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Summary:
Course Code: X2FY
Course Code: XQ33
Where Are You Applying From?
How Would You Like To Study?
When Do You Want To Start Your Studies?
Which Campus Would You Like To Study At?
Which Options Would You Like With Your Course?
Why choose the School of Education
Over 95% of our full-time UK graduates in education and teaching are in employment and/or further study, 15 months after graduating (Source: HESA Graduate Outcomes for 2020/21, pub 2023).
Our Education students gave positive responses over 90% for our teaching; learning opportunities; assessment and feedback; academic support; organisation; and learning resources (NSS, 2024).
Our Education courses are in the top 10 in their subject table for teaching quality (Times Good University Guide, 2024).
About the course
If you’re thinking about a teaching career and also have a passionate interest in English literature and creative writing, this course lets you tailor your studies to your own interests and career aspirations. You’ll discover exciting and varied forms of literature and creative writing while learning about important educational ideas and theories, which you can put into practice through work experience in a school. The course provides the knowledge and understanding needed for further study leading to a postgraduate qualification in both primary- and secondary-level teaching.Ìý
Facilities and specialist equipment
- Four-storey library with extensive range of physical and digital resources as well as PCs, group-work areas, presentation-practice rooms and a silent study floor.
- Access to the Hockliffe Collection, a unique collection of 18th- and 19th-century children’s books, as well as our Cinderella archive of books, scripts, designs, theatrical memorabilia and ephemera relating to the Cinderella story.
- Mock classrooms with specialist technology so you can watch and assess your lesson.
- Forest School where you can deepen your understanding of the long-term educational benefits of outdoor learning.
- Specialist sensory centre for practising to teach SEND and early years pupils.
- Multi-media space for webinars and podcasting.
Industry links
As one of the largest providers of teacher education in the eastern region, we have well-established partnerships with more than 500 schools and other associated organisations, a network that puts us at the forefront of educational developments.
Student experience
- Our Bedford campus is a small, thriving academic community where academic staff get to know you well.
- You learn from an academic team with expertise across literature, language, sociology, history, philosophy of education and critical pedagogy; they are innovative in areas such as TV/film, literature, digital cultures, and political and social theory.
- Many of our staff also have ‘previous lives’ in frontline professions, including youth work and education, and bring real-world perspectives to teaching sessions.
- We help you develop your subject knowledge, powers of analysis and critical thinking as well as professional communication skills, creating a portfolio of work and a skillset that will help you as you begin your graduate career.
- You benefit from the support of your own personal tutor, a unit and course coordinator, and the additional support of our experienced library staff, all of whom will help you throughout your student journey and with balancing study with work and personal commitments.
- You have the opportunity to go on relevant field trips to theatres, museums and art galleries (recent trips include a visit to Jane Austen’s house) as well as attending relevant conferences and research seminars.
- You can contribute to research projects such as Literary Bedfordshire and get involved in organising conferences.
with Professional Practice Year
This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry. Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.
There is no tuition fee for the placement year enabling you to gain an extra year of experience for free.
*Only available to UK/EU students.
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with Foundation Year
A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.
Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.
With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.
The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.
This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.
Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?
- Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
- Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
- Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
- Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees
The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.
During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.
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Course Leader - Dr Nicola Darwood
I graduated with a PhD in English Literature in 2007, and I've been working at the ÑÇÉ«ÊÓƵ since 2009, teaching across all years of undergraduate study and supervising research degrees. I teach on a range of units, introducing students to literary theory, poetry, prose and plays from the medieval period to the twenty-first century, through to more specialist units such as Modern Irish Literature. I'm the course coordinator for the undergraduate English provision, and really enjoy working with students as they make their transition into higher education, helping them to achieve their full potential during their time at the university.
My own field of research focuses on women writers of the twentieth century and the literature of Bedfordshire, and I've published work on Elizabeth Bowen, Stella Benson and Nancy Spain. I'm also the co-editor for a journal dedicated to the work of Elizabeth Bowen. I'm currently working on an edited collection of essays on women writers of the interwar period, and the University's Literary Bedfordshire project which brings to life writers who have lived or worked in Bedfordshire.
I also enjoy working with our local secondary schools as part of the University's outreach programme, helping to enthuse students and encourage engagement with literature and language.
Course Leader - Dr Nicola Darwood
I graduated with a PhD in English Literature in 2007, and I've been working at the ÑÇÉ«ÊÓƵ since 2009, teaching across all years of undergraduate study and supervising research degrees. I teach on a range of units, introducing students to literary theory, poetry, prose and plays from the medieval period to the twenty-first century, through to more specialist units such as Modern Irish Literature. I'm the course coordinator for the undergraduate English provision, and really enjoy working with students as they make their transition into higher education, helping them to achieve their full potential during their time at the university.
My own field of research focuses on women writers of the twentieth century and the literature of Bedfordshire, and I've published work on Elizabeth Bowen, Stella Benson and Nancy Spain. I'm also the co-editor for a journal dedicated to the work of Elizabeth Bowen. I'm currently working on an edited collection of essays on women writers of the interwar period, and the University's Literary Bedfordshire project which brings to life writers who have lived or worked in Bedfordshire.
