Creative Writing (Joint Honours) BA (Hons)

Discover your creative voice by experimenting with poetry, fiction, screenwriting, graphic novel scripts, new media, and audio and performance writing. By combining your studies with a complimentary subject, your writing will stay fresh with new ideas and varied influences.

Entry Criteria
Structure and assessment
Facilities and features
Opportunities and careers
Take your next steps
Contact us

Overview

Dr Simon Perril and Dr Siobhan Logan speak about the benefits of studying Creative Writing at DMU.

Study Creative Writing with us to find your voice, refine your talent, and put purpose into every word you write. With inspiring, stimulating themes embedded throughout the course, you will have the opportunity to develop your skills across fiction, poetry, memoir, the graphic novel, screenwriting, non-fiction, audio and performance writing, concrete poetry and new media. 

You’ll examine the relationship between word, image, and sound and, by the end of your course, you won’t just be writing – you’ll also be producing your own professional-standard publications. We will also equip you with voice coaching to help you leave DMU as a self-assured public performer.

At DMU, you can study Creative Writing with either Drama, Film Studies or Journalism as a joint honours course. You will choose 50 per cent of your options from Creative Writing and 50 per cent from Drama, Film Studies or Journalism. Combining your Creative Writing study with a complimentary academic discipline ensures that your writing stays fresh with different stimuli and you will develop varied skills to broaden your career opportunities.

Key features

Become part of regional writing networks and perform and publish your work through events such as annual book festival States of Independence, DMU’s Cultural eXchanges festival, and spoken word events.
Gain confidence in practical skills in performing and audio recording, and technical skills in digital and print publishing.
We’ll help you to experiment and push you beyond your comfort zone to produce podcasts, audio-visual pieces and multimedia digital work.
Work beyond classroom boundaries in a variety of stimulating settings to promote creativity, including urban walk workshops, museum trips and ghost story workshops in a deconsecrated chapel.
DMU is ranked in the top 10 Creative Writing courses in the UK for graduate prospects, according to the Complete University Guide 2022.
Take part in an overseas trip with  DMU Global, our international experience programme. Our students have considered themes of borders and exile during a walking tour of Berlin, taken part in a scavenger hunt in the New York Public Library, and discovered Danish literature in Copenhagen.
You’ll learn from successful working writers and industry professionals. Recent guest speakers include our visiting professor, poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah, novelist Mahsuda Snaith, literary agent Oli Munson and non-fiction author Damian Le Bas.

Scholarships:

DMU Global High Flyers Award
Our dedicated DMU Global High Flyers Award offers ambitious students a discount of up to £1,000 towards a DMU Global opportunity (terms and conditions apply).

UK
EU/International

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code:

Creative Writing and Drama: WW84
Creative Writing and Film Studies: WP83
Creative Writing and Journalism: WP85

Duration: Three years full-time, four years full-time with a placement. Six years part-time.

Fees and funding:

2024/25 tuition fees for UK students: £9,250

Find out more about tuition fees and available funding.

Additional costs: Here at DMU we provide excellent learning resources, including the Kimberlin Library and specialist workshops and studios. However, you should be aware that sometimes you may incur additional costs for this programme.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Submit a study-related enquiry

Duration: Three years full-time, four years with placement

Fees and funding:

2023/24 tuition fees for international students: £15,750

Find out more about available funding for international students.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Application guidance document

Submit a study-related enquiry

Entry criteria

Typical entry requirements

Creative Writing and Drama Studies BA (Hons)

104 points from at least 2 A'levels
BTEC Extended Diploma DMM
International Baccalaureate: 24+ Points

Plus five GCSEs grades 9-4 including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above.

Pass Access with 30 Level 3 credits at Merit (or equivalent) and GCSE English (Language or Literature) at grade 4 or above.

We will normally require students have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.

We also accept the BTEC First Diploma plus two GCSEs including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above

Note: Applicants with non-standard qualifications may be asked to complete a piece of work to support their application.

Interview required: No

Creative Writing and Film Studies BA (Hons)
Creative Writing and Journalism BA (Hons)

104 points from at least 2 A'levels
BTEC Extended Diploma DMM
International Baccalaureate: 26+ Points

Plus five GCSEs grades 9-4 including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above.

Pass Access with 30 Level 3 credits at Merit (or equivalent) and GCSE English (Language or Literature) at grade 4 or above.

We will normally require students have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.

We also accept the BTEC First Diploma plus two GCSEs including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above

Note: Applicants with non-standard qualifications may be asked to complete a piece of work to support their application.

Note: For Creative Writing and Journalism BA (Hons) we would expect to see an interest in journalism and current affairs.

Interview required: No

English language requirements

If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential.

English language tuition, delivered by our British Council-accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.

Structure and assessment

First year

Exploring Creative Writing
Writing Identity

Second year

Writing Place
Word, Image, Sound

Third year

Professional Writing Skills
Specialism Plus Negotiated Study
Portfolio
Uncreative Writing and Artificial Intelligence

Click here for more detailed module information

Joint honours degree students will choose to study available modules from 50 per cent of one subject and 50 per cent of another.

Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.

Overview

This degree programme is carefully designed to develop your potential by ensuring you encounter the full range of forms open to the 21^st century creative writer, whilst also allowing you flexibility to focus, for assignments, on projects and genres that interest you most. We want you to learn that practicing a particular kind of writing can hone your craft in a different form (for example, dramatists learn so much about choreographing the natural movements of a voice on the page from writing free verse poetry).

