Creative Writing

Entry requirements

MPhil: An upper second-class degree or international equivalent. Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of your readiness to pursue a research degree.

PhD: A master's qualification, or be working towards a master's qualification, or international equivalent. Applicants without a master's qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree (or international equivalent). Applicants with a non-traditional background may be considered provided they can demonstrate substantial equivalent and relevant experience that has prepared them to undertake their proposed course of study.

See international equivalent qualifications on the International Office website.

Months of entry

January, September

Course content

A PhD in English with Creative Writing consists of an original body of work - normally a novel, or a collection of poetry/short stories - with an accompanying critical element. The critical element will place the creative work in an informed and theorised analytical context.

The total assessed word count will be 80,000 words (or equivalent for poetry). The proportion of the creative to the critical work will be agreed by the supervisory team, but will usually consist of 50,000 words (or equivalent for poetry) of creative text and 30,000 words of critical text.

All PhD students are supervised by two academics, one of whom will normally be a creative writing academic and the other from English literature or a related discipline relevant to the creative and critical work. As with the traditional PhD, the final submission will be expected to make ‘a substantial and original contribution to knowledge’. For the Creative Writing PhD, this means a body of work that contributes in individual, significant and demonstrable ways to current discourses in literature.

The relation to such discourses will be articulated in the creative work and conceptualised and explored in the critical element; both are intended to address the same research questions, generating dynamic interplay between creative and critical practice.

Fees and funding