I also enjoy working with our local secondary schools as part of the University's outreach programme, helping to enthuse students and encourage engagement with literature and language.
What will you study?
Studying our Education Studies and English BA (Hons) course will provide you with a firm knowledge of key educational theories and ideas, language and English literature. If you are passionate about working with children, young people and families, our unit in the Narratives of Childhood will allow you to consider children’s educational experiences, including through the effect of the digital age. The course also offers a range of optional units in education including The Lifelong Curriculum unit that will not only teach you to design curriculum, but how to implement it based on educational policy. You will keep this knowledge in mind during our Developing Teaching Practice unit, where you will learn to deliver effective classroom sessions based on research in the field. This ties closely into our Comparative Education unit, where you will adopt a diverse approach to analysing the issues and problems affecting international education. As an English student, you will also be introduced to a range of literary genres and theoretical approaches including poetry, drama and fiction in our Approaching Literature unit while exploring a range of theoretical approaches to these texts. Similarly, you will learn How Talk Works and How Text Works by focusing on the rules of conversation, its patterns and norms, and how it varies between people and situations.ÌýÌý
You will do the same with the written word by exploring the different ways texts are produced, its purposes and meanings to help build your language interpretation skills. Furthermore, you will build on the skills and knowledge from Approaching Literature in our Radical Change in the Long Nineteenth Century unit where you’ll discover how literature has contributed to ideas around religion, gender, science and the arts in the long nineteenth century. Another relevant area of English study includes our The Play’s the Thing unit where you will consider plays from ancient Greece through to the twenty-first century to gain an in-depth knowledge of the philosophical, cultural and political conditions that inform English drama. You could also choose to examine literature and theory from the early twentieth century through to the postmodern era of the latter half of the century in our Modern and Postmodern Literary Practices unit. In more specific areas of literature, the course offers a range of optional units including Gothic Literature and World Literature: Crossing Borders. Another key skill as an educational professional is writing, and this is where our Creative Writing unit will introduce you to writing short stories and poetry that you will share in small group workshops. You’ll also be able to experience the excitement of working in an archive with our Research in Action unit where you’ll have the opportunity to learn about publishing, book history, and the development of reading material for young children.ÌýÌý
Our Children’s and Young Adult Fiction unit will familiarise you with a range of fictional genres written for children, including film adaptations, fairy tales, and other popular fiction. You can also engage in critical language study in our Discourse and Ideology unit; analyse accepted norms in education and pedagogy in our Deschooling unit; or consider the economic and cultural factors shaping family experience in our Families and Communities unit. Aside from this, you will be able to debate and investigate the role of the media and political institutions in education in our Contemporary Debates in Education, Childhood and Youth unit. There is also an opportunity for philosophical study where you will be able to learn about a range of philosophical concepts and methods in education in our Introduction to Educational Philosophy unit while also exploring the relationship between the two in our Reading Philosophy and Education unit. In areas of the mind, you will also discuss developmental psychology in our Early Childhood Psychology unit while examining how this impacts learning and how to utilise this within educational settings.ÌýÌý
With more young people experiencing mental health issues, our unit in Children and Young People’s Wellbeing will teach you to support children through understanding social and emotional issues in education. Similarly, you will focus on how behaviour is understood within educational contexts in our Perspectives on Pedagogy and Behaviour unit. In the same field, our unit in Representations of Disability will allow you to criticise disability representation in the media and how this influences its perceptions. In Investigating the Social World, you’ll develop an understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods, data collection, analysis and reporting, research skills which will be of great use when you complete your Dissertation where you will have the option to complete either a research dissertation or a creative writing project.
How will you be assessed?
The course has a progressive learning and assessment strategy that moves students from diagnostic and formative assessment at Level 4 to summative assessments at Levels 5 and 6 encouraging the development of independent learning skills. The main form of assessment is the essay. The length of the essay increases each year (from 1500 words at Level 4 to 3000 words at Level 6) as do the expectations of the tutors in terms of writing argument and presentation leading to the 9000-word dissertation in the final year. Almost all units require some other form of assessment which include reviews individual and group projects oral presentations portfolios phase tests and seen and unseen exams of varying lengths and difficulties. These assessments all assess different aspects of the course and develop subject specific skills such as the ability to use appropriate critical terminology and to apply various theoretical approaches. The assessment strategy also develop more generic transferable skills such as the ability to gather sift and organise material independently to access electronic data and to produce work in a professional manner.
Careers
The course prepares you for a number of professions including teaching (following further study) in primary secondary early years special needs and teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL); copywriting editing and publishing; journalism; PR marketing and advertising; speech and language therapy; librarian; youth work; welfare and health services; and personnel management.
You can also progress to postgraduate study. The following are on offer at the ÑÇÉ«ÊÓƵ and other institutions:
- PGCE Secondary English
- PGCE Primary Education
- PGCE Early Years
- Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language
- MA Education
- MA English Literature
- MPhil or PhD in either English or Education Studies
Entry Requirements
Entry Requirements
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,250 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See
Excellence Scholarships
Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*
» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**
» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available
* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.
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International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.
Fees for this course
UK
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,250 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See
Excellence Scholarships
Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*
» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**
» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available
* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.
Ìý
International
The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.
There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.
A full list of scholarships can be found here.