In the first year, the focus is upon shorter work, and the importance of developing your editing and re-drafting skills; and your capacity to accept and evaluate feedback from others. This process will enable you to take a critical and reflective approach to your work (Both creative and reflective writing will be assessed).

At second year the assignments lengthen, and the focus upon research intensifies as you are expected to situate your own writing alongside your reading of other writers in your field.

In the final year, such knowledge is pushed further by making you consider how your sense of the ways in which creative work is published and marketed will help you understand how your own practice might fit in – or resist – contemporary conventions.

In all years, the modules reinforce the knowledge that reading and analysing the work of other practitioners – your fellow students included - will help you understand and develop your own formal and technical abilities.

Contact hours

Creative Writing and Drama
You will be taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, seminars, group work and self-directed study. Assessment is mostly through coursework (presentations, essays and reports), although there are some short tests in the ‘Uncreative Writing and Artificial Intelligence’ module. Your precise timetable will depend on the optional modules you choose to take, however, in your first year you will normally attend around 12 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and tutorials) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 26 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.

Creative Writing and Film Studies
You will be taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, seminars, group work and self-directed study. Assessment is mostly through coursework (presentations, essays and reports), although there are some short tests in the ‘Uncreative Writing and Artificial Intelligence’ module. Your precise timetable will depend on the optional modules you choose to take, however, in your first year you will normally attend around 17 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and tutorials) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 23 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.

Creative Writing and Journalism
For more information visit Journalism (Joint Honours) BA (Hons)

Facilities and features

Library and learning zones

On campus, the main Kimberlin Library offers a space where you can work, study and access a vast range of print materials, with computer stations, laptops, plasma screens and assistive technology also available.

As well as providing a physical space in which to work, we offer online tools to support your studies, and our extensive online collection of resources accessible from our Library website, e-books, specialised databases and electronic journals and films which can be remotely accessed from anywhere you choose.

We will support you to confidently use a huge range of learning technologies, including the Virtual Learning Environment, Collaborate Ultra, DMU Replay, MS Teams, Turnitin and more. Alongside this, you can access LinkedIn Learning and learn how to use Microsoft 365, and study support software such as mind mapping and note-taking through our new Digital Student Skills Hub.

The library staff offer additional support to students, including help with academic writing, research strategies, literature searching, reference management and assistive technology. There is also a ‘Just Ask’ service for help and advice, live LibChat, online workshops, tutorials and drop-ins available from our Learning Services, and weekly library live chat sessions that give you the chance to ask the library teams for help.

More flexible ways to learn

We offer an equitable and inclusive approach to learning and teaching for all our students. Known as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), our teaching approach has been recognised as sector leading. UDL means we offer a wide variety of support, facilities and technology to all students, including those with disabilities and specific learning differences.

Just one of the ways we do this is by using ‘DMU Replay’ – a technology providing all students with anytime access to audio and/or visual material of lectures. This means students can revise taught material in a way that suits them best, whether it's replaying a recording of a class or adapting written material shared in class using specialist software.

Campus Centre

The home of  De Montfort Students' Union, (DSU) our Campus Centre offers a welcoming and lively hub for student life. Conveniently located at the heart of campus, it includes a convenience store, a Subway and a Starbucks. Here you can find the DSU-owned charitable accommodation service Sulets and DSU’s shop, SUpplies, selling art supplies, stationery and clothing, and printing and binding services. The building is also home to the DSU officer team.

Opportunities and careers

DMU Global

Our innovative international experience programme DMU Global aims to enrich your studies and expand your cultural horizons, helping you to become a global graduate, equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world.

Through DMU Global, we offer a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK-based activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips and volunteering, as well as Erasmus+ and international exchanges.  

Creative Writing students have  been on DMU Global trips to explore ekphrastic writing and themes of oppression in Berlin, as well as visiting TED HQ and key literary locations in New York.  Journalism students have been on trips to gain insight into the rapidly changing world of newspapers at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, as well as completed an internship at the prestigious Charles University in Prague. Film studies students have been on trips to the famous Cannes Film Festival and also the WonderCon comic book, science fiction, and film convention in Hollywood.

While overseas DMU Global opportunities are not currently possible, DMU will continue to review government advice and if travel is permitted, we hope to offer a small number of extra-curricular opportunities in the summer of 2021.

Placements

Though the English in the Workplace module you can put the skills developed during your English degree into practice with a placement. This insight into the professional world is a valuable  opportunity to enhance and build on your knowledge in a real-world setting, preparing you to progress onto your chosen career. 

Students have secured placements at public relations agencies, local schools, Curve theatre, arts organisations, local newspapers, magazines and Leicester’s Phoenix Cinema.  

Our careers programme DMU Works can help to hone your professional skills with mock interviews and practice aptitude tests, and an assigned personal tutor will support you throughout your placement.  

Graduate careers

Our graduates have strong linguistic, reasoning and analytical skills, making them highly employable. We develop our students’ information analysis and presentation skills to produce articulate, adaptable, professional communicators who can operate with ease in any setting and with any group of people. 

Creative Writing graduate Kimberley Redway has achieved her ambition of becoming a published author and was commissioned by Bloomsbury Publishing, resulting in a heartwarming take on black identity in modern Britain. She said: “DMU taught me so much, like how to finish a novel, how to write to a brief by taking different subjects and making them your own and how to be entrepreneurial.”

Creative Writing (Joint Honours) BA (Hons)