UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 21 APRIL 2016
The School of English are providing students with a free textbook for all of their core modules.
On the BA (Hons) English course you enjoy the opportunity to combine subjects to suit your interests. To help support you in your studies, the school offers an array of facilities, including a dedicated drama studio, high quality teaching spaces and much more, all housed in our brand-new City Centre Campus.
University is a big investment, that’s why since September 2015 the School of English has been giving all of our students – not just the first years – the main textbook for all the core modules they take.
Core modules for the first year include: Studying Language, Describing Language, Approaches to Reading: Criticism, Approaches to Reading: Contexts, Reading Literature: Prose, Reading Literature: Poetry, Drama and Adaptation. For students on the Creative Writing route way this also includes the Being a Writer module.
Third year BA (Hons) English student, Max Price said: "During my third year, we've had core texts provided for us, which is the most useful year to have them in my opinion, and they have been extremely helpful! Especially for modules such as the Drama Workshop, where an extremely useful text was provided that we may not have known to look for otherwise."
Students were a little amazed when they turned up to the School’s new home in the state-of-the-art Curzon Building, to find themselves handed with a weighty bag of books containing titles such as An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory (Bennett and Royle, 2009) and The Penguin Book of English Verse (Keegan, 2004). Putting this measure in place can save you at least £50 in just the first year of your course!
You may purchase a few of your own books, particularly those you may use during your studies, as many of our students do. However, it is an optional cost dependent on your individual budget. You'll also find that most books needed while studying the course are available in our well-stocked University library, with a range of physical and digital resources for you to use, including the Early English Books Online archive (EEBO), the Literature Online archive (LION), and the international digital library JSTOR.
You will also be given a number of opportunities to attend field trips as part of your course. While these trips are optional, they’ll enrich your overall university experience. Generally, these trips are also subsidised by the School of English. Previous trips have included visits to the archives at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Elizabeth Gaskell's house in Manchester and Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham.
It is not essential for you to purchase your own laptop (PC or Mac OS) either. Instead, you can hire a laptop from the University or use one of our shared computer rooms. Laptops can be hired out for free for up to six hours and can be found at the following buildings: Curzon, Millennium Point, Parkside and Margaret Street.
Additionally, printing credits also given to students across all year groups, per semester. There are two ways in which you can purchase additional printing credits: online using a credit or debit card or in person at cash loaders, which can be found at locations such as: Curzon, Millennium Point, Parkside and Margaret Street.