drama and English Literature graduate and star of Netflix's Heartstopper

Our range of career-focused optional modules will help prepare you to work in the arts or other fields, such as teaching.

You might take part in collaborative projects, like our HMS Belfast project with Imperial War Museums to commemorate D-Day, and 60 Second Shakespeare with the Globe theatre, London. You can also experience being part of a professional troupe with our Community Theatre Company.

You’ll graduate with a professionally produced showreel and portfolio.

What can you do with a Drama and English Literature degree?

Where have other Drama and English Literature graduates worked?

Where have other Drama and English Literature students found work experience?

How can ARU help with my employability and career development?

Teaching and modules

You’ll get straight into the studio, working in a collaborative performance environment.

You'll learn new skills that will be key to your future as a performer, as well as exploring the history of English literature.

Your second year begins with a major production at Mumford Theatre. You’ll also work on a community theatre project, and spend time with some of the best writing from beyond Britain.

Finally, you’ll complete an individual research project in English Literature or drama, and collaboratively plan and execute our Festival of Performance in Cambridge.

Student work

Our student showcase

ARU Acting and Drama Course Leader Dr Heather Lilley explains which of our undergraduate courses in acting, drama and theatre may be right for you.
Graduating students share their experiences of Drama at ARU, with clips from performances.
Created by ARU Writing, Film Production, Acting and Drama students for the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day commemorations. Brian Butler was a local Sightsetter in one of Belfast’s main gun turrets.
Created by ARU Writing, Film Production, Acting and Drama students for the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day commemorations. Captain Parham was remembered by Belfast’s sailors as a very gentle and humane leader.
Created by ARU Writing, Film Production, Acting and Drama students for the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day commemorations. Bob Shrimpton was part of HMS Belfast’s ASDIC (sonar) equipment team.
Created by ARU Writing, Film Production, Acting and Drama students for the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day commemorations. Charles Simpson was one of Belfast’s five Engineering Lieutenants.
Graduating students share their experiences of Drama at ARU, with clips from performances.
Dr Jon Stone considers how poetry is changing in the digital age in this 60 Second Seminar.

What will I study?

Modules are subject to change and availability, and may vary by location. If you have the choice of optional modules, these are indicated with a *.

Year 1

Fundamentals for Acting
Researching Performance
Reading Critically, Old English to Enlightenment
Studio Project
Introduction to the Study of Literature and Writing
Into ARU

Year 2

Nineteenth Century Afterlives and Adaptations
Making Performance
Community Theatre Performance
Ruskin Module (15 credits)
Principles of Dramatherapy *
Physical Theatre *
Science Fiction *
Performing Shakespeare *
Practice as Research *
Performing New Writing *
Crocodiles, Pirates and Moon-men: Renaissance Encounters *
Anglia Language Programme (15 credits) *

Year 3

Festival of Performance
Undergraduate Major Project *
Undergraduate Major Project in English *
Spectacle and Representation in Renaissance Drama *
Elizabeth Gaskell and the Brontës *
Renaissance Magic *
Site Specific and Immersive Theatre *
Screen Drama Production *
Careers with English *
Literature and Exile: Displacement, Identity, Self *
Romantic Ideals *
Writing and the Present *
New Media Discourse *
Forbidden Stories: Banned Children's Books *
Workshop Facilitation *
Provocations *
Anglia Language Programme (15 credits) *

Module details

To prepare you for university study, you can take a foundation year at the start of this course. Find out more about foundation years.

Year 1

Foundation in Humanities, English, Media, Social Sciences and Education

Module details

You can choose to take an optional placement year as part of this course. Placements typically happen in Year 3, and your course will take four years overall. Find out more about placement years.

Placement year

Work Placement - Cambridge School of Creative Industries

Module details

What happens on a foundation year?

What happens on a placement year?

How is Drama and English Literature assessed?

Who teaches Drama and English Literature at ARU?

Read profiles of teaching and research staff on this course.

Dr Sue Wilson
Senior Lecturer
Dr Cassie Gorman
Associate Professor
David Jackson
Senior Lecturer Practitioner
Dr Eva Aymamí Reñé
Senior Lecturer
Dr Tory Young
Associate Professor
Professor Sarah Annes Brown
Professor

Facilities

You'll have full access to all our creative industries facilities including:

the Mumford Theatre, a 260-seater on-campus professional theatre
dedicated drama studio, with highly flexible black-box performance space
large rehearsal space with audio playback facilities, piano, LED lighting rig, portable dance mirrors, gym mats and rostra/modular staging
Students’ Union-run dance studio
podcast and video capture system.

Mumford Theatre
Mumford Theatre
Mumford Theatre
Covent Garden drama studio
Covent Garden drama studio
Dance studio

Entry requirements

UK students

Important additional notes

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

Other equivalent qualifications may be accepted for entry to this course; please email [email protected] for further information. Applicants to undergraduate courses can also check our information about undergraduate entry qualifications.

