Best universities for English Lit

[Rollergirl11]

DD is in Year 12 taking 3 A-levels and doing an EPQ. Current predictions are 2 x A star and 1 A. She’s hopeful she can get the A to an A star.

What unis would you say have the best reputation? She knows that the courses differ wildly and she needs to investigate this. Just going by the league tables (that are all fairly different) the general consensus seems to be:

Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, UCL, Durham, York, Warwick, Lancaster and potentially Exeter.

We are in the south east so think the Scottish unis are too far so that discounts St Andrews. Also UCL too close and too expensive and DD doesn’t want to stay at home to study. Her college have her on their Oxbridge program and out of the two she favours Cambridge over Oxford for course content.

So far then she has a very loose list which is: Cambridge, Durham, York, Warwick, Lancaster and Exeter.

Are there any other obvious places she should be thinking about?

Just joining in as my son is at a similar stage. But no further suggestions as his long list is not dissimilar, although he is happy to consider London so has UCL and kings on his.

Hi, I am an English teacher.

Your list is good - those are the obvious ones. To broaden the net, have a look also at Birmingham (especially if she loves Shakespeare) and maybe Leeds.

Don't discount St Andrews before visiting. You may find you immediately fall in love with it.
Plenty of people come from the South.

I would add of your list ,some of those unis are high in league tables because of the actual uni - so very competitive entry and high calibre applicants. English is not necessarily their USP. Of the ones you list , the ones that have specifically got their very high standing because their English degrees are so highly regarded are York , Lancaster and Warwick .

I looked at all the modules for all those unis plus Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol recently. Many left me a bit cold, tbh.

Of all of those the one I personally got most excited about - and wised I could have my time again- was Birmingham. And I went to York!

Durham is very popular and many students thrive - but it's the only uni I keep hearing about state educated DCs dropping out of (don't know your background) - predominantly history, but also English.

DD is doing English at York, similar academic level to your DD. I believe the main factors that contributed to her choices were both course content and assessment styles. She preferred the look of the Oxford course to Cambridge so your daughter's course choices might be different. IIRC she wasn't keen, at least on paper, on either Exeter or Durham as she didn't want to be somewhere with "all the other private school kids" (I think quite a lot of her classmates were looking at Exeter...). Once she'd made her other choices (and worked out her priorities!) I asked if she'd checked what Durham's course was like and she ended up putting it down, then declining it before getting an offer as she just wanted to finalise her choices and was happy with offers she was easily going to meet.

Her EPQ led to reduced offers also.

Good luck to your daughter and I hope she ends up in a course that fits her interests well.

Thanks for the comments.

@Piggywaspushed your insights are really helpful, thank you. I also had a look at the other current English thread and took note on Leeds seemingly being a good option. DD likes a bit of a party also so not sure of Leeds would be good or bad for her! 🤷‍♀️😬 But she also really does like her Shakespeare so will get her to check out Birmingham.

@GrassWillBeGreener thank you. I hope you don’t mind if I pick your brains a little bust further down the line.

Hi DS is currently at UCL studying English, he loves it and is having a brilliant time and says the quality of teaching is just great and his contemporaries are challengingly but engagingly intelligent. He had concerns about studying in London having always lived in Wandsworth, and worried about the talk about it not offering the ‘true’ uni experience and there being no campus as such (there is btw). The offer holder day swayed him and he firmed it over York in the end (he wasn’t the best fan of the newly built accommodation at York - it was a bit motorway holiday inn and he didn’t appreciate the pressure to firm due accommodation opening in jan and on a first come first served basis - he really liked the sound of the course at York though). It’s worth considering that the minimum maintenance grant is around £2000 higher so accommodation works out about the same as elsewhere. His rent is is £8000 pa and is adjacent to Regent’s Park and a 7 min walk to lectures so no travel costs.

Good suggestions (it's my field) - it's a pity that she's ruled out Scottish universities - Edinburgh is excellent. Do consider also Leeds & Exeter.

She needs to dig into the websites of all these possibles and think about these things:
look at what the range of research is - will she be being taught by people actively doing research in areas she's interested in? In disciplines such as English (and History) the best departments will be highly rated in research & the teaching will be research-led (that's why it's a pity that UCL and Kings are ruled out).

