BA Music and Drama

The Department of Music will provide first-year bursaries to support undergraduate students who have demonstrated exceptional levels of achievement in their instrumental and/or vocal studies. These £1000 bursaries will be awarded in the first year of study (2024/25 academic year), paid direct to students in two instalments.

More information, including eligibility criteria, can be found here.

The Extended Dissertation is an independent research project, carried out via desk-based research or with practice, that focuses on an aspect of drama relevant to your degree and in which you have a particular interest. It is an opportunity to conceive, plan, manage and realise an independent research project, under supervision, and it will develop your planning, project management, research and writing skills. The Extended Dissertation is your own work and will express your own views, analyses and enthusiasms, and the end result comprises your unique contribution to Drama as a discipline. Students take part in one-to-one supervisions and complementary research training workshops throughout the academic year. Supervisors help students to define their topic and keep an eye on whether the project is within a student’s ability to complete in the timeframe and permitted word limit. Research training workshops focus on skills in planning and managing research, supervision, research proposals, research methods, research ethics, and writing up research. Students hoping to complete an Extended Dissertation must submit a proposal in their second year of study. Completion of an Extended Dissertation is subject to approval of that proposal by Drama staff.

• To provide students with an opportunity to undertake independent research under individual supervision in an area of Drama in consultation with a member of staff
• To provide students with an opportunity to write in-depth and at length on an aspect of drama based in their own interests and degree programme
• To provide students with an opportunity to formulate their own distinctive research question/s
• To build on, and develop, students’ competencies in independent study, research and critical thinking including;
  • skills in defining, undertaking and completing a project;
  • assessment, evaluation and deployment in their own work of critical material on their chosen topic; writing skills appropriate to the demands of an extended piece of professional research.

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a specific field of enquiry in Drama
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of a specific research methods and analytical approaches in Drama appropriate to their field of enquiry 

• Demonstrate an independent ability to formulate a suitable research topic based on her/his own interests and degree programme
• Demonstrate an ability to assimilate, synthesis and appropriately deploy critical material on that topic
• Demonstrate the formal and intellectual skills requisite to the production of an extended piece of written research
• Demonstrate an ability to undertake and complete an extended research project, including evaluation of a wide range of material and ability to engage critically with that material, and ability to formulate a sustained argument in response to a topic
• Recognise the limits of knowledge, and its influence on analysis and interpretations, and to use this to develop sustained responses to materials as well as identify areas for on-going learning

• Demonstrate an ability to define, structure, develop and manage a substantial project within a set period of time
• Identify and apply a research method appropriate to the topic
  work both independently and with a supervisor
• Organise and carry out to completion a practical research project (Dissertation by practice)
• Communicate ideas and articulate an argument through discussion and assessed written work

• Demonstrate an advanced ability to self-manage learning – to ask questions independently, identify relevant research material, take initiative, make decisions, and develop independent and sustained responses to complex problems
• Demonstrate an advanced ability to present the sustained arguments effectively in written and oral form
• Demonstrate tenacity and resourcefulness in locating and analysing materials useful to developing a research project

Students follow a course of reading appropriate to their independent research projects.