Insight sought on studying English Literature

[Knittedanimal]

DD in y12. EngLit is her favourite subject, which she's doing alongside maths, further maths and psychology. She's predicted all A*s.
We went to Warwick open day and she loved the course but not keen on the campus and wants a 'proper' university (I think she means old) i think she'll try for Oxford but we need a bsck up plan too. What experience do people have of difference in courses/unis please?

@foxglovetree apologies! Should have read the whole thread. Thanks for posting.

@clary thanks, not sure how I missed it!

You can do any of the many graduate jobs that requires a degree – no specific degree.
Or you could look at:

• Publishing
• Marketing
• PR and comms
• HR
• Civil service
• NHS admin
• Librarianship

Those are just off the top of my head. It's no more or less useful than many other degrees tbh. A post-grad qualification might be useful for some of the above (publishing for example) and other roles too.

And yes see @foxglovetree's linked report

My DD is doing English lit at Birmingham. It’s been fantastic and she’s so pleased she chose it. She and nearly all her friends from her course are doing a year abroad (seems to be a big thing at Birmingham), she is in US and her friends are all over the place - Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Australia etc.
In terms of future employment she has secured quite a few internships through the uni including one at HSBC where she worked on a project on how to attract more humanities students.
it’s a lovely “old style” campus, she goes into the city regularly - clubbing or to markets- and lives in Selly Oak which is on doorstep of campus and cheaper then housing of her friends in Bristol /Bath and of course London

DS is at UCL doing English Lit and loves it. He says it has a great campus feel but is spread across the centre of the city (Bloomsbury) and so has the best of all worlds.

I find it odd that people think English Lit should be vocational in some way. Like History it deals with analysis which is transferrable into many different professions. Working in a library doesn't require English lit it requires some kind of post-graduate study in librarianship.

I know a ton of successful TV executives, talent and writers agents who studied English lit, theatre producers, directors, literary managers etc.

Also others who took law conversion after a humanities degree and who are barristers working on really challenging, high profile cases.

If you want to take Food science at Oxford Brookes, you will be headed towards a catering life of some nature, if you take an English Literature degree, you actually have a world of options.

St Andrews offer English and Maths too joint honours. However definitely not as accessible as Glasgow from south of UK.

I agree with what you say for sure – many options for an Eng lit graduate.

I did say that some of the possible roles I mentioned might need further study – a master's in publishing for example - but then teaching needs a PGCE. I just think Eng lit is a good prep for being a librarian – no, not essential.

And you can work in a library without a post-grad qual - my DD does. She's not on any kind of high-flying grad scheme tho (for a number of good reasons). She loves books - hence her degree choice I guess. Tho funnily enough after 2+ years she has decided this year to start her master's.

I am less interested in librarianship than rebutting the pigeon-holing of humanities degrees, I was not attempting to contradict you specifically or undermine your connection to librarians. My MIL was a librarian and she definitely didn't have an English Lit degree.

Me too. I did literature at Greenwich. You don’t have to take a Shakespeare elective.

So when you read all the modern texts that reference, quote and allude to Shakespeare you just miss that? what a travesty.

Not at all. I did Shakespeare at A level

I think there is just as strong an assumption that STEM degrees are vocational, but most people who study Physics don’t become Physicists. Even for Law students, around 2/3 of them don’t become lawyers, and many other people do become lawyers via the law conversion having done other subjects earlier.

For the vast majority of people who take academic degrees, it isn’t training for a specific profession, it gives you transferable thinking skills which you can then use to enter all kinds of sectors. Obviously some routes are more “natural” than others (English graduates are probably more likely to go into publishing than Physics graduates are) but none of them are a set path.

Agreed. Also why I cited "Food science" at Oxford Brookes because that is genuinely a vocational program.

well that's a relief.

Ok no worries @KittyMacNittyi apologise. Thought the librarianship was aimed at me bc I mentioned it. For sure Eng lit not required. In fact it’s not required for any job except teaching. I’ve been a journalist and didn’t do English lit. I think it’s a great degree tho with excellent skills needed.

🤣🤣 Yes, I’m very familiar with the texts x

I know it’s not what you’re looking for, but ds’s girlfriend is doing English at Kent. The course is so interesting I want to do it!

I'm an English lit lecturer. One of the questions we get asked most at Open Days is, 'do we have to do Shakespeare?' - which is obviously not the attitude you'd choose, but I think does suggest lots of students are put off by the Shakespeare experience at school.

DD's experience is that the things she hated most at GCSE (poetry and Shakespeare almost put her off doing English Lit A Level at all) are some of the things she now most likes. Fortunately she opted for a degree that covered a breadth of different material in the first year so she was able to discover this.

Kent has never managed to raise its profile particularly high for English Lit. I don't know why.

It was in the early 90s - but that is a long time ago (before we all obsessed about the Russell Group...)

It's not required to be an English teacher either these days. Sign of the times...

Oh yes @Piggywaspushed sadly true

I studied Eng Lit many years ago too. I still think it's an under valued degree unfortunately.
I'd be happy for the breadth of potential careers and specialisms to be better perceived.
Since my previous comment, DD tells me Sheffield are proposing something like a 40% cut in Humanities staff as a cost cutting exercise and possibly closing Chemistry altogether in the future. Strikes loom.