What options and core (compulsory) modules are offered, and how do they relate to staff research? Optional modules won't always be available, because of variations in staff availability, but look at the indicative range of modules on offer in any one year.

Look at the ways she'll be taught & assessed. Some universities (eg Lancaster, Oxford, Cambridge) still use unseen 3 hour exams; other places use a wide range of assessment.

DD applying for entrance this year also has Leicester on her list. She loves the flexibility and breadth of modules and is torn between York and Leicester as her insurance if she doesn’t get a lower offer from Durham than the one she is holding from her top choice. She knows Leicester isn’t RG but the students she met on open day, sample lecture, student satisfaction, modules and housing are all drawing her in.

I'm trying to follow what you are saying... she is still waiting on an offer for Durham and has a very high offer as firm (so Oxbridge?)

Leicester would be an unusual choice for insurance for an Oxbridge firmer, to be frank. It ahs a decent reputation for English, but nowhere near that of York.

The York offer can't be that low either. Choosing firm ad insurance can be tough when your top offer is very high as it is hard to know how low to go.

Edinburgh is also fantastic and really not a lot further on than Durham and York. Bristol and UEA vg as well

Dd2, who is going to study Music, was v v tempted to switch to English at Birmingham after hearing their open day presentation.

My DD is in her first year at Cambridge studying English. She's absolutely loving it. First term was medieval (not really her thing but she still got a lot out of it), Renaissance last term and Shakespeare coming up for Term 3. Alongside all this there has been a Prac criticism module that has introduced a huge variety of texts, across the ages, into the mix. The selling point for her, as might be expected for Oxbridge I guess, is the close teaching approach- supervisions with only 2 students once a week, essays back the next day etc. I wouldn't say she's your typical Oxbridge genius but/ and she is thriving. Her insurance was York. This would have been a great choice as well. She also applied to Leeds, Sheffield and Warwick. All bar Warwick dropped a grade for EPQ - to AAB. It was v reassuring to know she could go somewhere strong with a B.

I don't actually think Edinburgh is that good for English, specifically. An opinion, backed up by league tables and student experiences.

@Piggywaspushed
Employers like Edinburgh. Few care what the reputation of the department is! (Just teachers and lecturers.) Employers mostly judge on what other skills the student has and they are honed just as well at Edinburgh as York! It’s not what you read, it’s what skills you gain from the course. What’s the difference between York and Edinburgh in that respect? Nothing I think.

CUG- York 6th. Edinburgh 11th. Surrey 7th. There’s a surprise!!

We have been asked for advice on English Lit and I gave it. Of course, Edinburgh is a good uni with an excellent reputation (which is a lot to do with cachet and not always substance tbh) - but so are many others which give a better student experience in the 3 or 4 years of study. I wouldn't commit to that extra year of study and al the implications of being RUK student unless it was absolutely the very very best opportunity.

I think the difference in rankings is even starker in the Good University Guide.

This 🤩

Yes, Edinburgh is 19th in the Times. (just above Bedfordshire!)

Do a bit of research into the department, not just the university. How is literature taught there? Has the department been hijacked by left-wing/woke nutcases? Or is literature still taught properly? Frankly, an intelligent young person, who is serious about literature, would be better off reading and re-reading the complete works of Harold Bloom. They'd learn far more than they will from some 'woke' bully.

Oxford English Lit!

Sorry, am in the middle of something so rushing but I looked at graduate prospects and most of the unis under discussion are relatively high (so into the 80s is pretty good for English).

I still don't think that should be the main reason for choosing a course but , for the record, those high calibre high tariff unis that don't make the 80s are:

Cambridge
Warwick
UCL
Glasgow
Exeter
Edinburgh
Leeds
Nottingham
Birmingham (bit of a surprise as uni overall employability rankings are generally very high)

Above 80:
Oxford
St Andrew's
Durham
York
Lancaster
Loughborough
Bristol

(All shown by order otherwise in Times league table)

It's just one criteria but one to consider for some.

Nutcases? Seriously?

UEA is supposed to be good for English - has churned out writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian McEwan

Yes, that's more for the MA in creative writing which is truly world leading.

Unfortunately, UEA is in a lot of financial trouble which may ultimately impact student experience. Hope not as it's a lovely university.