BA Drama and English Literature

Use the links below to view lists of courses in related subject areas.

• Drama

AAB including A in English Literature or English Language and Literature.

Practical skills are a crucial part of science education and therefore will be a requirement to pass the practical element of any science A Level taken.

Applicants taking A Levels are normally expected to offer three full A Levels. If you’re taking more than three A Levels, these won’t be included in your offer. We will only make offers consisting of three A Levels.

Please check for specific GCSE/IGCSE subject entry requirements below

ABC including A in English Literature or English Language and Literature.

Practical skills are a crucial part of science education and therefore will be a requirement to pass the practical element of any science A Level taken.

Applicants taking A Levels are normally expected to offer three full A Levels. If you’re taking more than three A Levels, these won’t be included in your offer. We will only make offers consisting of three A Levels.

Please check for specific GCSE/IGCSE subject entry requirements below

Contextual offers are available for applicants who:

• live in the UK and will be under the age of 21 on 1 September of the year they will start their course; and
• live in an area of disadvantage or with low progression into higher education; and
• have attended a UK school or college for their GCSEs or A-levels (or equivalent qualifications) that has performed below the national average over multiple years.

See our contextual admissions page for full details and to check your eligibility.

ACC including A in English Literature or English Language and Literature.

Practical skills are a crucial part of science education and therefore will be a requirement to pass the practical element of any science A Level taken.

Applicants taking A Levels are normally expected to offer three full A Levels. If you’re taking more than three A Levels, these won’t be included in your offer. We will only make offers consisting of three A Levels.

Please check for specific GCSE/IGCSE subject entry requirements below

UK refugee/care-experienced offers are available for applicants who:

• have been looked after in care for more than three months; or
• have been granted refugee status by the UK government or have been issued a UK visa under one of the Ukrainian schemes (Homes for Ukraine, Ukraine Family Scheme or Ukraine Extension Scheme).

See our contextual admissions page for full details and to check your eligibility.

35 points overall. 6,6,5 in Higher Level subjects including English Literature or English Language and Literature.

Applicants studying the International Baccalaureate Career Related Programme (IBCP) should contact the admissions team prior to applying so that their academic profile can be considered.

Applicants must demonstrate a broad general education including acceptable levels of Literacy and Numeracy, equivalent to at least Grade 6 or B in GCSE/IGCSE English Language and Grade 4 or C in Mathematics. GCSE/IGCSE English Literature will not be accepted in lieu of GCSE/IGCSE English Language.

Please note that if you hold English as a second language IGCSE qualification, we may also require you to offer one of  our acceptable equivalent English Language qualifications  or achieve a higher grade in your IGCSE than the one stated above. Please contact the admissions team in your academic School/Department for clarification.

All applicants to the University (from the UK and Overseas) are required to show evidence of English Language proficiency. The minimum English Language requirement for this course is either:

GCSE/IGCSE English Language grade B/6, or;

IELTS 7.0 overall with 6.5 in each sub-test, or;

An acceptable equivalent qualification.

Please note that if you hold English as a second language IGCSE qualification, we may also require you to offer one of  our acceptable equivalent English Language qualifications  or achieve a higher grade in your IGCSE than the one stated above. Please contact the academic School for clarification.

If you need to improve your English language skills to meet the entry requirements for your academic course, the University Centre for Academic English (UCAE) summer pre-sessional courses can help. Check if your academic course offers the option of taking a pre-sessional course on the UCAE page .

The UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) requires that every student requiring a visa to study in the UK must show evidence of a minimum level of English Language (common European Framework (CEFR B2 level) to be granted a Student Route visa (previously known as a Tier 4 visa) to study at undergraduate or postgraduate level.

In addition, our academic Schools/Departments may require applicants to demonstrate English proficiency above the B2 level. Further information about our English Language policy, including a list of some of the English Language qualifications we accept, can be found  here .

Fees for entry in 2026 have not yet been set. For entry in 2025 the tuition fees were £9,535 per annum for home students, and are expected to increase slightly for 2026 entry.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

• Find out more from student finance
• Eligible UK students can apply for bursaries and scholarships
• Funding for EU and international students is on our country-specific pages
• Many students work part-time or complete a student internship

We welcome applications from a wide range of entry routes, including mature students and overseas applicants.

Every application that meets the entry requirement is considered on an equal basis and each application is evaluated by two members of staff before a decision is made.  

The admissions process runs as follows: the first stage will involve checking predicted/achieved grades and, if these are satisfactory, applicants will proceed to stage two, which is an invitation to interview.  After interview, the Admissions Tutor will decide whether a place will be offered.

If you are offered an interview, it will normally run for 20 minutes and will be a one-to-one discussion with a member of the Drama lecturing team.  It is our aim that the interview should be a relaxed but informed conversation - we are not seeking to set traps and trick questions for you!  However, we are keen to determine your ability to discuss and think about drama critically as well as wanting to gauge whether you will thrive on the kind of modules, approaches and experiences that studying Drama at Manchester entails. 

We welcome applications from candidates who intend to defer entry.

If offered an interview, we might ask you about your plans for deferral and how the year out might feed into your future studies or provide you with experiences that you might be able to draw on during a Drama-related degree.

We do ask applicants to let us know as early as possible if they are intending to defer.  This helps us to adjust the number of offers we make, in order to achieve the required number of students in a given year.

We welcome applications from candidates transferring from other institutions. Each application will be considered on merit, providing we have enough places to accommodate them.  Enquiries should be made to the admissions administrator for the subject (see contact details).  We will require transcripts and a reference from your tutor.

Students who wish to continue the study of literary forms other than Drama might consider this joint course, where you can have a choice of studying the two subjects together in a variety of flexible permutations.

You may therefore take Drama as your 'major' subject (up to 80 credits in any one year) with English as your 'minor' subject (40 credits), or vice versa, or you may study the two subjects equally (60/60 credits).

Joint Honours students who are not majoring in Drama still have the same access to practical courses as single honours students.

It should also be noted that, should you wish to do a PGCE secondary course in English and Drama after your degree, you may have trouble if you have done an 80/40 degree with Drama as the major subject.

This is because some institutions (but by no means all) will only take students who have completed 50% of their studies in English.

Study core units in the theory and practice of drama, as well as exploring key topics in English literary and cultural studies, covering poetry, prose, drama, and popular culture.

Select from optional units in both fields, from literature and history to concepts in film and new media.

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

Explore drama practitioners in their historical, cultural, and political context from the birth of modernism to the present day.

Weight your studies according to your interests with optional course units ranging from Shakespeare to gender studies.

Opt to develop practical skills in writing for performance or another creative discipline.

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.

Continue to weight your studies according to specific fields of interest.

Specialise in areas such as poetry, modern literature, Old and Middle English, applied theatre, directing, or playwriting.

Research and write your dissertation or extended dissertation in Drama or long essay in English.

The course unit details given below are subject to change, and are the latest example of the curriculum available on this course of study.