BA (Hons)
English and Film Studies
Define your focus through a choice of literary and cinematic options
Course Overview
Why take this course?
Combine your interest in reading, writing and language with your enthusiasm for film and cinema. From its beginnings in the 1970s, film studies has come a long way. So if your passion for film goes beyond your local multiplex, why not join us in studying the dynamic film industry?
What will I experience?
On this course you can:
- Learn from our team of published authors, poets, scriptwriters and media specialists
- Study the Hollywood film scene as well as international cinema
- Create your own film script or write a TV drama
What opportunities might it lead to?
With a mix of creative practice and critical understanding, this course allows you to become a flexible and well-rounded graduate. There will be few limits to your career options with roles in publishing, media, PR as well as the film industry all taking on our graduates.
Here are some routes our graduates have pursued:
- creative writing (prose, poetry, script)
- copywriting
- publishing
- advertising and marketing
- arts and events management
- local and community broadcasting
- teaching
I chose to combine English and Film because I love literature and enjoy learning how to analyse and explore all aspects of film. You have the chance to actually make films too.
Emily Morgan, BA (Hons) English and Film Studies student
Key Facts
- UCAS Course Code:
- QW36
- Duration
- 3 years full time, 4 years sandwich with work placement
- Entry
240-300 points from 3 A levels or equivalent, to include 80 points from A level English.
Other qualifications- Fees
UK/EU/Channel Islands and Isle of Man full-time students: £8,750 p/a*
International full-time students: £10,500 p/a*
*Please note that all fees are subject to annual increase.- Contact
- create.admissions@port.ac.uk
+44 (0)23 9284 2421 - Department
- School of Creative Arts, Film and Media
Subject:
English, Film, Journalism and Media
Find out what our students say about studying at Portsmouth, including:
- Getting the chance to develop practical skills alongside learning the theory
- The high-quality teaching and flexibility of options that enables you to tailor your course to your own interests
- The passion and knowledge of the lecturers that makes studying so enjoyable
Visit us at our open day
Wed 10 Jul
Structure & Teaching
Year one
Your first year is an introduction to storytelling and the beginning of your training in the skills and techniques you’ll be using throughout your course.
Core units in this year include:
- Introduction to Film Research
- Introduction to Poetry
- Studying Film
- Spectacular Hollywood
- Literary Theory
- Literary History 1: 16th Century to 19th Century
Year two
In your second year you can choose to focus on specific periods in literary history and certain film-related topics.
Core units in this year include:
- Adaptations
- British Cinema: 1930 to 1970
- Literary History 2: 19th Century to the Present Day
- Literary Prizes and Public Acclaim
Options to choose from in this year include:
- Student Enterprise
- Music: Practice, Performance and Research
- Nation and Travel
- Victorian Literature and Visual Culture
- Forensic Linguistics
- World and Transnational Cinema
- Critical Hollywood
- A Foreign Language
Year three
The final year offers you a broad range of options to choose from. Depending on your interests, you also have the choice between a dissertation or undertaking a special exercise that boosts your professional writing skills.
Options to choose from in this year include:
- Film Stardom and Celebrity Culture
- Gender, Sexuality and Cinema in The Hispanic World
- Black American Film
- Researching Animation
- Tracing Borders: Women and Writing 1890–1940
- Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde Fiction
- Early Modern Literature and the Bible
- Media Fan Cultures
- Comedy Culture and Form
- Film Journalism
- Marketing Movies
- European Literary Decadence
- Holocaust Literatures
- US Masculinities
Teaching and Assessment
The greatest feature of our course is that it allows for your intellectual freedom and choice. By attending workshops, seminars, lectures and one-to-one tutorials, you’ll develop a range of skills that will be tailored to your planned career path.
How are you assessed?
Assessment takes many forms on the course enabling you to demonstrate the variety of your skills and talents. Here’s how we assess your work:
- essays
- a screenplay
- video productions
- film scripts
- reports
- a research portfolio
- examinations
- dissertation/project
Visit us open day
Facilities & Features
The Study Centre
A suite of rooms with group working spaces, printers, Mac workstations and more
Borderlines
Showcase your innovative writing abilities
University Library
Our library offers a wealth of information
The Study Centre
A suite of rooms with a comfy seating area, desks where you can work, a printer, Mac workstations and access to the wireless network so you can log in using your own laptop. There are also several study rooms where you can rehearse or work on group projects.
Borderlines
Our acclaimed anthology is an exciting literary project allowing our creative students to feature their work and showcase their innovative writing abilities. You’ll be given the opportunity to contribute to our annual creative writing anthology and year after year, it is filled to the brim with your imaginative and inspiring poetry and stories.
University Library
Modern, comfortable and a great learning environment, our library offers a wealth of information including 400,000 books, DVDs, maps and thousands of online ejournals and newspapers. Many electronic resources are available anywhere, 24/7 and our friendly staff are always on hand to help.
Careers & Opportunities
Career prospects
On graduating you’ll possess sharp communication and research skills as well as subject-specific knowledge and the transferable skills employers want.
Career options include media research, film, television or music production, film research, publishing, web design, arts and events management, local and community broadcasting, entertainment management, marketing, public relations and teaching.
Alternatively, you can pursue postgraduate study and continue research into a specialised area of your choosing.
Roles our graduates have taken on include:
- copywriter
- information abstractor
- narrator
- projects administrator
- production manager
- sound and vision engineer
- film/video producer
Work experience
This course allows you to take the Learning From Experience (LiFE) option, which lets you earn credits toward your degree for work/research placements, volunteer roles or internships undertaken alongside your studies. The option gives you the opportunity to enhance your employability skills, to reflect on the ways in which you've done so, and to learn to express this to potential employers.
Career planning
6.04 minutes
Finding a job is a competitive business, but the statistics show that 89 per cent of our 2011graduates went into employment, further study or training within six months of finishing their degrees.
To make sure you take the right steps on your career path, we’re here to give you help, support and advice throughout your study. Even after you’ve graduated, we continue to give you support for up to five years.
Employers tell us that they want graduates to be able to demonstrate certain skills when they come out of university. Our courses take account of this. We make sure we prepare you for employment through work-related learning, projects, placements and working in simulated environments that are designed to prepare you for the working world.
Open Day
Our next open day is Wed 10 July
VISIT US! Have a look around and get a feel for what it’s like to live and study here. We’ll be on hand to talk to you about your course interests and show you all of our amazing facilities. You’ll also get to meet tutors and other students…
Application, Fees and Funding — find out more