English

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https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/english-ba-hons

English, BA (Hons) | Undergraduate Study

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Courses for 2027 entry

English, BA (Hons)

Undergraduate Study

English at Cambridge

English at Cambridge gives you a solid foundation in history of English literature, from the medieval period right up to the present day.

Get an introduction to different types of writing, prose, fiction, drama and poetry, as well as the chance to specialise and develop your own interests.

Overview

Number 2 in the UK for English (The Complete University Guide 2026)

From its ground-breaking beginnings, the English course has had an ethos of innovation and progress. This continues to shape our teaching and research.

If you have a passion for literature and the intellectual curiosity to ask probing questions, then this course is for you.

You’ll get a strong grounding in literary works written in English. This means you can study American and post-colonial literature alongside British literature.

You’ll also have the chance to specialise, develop your interests, and explore:

other art forms, including music and film, in relation to literature

literature’s connections to intellectual traditions including philosophy, art history and politics

By studying this course you'll join some of the most famous writers who studied here in the past. They include:

Edmund Spenser

John Milton

William Wordsworth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

EM Forster

Sylvia Plath

Ted Hughes

Kamau Brathwaite

AS Byatt

Zadie Smith

Helen Oyeyemi

Teaching and facilities

Teaching

You will be taught by some of the world’s most eminent critics and thinkers who have expertise in almost all aspects of literature.

We have no set approach other than to focus on valuable skills of critical thinking, scholarly rigour and good writing.

Facilities

Our Faculty of English building is home to:

the Faculty of English library, a welcoming space with 80,000 books and computer facilities, where you can also have skills training

a drama studio, where we have plays and poetry readings

Along with all other students at Cambridge, you'll also have access to:

our impressive Cambridge University Library, one of the world’s oldest university libraries

Course costs

When you go to university, you’ll need to consider two main costs – your tuition fees and your living costs (sometimes referred to as maintenance costs).

Your living costs will include costs related to your studies that are not covered by your tuition fees. There are some general study costs that will apply for all students.

Find out more about general study costs.

There are no compulsory additional course costs for English. If you have any queries about resources/materials, please contact the Department.

Your future career

When you graduate, you'll have a variety of transferable skills that employers are looking for. You'll have the opportunity to choose from a range of different career options.

In recent years, our English graduates have gone on to successful careers in:

academia

publishing

teaching

journalism

theatre and film

the charity sector

civil service

Course outline

Teaching is provided through lectures, seminars, and small-group supervisions and classes.

You can usually expect to have 6 hours of lectures or seminars, and 2 to 3 hours of individual, paired or small-group supervision each week.

You will usually write one or two short essays per week, which you then discuss with your supervisor.

Assessment

Assessments take place through examinations. It is possible to replace a small number of specific examinations with coursework. Prizes are awarded for the best work in each year.

You won't usually be able to resit any of your exams.

Year 1 (Part IA)

You take 2 compulsory papers:

Practical Criticism and Critical Practice

Shakespeare (assessed by a portfolio of essays submitted in Easter Term)

You also start work on 2 of the period papers, which will be examined in your second year.

Year 2 (Part IB)

You take one compulsory paper (English Literature and its Contexts 1300 to 1550) and a further 3 papers from the following list:

Early Medieval Literature and its Contexts 1066 to 1350

English Literature and its Contexts from:

1500 to 1700

1660 to 1870

1830 to 1945

1870 to Present.

One of these papers, except Early Medieval Literature and its Contexts 1066 to 1350, can be replaced by a dissertation.

Year 3 (Part II)

Practical Criticism and Critical Practice II

Tragedy, which ranges from ancient Greek drama to contemporary writing

You also write a compulsory dissertation of 6,000 to 7,500 words.

You will then either submit a second dissertation of 6,000 to 7,500 words and take one optional paper or choose 2 optional papers instead.

The optional papers change regularly. The following are examples of recent papers:

Medieval English Literature 1066 to 1500: The Medieval Supernatural

Material Renaissance

Prose Forms 1936 to 1956

The Ethical Imagination

American Literature

Literature of the Global South

History and Theory of Literary Criticism

Visual Culture

Contemporary Writing in English

Early Modern Drama 1588 to 1642

Special Period of English Literature 1847 to 72

Love, Gender, Sexuality 1740 to 1824

It may be possible for you to take papers from these undergraduate courses:

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic

Classics

Modern and Medieval Languages

For further information about this course and the papers you can take see the Faculty of English website.

