Literatures, Environments and Places

Entry requirements

Our minimum entry requirement for this programme is a degree at 2:2 (lower second class) UK Honours level (or a degree from a non-UK institution which is judged by the University to be of equivalent worth), in English Literature or a relevant cognate discipline in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

Explore literature’s relationship with place and environment at an ancient university, home to a collection of literary treasures spanning over 500 years. Delivered by experts in English literary studies, the programme provides you with practical and theoretical knowledge drawn from a wide range of critical and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Discover how aspects of place and environment are shaped and expressed in literature across a spectrum of literary periods and styles. You will examine the way literature conveys the ideology of place, covering a selection of relevant issues including environmental crises; the intersection between heritage, memory and location; and questions of cosmopolitanism, travel, and home.

Through core and optional courses, you will address the ways literature reacts to and depicts environmental and ecological crises, the intersections between heritage, memory, literature, and location, and questions of cosmopolitanism, travel, and home across diverse time periods and genres. The programme intends to broaden your academic knowledge of English Literature with the option to focus on specific literary movements to pursue your own interests. There are fantastic opportunities to work with scholars who have significant international research profiles in an exciting and developing area of literary studies.

Research training involves the acquisition of practical skills and specialised knowledge and understanding of literary periods and critical issues that will be directly relevant to each candidate's proposed field of research. The programme will take advantage of the unique setting of the University of Aberdeen and enable students to explore the connection between literature, landscape and built environment through course-work and field trips. You can take this degree as a standalone one-year or two-year part-time Masters degree, or as a first step towards an MPhil or PhD (subject to admission to a further degree programme either at Aberdeen or elsewhere).

The programme offers exciting opportunities to pursue careers in education, journalism, public and third sectors. You will also benefit from the support and mentoring from academic staff, providing a strong basis for undertaking doctoral research in English Literature.

Information for international students

English Language Requirements

To study for a Postgraduate Taught degree at the University of Aberdeen it is essential that you can speak, understand, read, and write English fluently. The minimum requirements for this degree are as follows:

IELTS Academic:

OVERALL - 6.5 with: Listening - 5.5; Reading - 6.0; Speaking - 5.5; Writing - 6.0

TOEFL iBT:

OVERALL - 90 with: Listening - 17; Reading - 21; Speaking - 20; Writing - 21

PTE Academic:

OVERALL - 62 with: Listening - 59; Reading - 59; Speaking - 59; Writing - 59

Cambridge English B2 First, C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency:

OVERALL - 176 with: Listening - 162; Reading - 169; Speaking - 162; Writing - 169

Fees and funding

We are pleased to offer a range of scholarships and funding opportunities for our students. A full list of available funding opportunities is available on our Funding Database.

Aberdeen Global Scholarship - Eligible self-funded Postgraduate Taught (PGT) students will receive the Aberdeen Global Scholarship. Eligibility details and further information are available here.

Alumni Discount Scheme - We are pleased to offer a 20% discount for postgraduate tuition fees to all alumni who have an undergraduate degree from the University of Aberdeen. Please note, the Aberdeen Alumni Discount cannot be claimed in conjunction with any other scholarship award. Learn more about the Aberdeen Alumni Discount here.