Journalism and English BA
3-4 years
The BA in Journalism and English offers you the best of old and new: a grounding in the cornerstones of English literature and the ability to reflect on the place of digital and social media in the 21st century media ecosystem and apply this knowledge to your future career.
Start date:
Course information
Typical offer BBB
UCAS code Q3P5
International fee £19,700
Institute code L34
Taught by English
Top 15 in the UK for Communication and Media Studies (Complete University Guide 2025)
Top 10 in the UK for English (Guardian League Table 2025)
Ranked in the top 20 for subjects aligned to Media and Communication for ‘overall positivity’ in the NSS 2024 (according to Times Higher Education NSS 2023 methodology applied to the NSS 2024 data).
Course description
Course description
There’s a natural and well-established connection between Journalism and English and this course allows you to study both subject areas equally in a complementary experience, developing a critical understanding of the key concepts, theories and debates around both Journalism and English.
You'll enjoy the best of old and new: a grounding in the cornerstones of English literature and the ability to reflect on the place of digital and social media in the 21st century media ecosystem and apply this knowledge to your future career.
You'll develop and demonstrate a range of transferable skills necessary for successful career development and a lifetime of effective independent learning. You’ll fine-tune your independent thinking, analytical problem-solving and critical judgement. You’ll learn how to carry out independent research; to access and assess information, to communicate clearly and effectively, and to present findings in a professional manner.
In your first year, you’ll learn the basic skills of journalism across various platforms, helping you to develop the key professional skills utilised by journalists. You'll develop crucial English skills and be introduced to key concepts, genres and texts as you explore the richness of literature.
In your second year, you'll use your developing journalism skills on digital and broadcasting platforms. You’ll also choose optional English modules in order to focus on texts and periods of literature that interest you, and explore your careers options.
In your third year you can study either a Journalism or English dissertation. You'll also use all your knowledge and journalism skills in a final group project, developing a website on a subject of your choice. And they'll be an extensive range of optional modules to choose from, led by staff who are specialists in their field.
The Journalism team have all worked in the industry. They've been involved in television, newspapers, radio, social media and PR. Among our teachers we have specialists in sports, political, environment and television journalism.
Our English teaching staff are leading researchers in a large number of different fields, from Caribbean literature to writing on medicine, and from the Renaissance period to the present day. Particularly strong areas of expertise include early modern literature, the Victorian period, the twentieth century, and creative writing.
Entry requirements
Entry requirements
- A-levels: BBB at A-level including English (Language, Literature or combined).
- EPQ with A-levels: BBC at A-level including English (Language, Literature or combined) + EPQ at grade B
- Access to HE Diploma: Pass relevant diploma with a minimum of 45 credits at level 3, 24 of which must be at distinction. To include 12 credits at Distinction in English Level 3 Modules
- International Baccalaureate: Pass Diploma with 28 points, including 6 in Higher Level English
- BTEC Nationals: Pass Diploma with DDM. Plus grade B in A-level English (Language, Literature or combined)
Other official national and international qualifications considered from across the world. You can review some of the qualifications we accept on our countries page and English Language equivalencies.
If your qualification or country is not listed, please contact us for more information, including the name and result of the qualification you have studied.
Second Year Entry may be possible with suitable qualifications.
Contextual offers
The University of Leicester is committed to providing equitable opportunities for all applicants from all backgrounds. We make contextual offers to support students who may be impacted by the area they live in, their personal circumstances or who have completed one of our progression programmes. These offers are usually one or two grades lower than the standard entry requirements. To qualify for a contextual offer, you must apply for an eligible course and meet specific criteria – check if you’re eligible.
Selection Process
When considering your application, we will look for evidence that you will be able to fulfil the objectives of the course and achieve the standards required. We will take into account a range of factors including previous exam results.
Applicants are not normally interviewed. If you receive an offer you will be invited to visit the department.
English Language Requirements
IELTS 6.5 or equivalent. If your first language is not English, you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. If you do not yet meet our requirements, our English Language Teaching Unit (ELTU) offers a range of courses to help you to improve your English to the necessary standard.
International Qualifications
Find your country in this list to check equivalent qualifications, scholarships and additional requirements.
