BA Film Studies and English Language

Our BA Film Studies and English Language course will enable you to study film from a range of historical and theoretical perspectives while delving into the unique human faculty of language - an everyday phenomenon which impacts our lives on an individual and a global scale.

You will learn through taught units and screenings that focus on both classical and contemporary films, covering a wide range of film cultures from around the world.

You will study both mainstream and non-mainstream films to broaden your understanding of the history of film, as well as the debates and issues that are informing and generated by current practice in film and shaping its future.

You will also develop an understanding of how film engages with socio-cultural and political concerns, placing the films you study in their historical context, as well as thinking about current debates and future challenges for cinema as a medium.

The course emphasises historical and theoretical approaches to studying film rather than practical production, encouraging you to develop as an independent critical thinker able to work in a diverse range of assessment scenarios, taking in solo written assignments, presentations and, on certain units, group work and creative projects that enable you to put theory into practice.

Through your English Language units, you will explore the history of the English language and the variation between English dialects in the UK and further afield. 

You will acquire the skills required for analytical language study alongside the means to apply those skills to the study of historical and present-day English. 

In addition, you will practise key transferable skills, such as essay writing and how to give a presentation.

Placement year option

Apply your subject-specific knowledge in a real-world context through a placement year in your third year of study, enabling you to enhance your employment prospects, clarify your career goals and build your external networks.

Study abroad

You may apply to spend one semester studying abroad during Year 2. Exchange partners are offered in Sweden, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Get involved with interesting projects

Our students are encouraged to take an active role in funded teaching-enhancement projects, whose outputs benefit them individually and collectively.

For example, some of our students have developed an online atlas of dialect variation in the UK and storyboards for the use in fieldwork.

Connect with like-minded students

Join The University of Manchester Filmmaking Society, which exists to provide a platform for aspiring filmmakers attending the university to meet, exchange ideas and create their own cinematic productions.

Join The University of Manchester Drama Society, which is for anyone with an interest in drama, be that acting, directing, writing, filmmaking, costume, set building, stage managing or just watching.

One of the largest in the Student Union, the society has links with many of Manchester's award-winning theatrical venues, including the Contact Theatre and the Royal Exchange Theatre. Each summer the society showcases at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

You will learn through lectures, seminars, tutorials, and practical group projects.

There's emphasis on attending film screenings, which are compulsory and designed to enable you to better understand the distinctive qualities of film as a medium.

There's also emphasis on close analysis which is designed to enable you to learn to interpret films and their discursive surround, including relevant paratexts (e.g. promotional material such as trailers and posters).

In English Language, you'll be taught through a mixture of formal lectures, tutorials and one-to-one supervision.

You will spend approximately 12 hours a week in formal study sessions.

For every hour spent at university, you will be expected to complete a further two to three hours of independent study.

You will also need to study during the holiday periods.

In Film Studies, assessment includes:

• essays
• seminar presentations and participation
• exams
• practical work.

In English Language, assessment includes:

• written examinations
• oral presentations
• different types of coursework.

Coursework may include library research, linguistic fieldwork and data collection, or web-based research.

Many course units are assessed through a mixture of techniques.

In your final year, you can choose to write a dissertation.

Study with us and you'll have exclusive access to award-winning learning resources, including some of the city's key cultural assets such as John Rylands Library, Manchester Museum and the Whitworth.

For Film Studies, the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama is a purpose-built creative facility that includes a flexible, fully equipped performance space, workshops, rehearsal rooms and screening rooms, as well as the Lenagan Library - our dedicated performing arts library.

For English Language, you will be able to access various resources to enhance your learning, including an extensive collection of linguistics texts and our psycholinguistics and phonetics laboratories, with facilities for:

• signal analysis
• speech synthesis
• laryngography
• electropalatography.

Find out more on the Facilities pages for Drama and English Language .