Our History
Beginnings
The origins of the School of English can be traced back to the Department of English & Secretarial Studies in the Birmingham College of Commerce in the 1950s (in a building on the present Aston University site).
In 1959, the department began offering the external University of London BA English degree on a part-time basis, with a full-time version following in 1964. One of the graduates during this period was the celebrated novelist Jim Crace, who has since served as a Visiting Professor in the School.
Polytechnic Years
During the 1960s, the department became the Department of English & Foreign Languages in a Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, and this became one of the constituent faculties when the City of Birmingham Polytechnic was formed in 1971. The department began offering its own CNAA (Council for National Academic Awards – the degree-awarding body for polytechnics) English degree in 1973. Eventually the part-time evening mode of the University of London degree was phased out and replaced by a part-time version of the CNAA degree.
During the 1980s the department lost foreign languages to the Business School and became the Department of English & Communication Studies in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences. When the ‘Commerce’ building was sold to Aston University, the department moved for three years to the Westbourne Road site, alongside the Faculty of Education, and then to the third floor of Baker Building on the Perry Barr site. In 1985 the English degree was revised and renamed BA English Language & Literature. At the time this was one of the few single honours courses that allowed students to combine literary and linguistic study.
University Status
In 1992 polytechnics were given university status and Birmingham Polytechnic became the University of Central England in Birmingham. English and Communication Studies went their separate ways, Communication Studies to Art & Design, and English (now the School of English) to the Faculty of Computing & Information Studies, which was eventually renamed the Faculty of Computing, Information & English (CIE).
During the 1990s, the English degree took in around 100 students each year and went through a number of reviews and developments. A distance-learning MA in English Language (later renamed English Linguistics) began in 1992, and an MA in Literary Studies was introduced in 1998.
In 2004, the School joined the Faculty of Law & Social Sciences, renamed Law, Humanities & Social Sciences (LHSS), and a year later Law, Humanities, Development & Society (LHDS), and it moved into Dawson Building. With the faculty reorganisation in the renamed Birmingham City University in 2007, the School of English found itself in the Faculty of Performance, Media & English (PME) and back in Baker Building, now on the 6th floor, its current home.
Present Day
The School still offers an integrated BA degree in English Language and Literature, but it has added popular routeways in Creative Writing and Drama. There is now a postgraduate course in Writing, which sees the School’s work showcased in venues such as Foyle’s Bookshop, The Royal Court Theatre and the Birmingham Conservatoire.
Research has grown exponentially in recent years. The School has made a strong return to every RAE since 1996 and currently boasts scholars and writers of international renown in all its constituent fields, whether literature, linguistics, drama or creative writing. There have been major funded research projects from the AHRC and EPSRC, and the work of members of the School features regularly in world-leading journals and publishing houses.
Our alumni have found great jobs: as journalists, lawyers, teachers, business analysts, marketers, lecturers, even comedians (perhaps our most famous ex-student is Frank Skinner). We are proud of them all, proud of our past, proud of our present, and expect to go developing long into the future.
Heads of the School of English (in chronological order)
- Bernard Fitzjohn
- Keith May
- Professor John Squires
- Professor Philip Smallwood
- Professor Howard Jackson
- Professor Dominic Head
- Professor David Roberts
- Professor Antoinette Renouf
- Professor David Roberts (second term)