Countries ListFees and funding
Fees and funding
UK Students
Starting in 2025
Tuition fees for 2025/26 are yet to be confirmed. As an indication of what you might pay, the fees for students who started in 2024/25 were:
- £9,250 in your first year. Tuition fees are subject to government regulations and may change in future years
- Year Abroad: your fee will be £1,385 for that year
- Year in Industry: your fee will be £1,850 for that year
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
International Students
Starting in 2025
- £19,700 per year
- Year Abroad: your fee will be £4,925 for that year, which is 25% of the full-time tuition fee
- Year in Industry: your fee will be £2,955, which is 15% of the full-time tuition fee
If you are resident outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland, you will need to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure your place. This will be subtracted from your total tuition fee.
If you are an EU national with settled or pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme, you may qualify for the UK fee (subject to criteria).
Find out more about scholarships and funding.
Careers and employability
Careers and employability
Careers and employability support is embedded in our degrees. We offer optional employability and placement modules as part of our curriculum – options may include Journalism Placement, Community Radio in Practice and English and Education, which centres around a 10-week placement in a school.
We organise external speaker events, industry visit days, career development training and other initiatives in collaboration with local and national media organisations, giving you valuable insights into the professional media world.
Many of our Journalism students work in in the communications industries, which includes journalism, digital publishing, public relations, marketing, corporate communications and copy-writing.
Previous English graduates now work in a variety of roles, including:
- Head of Marketing
- Headteacher
- Reporter
- Author
- Social worker
- Archivist
(Alumni Centenary Census, 2022)
Our Careers and Employability Service is here to support you, with advice on interviews, CVs, work experience, volunteering and more. From Freshers’ Week to Graduation and beyond, they are here to help you reach your professional goals.
Course structure
Year 1
Year 1
Core modules are likely to include:
- News Basics
- Journalism Ethics and Regulation
- The Novel Around the World
- Features Journalism
- Radio Journalism
- Renaissance Drama
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Year 2 (English pathway)
Year 2 (English pathway)
Core modules are likely to include:
- Digital and Social Media Journalism: Context and Practice
- Critical Perspectives 1
- Critical Perspectives 2
Option modules are likely to include:
- Gothic
- Using Stories
- Diversity in Contemporary American Literature
- Chaucer’s Worlds
- English and Education
- Diversifying Publishing and the Literature Industry
- Advanced Creative Writing Skills
- English and Arts Journalism
- Magazine Journalism
- Journalism Perspectives
- Data Journalism
- Journalism Studies
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Year 2 (Journalism pathway)
Year 2 (Journalism pathway)
Core modules are likely to include:
- Digital and Social Media Journalism: Context and Practice
- Critical Perspectives 1
- Media Research in Practice
- Critical Perspectives 2
Option modules are likely to include:
- Gothic
- Using Stories
- Diversity in Contemporary American Literature
- Chaucer’s Worlds
- English and Education
- Diversifying Publishing and the Literature Industry
- Advanced Creative Writing Skills
- English and Arts Journalism
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Year Abroad or Year in Industry (optional)
Year Abroad or Year in Industry (optional)
Year Abroad
We’ll make sure you have everything you need for your future career: not just by awarding you a high quality degree, but also by helping you to develop the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to make your mark in the world as a Citizen of Change. One way you can do this is by opting to take a Year Abroad between Years 2 and 3 of your degree.
Studying abroad is not just for people who are interested in travelling and meeting new people. It is about acquiring life skills that are becoming increasingly significant for a wide range of jobs in our modern globalised society. Whether you go on to a career in the private, public or third sector - or plough your own furrow as an entrepreneur – you will find the experience invaluable.
For more information, including a list of destinations, please visit our Study Abroad website.
Please note
- A year spent abroad still incurs a tuition fee, but this is much lower than for a normal year at Leicester. See the 'fees and funding' tab of this page for details.
- You may be eligible for a travel grant from Student Finance England.
- Places are offered on a competitive basis, and eligibility is dependent on your academic performance in Years 1 and 2.
- Language courses, at beginners or advanced level, are available through our Languages at Leicester scheme.
Year in Industry
If you choose a 'with Industry’ degree you will spend a year on a placement with a sponsoring company between your second and third years at Leicester. You will undertake a programme of training and practical experience that is agreed between the sponsoring company and the University.
A member of staff will be individually assigned to you as your industrial placement tutor, who will be in contact with you throughout your placement and will visit the sponsoring company. During the year you will return to Leicester to present details of your placement to other students studying for 'with Industry' degrees.
A Year in Industry is a great opportunity which can give you first-hand experience of working in a related field while also enhancing your employability skills and allowing you to network with people in industry.
A Year in Industry still incurs a tuition fee, but this is much lower than for a normal year at Leicester. See the 'fees and funding' tab of this page for details.
