Undergraduate study
Drama with English
The study of Drama with English at Loughborough is designed to be both wide-ranging and flexible, providing students with a breadth of opportunity and challenge in both subject areas. The first year of the programme on the Drama side introduces students to several inter-related strands: performance, textual study, performance theory, critical theory and theatre history in English, modules in Language, Poetry, and Approaches to Literature are studied by everyone. In addition, students are able to select from a number of other optional modules in both subject areas. This foundational work provides the basis on which students then go on to specialise in their second and third years, by selecting from a wide range of modules that extend and develop these different strands. At this next stage, there are no set pathways: students are able, to a large extent, to select modules that match their particular skills and interests, whether these are to do with performance, academic and literary study, technical production, or a combination of the above. Students can either combine Drama and English in equal quantities, or
take two-thirds Drama and one-third English.
There are no sit-down exams in Drama with English. All assessment is project- or essay-based, and that can take a wide variety of formats, including performance work, designing sets, props, costumes, puppets, building a website, writing essays, developing portfolios of creative work, making films for television, or authoring interactive CD-ROMS and DVDs.
Our students are taught by research-active academics, many of whom are also experienced practitioners, combining teaching with other professional work. Staff are committed to the study of Drama with English as a means to encourage and develop the abilities of students to think creatively, to read, write and perform with a critical awareness, and to be both sensitive and disciplined in their approach to their theatre and literary studies. Teaching is flexible and student-centred with most subjects taught in contexts where active student participation is encouraged and intellectual independence stimulated.
As a Department, we are large enough to promote a wide range of activities and interests, whilst still preserving the sense of a community in which most people know each other and where formality is kept to a minimum.
The Department strongly encourages applications from international candidates, candidates in minority cultural groups in the UK and from those taking Access courses. We welcome applications from students who are taking A Levels, Scottish Highers and International Baccalaureate. Applications from candidates studying BTEC and GNVQ courses are also considered, especially where these are combined with A Level study. All applications receive individual and serious consideration.
If you decide to apply through UCAS for the Drama with English programme, you will usually be invited to an Open Day, to give you the opportunity to meet staff and view the various performance and teaching spaces. Whatever you decide, we wish you well for the future. Think hard about the choices confronting you at this stage: they are amongst the most important you may ever make.