You'll need a computer and reliable internet access to successfully engage with your course.

We don't accept AS level qualifications on their own for entry to our undergraduate degree courses. However for some degree courses a small number of tariff points from AS levels are accepted as long as they're combined with tariff points from A levels or other equivalent level 3 qualifications in other subjects.

Important additional notes

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

Other equivalent qualifications may be accepted for entry to this course; please email [email protected] for further information. Applicants to undergraduate courses can also check our information about undergraduate entry qualifications.

You'll need a computer and reliable internet access to successfully engage with your course.

We don't accept AS level qualifications on their own for entry to our undergraduate degree courses. However for some degree courses a small number of tariff points from AS levels are accepted as long as they're combined with tariff points from A levels or other equivalent level 3 qualifications in other subjects.

Important additional notes

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

Other equivalent qualifications may be accepted for entry to this course; please email [email protected] for further information. Applicants to undergraduate courses can also check our information about undergraduate entry qualifications.

You'll need a computer and reliable internet access to successfully engage with your course.

We don't accept AS level qualifications on their own for entry to our undergraduate degree courses. However for some degree courses a small number of tariff points from AS levels are accepted as long as they're combined with tariff points from A levels or other equivalent level 3 qualifications in other subjects.

International students

English language requirements

Making you an offer

Fees and funding

UK students

£9,535 UK students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

If you're a UK student, you don't need the money to pay for university now.

If you accept an offer to study at university, you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan to cover your course fees.

Both full-time and part-time students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan. Part-time students should be studying more than a quarter (25% intensity) of a full-time course each year.

You'll start repaying the loan in the April after you graduate.

If you start a course on or after 1 August 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £25,000. This is called repayment Plan 5. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £25,000. After 40 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

If you started a course on or before 31 July 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £27,295. This is called repayment Plan 2. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £27,295. After 30 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

For example for students who are on repayment Plan 5:

If you earn £25,500, you'll repay £45 a year or £3.75 a month
That's because £25,500 is £500 above the threshold, and 9% of £500 is £45.

What you repay depends on how much you earn after university. The more you earn, the more you pay back.

For more information about student loans, see our undergraduate student finance page.

This information also applies to:

Irish nationals living in the UK or Ireland
EU, EEA and Swiss nationals benefiting from citizens’ rights under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.

£9,535 UK students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

If you're a UK student, you don't need the money to pay for university now.

If you accept an offer to study at university, you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan to cover your course fees.

Both full-time and part-time students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan. Part-time students should be studying more than a quarter (25% intensity) of a full-time course each year.

You'll start repaying the loan in the April after you graduate.

If you start a course on or after 1 August 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £25,000. This is called repayment Plan 5. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £25,000. After 40 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

If you started a course on or before 31 July 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £27,295. This is called repayment Plan 2. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £27,295. After 30 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

For example for students who are on repayment Plan 5:

If you earn £25,500, you'll repay £45 a year or £3.75 a month
That's because £25,500 is £500 above the threshold, and 9% of £500 is £45.

What you repay depends on how much you earn after university. The more you earn, the more you pay back.

For more information about student loans, see our undergraduate student finance page.

This information also applies to:

Irish nationals living in the UK or Ireland
EU, EEA and Swiss nationals benefiting from citizens’ rights under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.

£9,535 UK students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

If you're a UK student, you don't need the money to pay for university now.

If you accept an offer to study at university, you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan to cover your course fees.

Both full-time and part-time students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan. Part-time students should be studying more than a quarter (25% intensity) of a full-time course each year.

You'll start repaying the loan in the April after you graduate.

If you start a course on or after 1 August 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £25,000. This is called repayment Plan 5. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £25,000. After 40 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

If you started a course on or before 31 July 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £27,295. This is called repayment Plan 2. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £27,295. After 30 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

For example for students who are on repayment Plan 5:

If you earn £25,500, you'll repay £45 a year or £3.75 a month
That's because £25,500 is £500 above the threshold, and 9% of £500 is £45.

What you repay depends on how much you earn after university. The more you earn, the more you pay back.

For more information about student loans, see our undergraduate student finance page.

This information also applies to:

Irish nationals living in the UK or Ireland
EU, EEA and Swiss nationals benefiting from citizens’ rights under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.

£1,400 Placement year (2024-25)

International students

£16,700 International students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

You can pay your fees upfront, in full or in two instalments. We will ask for a deposit of £4,000 or a sponsorship letter

Find out about paying your fees.

£16,700 International students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

You can pay your fees upfront, in full or in two instalments. We will ask for a deposit of £4,000 or a sponsorship letter

Find out about paying your fees.

£16,700 International students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

You can pay your fees upfront, in full or in two instalments. We will ask for a deposit of £4,000 or a sponsorship letter

Find out about paying your fees.

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With foundation year

With placement

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Apply for Drama and English Literature

Clearing places available

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01245 686868

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