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Final Year (English pathway)
Final Year (English pathway)
Core modules are likely to include:
Option modules are likely to include:
- Journalism Placement
- Investigative Journalism
- Freelance and Entrepreneurial Journalism
- Crime Journalism
- Environmental Journalism
- Reporting Panics
- Media, Rights and Responsibilities
- Renaissance Literature from Utopia to Paradise Lost
- Victorians: from Oliver Twist to The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Political Journalism
- Space Journalism
- Verifying Journalism
- Writing for PR
Plus your Dissertation (English)
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Final Year (Journalism pathway)
Final Year (Journalism pathway)
Core modules are likely to include:
Option modules are likely to include:
- Renaissance Literature from Utopia to Paradise Lost
- Victorians: from Oliver Twist to The Picture of Dorian Gray
- The Latin World: Ancient, Medieval and Modern
- Weird Fiction/ Weird Film
- Writing Prose Fiction
- The Other in American Fiction and Film
- Late Victorian Gothic: Texts and Contexts
- Jane Austen: The Novels, their Contexts and their Adaptations
- Modern European Fiction
Plus your Journalism Dissertation
Modules shown represent choices available to current students. The range of modules available and the content of any individual module may change in future years.
Why Leicester
All our teaching is research-inspired and informed by real-world practices and challenges. The School of Arts placed 11th in the UK for our overall research quality by The Times Higher Education (REF21).
Top 10 in the UK for English and Creative Writing (Complete University Guide, 2024).
We have one of the longest established continually published student newspapers in the UK, as well as student radio and TV stations. All are a great way to gain valuable experience.
The David Wilson Library has extensive collections of rare books and manuscripts plus the personal archives of two local giants of 20th century writing: Joe Orton and Sue Townsend.
Teaching and learning
For your English modules, you will typically have two seminars and one or two lectures every week. For your Journalism modules, you will typically be taught in workshops – an average of two per week. Practical Journalism modules are taught in our purpose-designed Mac labs, where you'll have all the technology you need at your fingertips.
Lectures are designed to introduce you to important background information for understanding a topic, text, theme, or author. Weekly seminars, in which a tutor leads a small group of students in discussion, will allow you to explore a topic in greater depth, developing your own responses in active conversation with your tutor and peers.
Alongside these will be several additional sessions, such as workshops on research and study skills, learning groups, introduced film screenings, and scheduled personal tutor meetings.
For your third-year dissertation you receive one-to-one tuition across the term from a tutor with expertise in your chosen subject.
You will be assessed in several ways, in order to reflect the number of different skills you will acquire, including essays, group-work projects, oral presentations, reviews, portfolios, and exams. These assessments are designed to help you build confidence in a range of areas and to provide prospective employers with evidence that you can work effectively both as an independent researcher and as a team member. Your final degree result will be based on the work you do in the second and third years of your degree.
You will have regular meetings with your personal tutor to discuss progress in your studies. Your personal tutor will also provide a sympathetic ear for all matters of personal concern, whether academic, financial, housing, career, or social. Our pastoral care system is first-rate, and feedback and participation are encouraged through the Student-Staff Committee, where lecturers and student representatives from all years meet to discuss the issues that affect you.
Independent learning
When not attending lectures, seminars or other timetabled sessions you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. Typically, this will involve reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for exams. To help with your independent learning, you can access the Library and our social study spaces in halls of residence.
Your contact hours will depend on the option modules you select. You can see details of the contact hours on individual module pages.
Academic support
Our Centre for Academic Achievement provides help in the following areas:
- study and exam skills
- academic writing
- presentations
- dissertations
- numerical data skills
- referencing sources
Our AccessAbility Centre offers support and practical help for students with dyslexia or other specific learning difficulties, including physical, mental health or mobility difficulties, deafness, or visual impairment.
Teaching staff
You will be taught by an experienced teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. PhD research students who have undertaken teacher training may also contribute to the teaching of seminars under the supervision of the module leader. Our teaching is informed by the research we do. You can learn more about our staff by visiting our staff profiles.
Apply now
| Course | Qualification | Duration | Attendance | UCAS Code | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course Journalism and English | Qualification BA | Duration 3 years, full-time | Attendance Full-time | UCAS Code Q3P5 | Availability How to apply |
| Course Journalism and English with a Year Abroad | Qualification BA | Duration 4 years, full-time | Attendance Full-time | UCAS Code Q3P5 | Availability How to apply |
| Course Journalism and English with a Year in Industry | Qualification BA | Duration 4 years, full-time | Attendance Full-time | UCAS Code Q3P5 | Availability How to apply |