Changing course

It’s really important to think carefully about which course you want to study before you apply.

In rare cases, it may be possible to change course once you’ve joined the University. You will usually have to get agreement from your College and the relevant departments. It’s not guaranteed that your course change will be approved.

You might also have to:

take part in an interview

complete an admissions test

produce some written work

achieve a particular grade in your current studies

do some catch-up work

start your new course from the beginning

For more information visit the Faculty website.

You can also apply to change to:

Management Studies at the Judge Business School

You can't apply to this course until you're at Cambridge. You would usually apply when you are in your second or third year of your original Cambridge course.

You should contact your College’s Admissions Office if you’re thinking of changing your course. They will be able to give you advice and explain how changing courses works.

Entry requirements

The entry requirements listed are for entry in 2027 or deferred entry in 2028. Check our guidance on choosing high school subjects.

Minimum offer level

A level: A*AA

IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level

Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept.

To apply to any of our Colleges for English, you will need:

A level/IB Higher Level (or the equivalent) in English Literature

A level (or the equivalent) in English Literature and Language

College entry requirements

The following Colleges usually set offers at the minimum offer level. They may sometimes ask for higher grades or an A* in a particular subject:

Emmanuel

Fitzwilliam

Gonville & Caius

Homerton

Hughes Hall

Magdalene

Murray Edwards

Pembroke

Peterhouse

Robinson

Sidney Sussex

St Catharine's

St Edmund's

St John's

Trinity Hall

The following Colleges set additional conditions for some or all offers. For example, they may make a higher offer or specify an A* in a particular subject. For more information check the College websites:

Christ’s

Churchill

Corpus Christi

Lucy Cavendish

Colleges set additional offer requirements for a range of reasons. If you'd like to find out more about why we do this, check the information about offers above the minimum requirement on the entry requirements page.

IB offers

Some Colleges usually make offers above the minimum offer level. Find out more on our qualifications page.

Admission assessment

There is no admissions assessment for this course for the majority of Cambridge Colleges. Check the College admissions assessments page for exceptions to this.

Submitted work

You will need to submit 2 pieces of written work.

What English students have studied

Most English students (who had studied A levels and started at Cambridge in 2018, 2019 and 2023) achieved at least A*A*A (68% of entrants).

Most had studied English Literature (97%).

Other common subjects were:

Drama & Theatre Studies

Government & Politics

languages

Mathematics

Psychology

Religious Studies

The majority of students who studied IB achieved at least 42 points overall.

This information shows some of the common subjects our applicants have studied. Although these are common subject combinations, this doesn't mean they're favoured.

When you're choosing your post-16 subjects, it's most important to check whether any subjects are required for your course. You can also check our guidance on choosing your high school subjects for more information.

All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries.

Next steps

Discover your department or faculty

Faculty of English

- Explore English in more detail on the faculty website.

Explore our Colleges

Find out how Colleges work

- A College is where you’ll live, eat and socialise. You may also have some small group teaching there, known as supervisions.ou everything you need to know about applying to study at Cambridge.

How to choose a Cambridge College that's right for you

- If you think you know which course you’d like to study, it’s time to choose a College.

Visit us on an open day

Book an open day

- Get a feel for the city and the University.

Find an event

- We offer a range of events where you can find out more about Cambridge, Colleges, and your course. Many of our events are online so you can join us virtually.

Find out how to apply

Find out how to apply and how our admissions processes work

- Our admissions process is slightly different to other universities. We’ve put together a handy guide to help you apply to Cambridge.

Improve your application

- Supercurricular activities are a great way to engage with your chosen subject outside of school or college.

Discover Uni

Discover Uni data

Contextual information

Discover Uni allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions. This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.

However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.

We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.

You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Discover Uni.

Discover Uni relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.

Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Discover Uni comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Discover Uni data.

Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes. When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Discover Uni offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://discoveruni.gov.uk/about-our-data/.

Discover Uni draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data. Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Discover Uni is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.

The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Discover Uni data.

Key information

UCAS code

Course length

BA (Hons) 3 years, full-time

Start date

October 2027

Study at

All Colleges

Applicant numbers

2025 cycle:

Applications per place: 3

Accepted: 192

Department website

www.english.cam.ac.uk

Contact email

outreach@english.cam.ac.uk

Contact telephone

Related courses

Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, BA (Hons)

Classics, BA (Hons)

Education, BA (Hons)

Linguistics, BA (Hons)

Modern and Medieval Languages, BA (Hons)

Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion, BA (Hons)

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