Course Overview

Our four-year BA English and United States Literature (including foundation year), will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a program that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills in order to support your academic performance.

This four-year course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study. During your Year Zero, you study three academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory academic skills module, with the additional English language for non-English speakers.

You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community-based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK.

After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies.

Essex has always been a major center for American Studies, and our expertise across literature, film, art, history, and politics allows you to unravel and understand the complexities of US society and the American dream. You explore nationalism and regionalism, as well as conflicts of race, gender, and religion at the heart of US history and culture. Through this, you uncover the deep interconnections in the evolution of US writing and American identities.

Discover the literature of the USA from the early realism of Mark Twain and the slave narrative of Frederick Douglass, through the experimental work of Hemingway and Faulkner, to contemporary authors such as Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison. You also cover the English literary canon from Shakespeare and his contemporaries through to twentieth-century literature.

General Eligibility

UK and EU applicants:

All applications for degree courses with a foundation year (Year Zero) will be considered individually, whether you

think you might not have the grades to enter the first year of a degree course;

have non-traditional qualifications or experience (e.g. you haven’t studied A-levels or a BTEC);

are returning to university after some time away from education; or

are looking for more support during the transition into university study.

Standard offer:

Our standard offer is 72 UCAS tariff points from at least two full A-levels or equivalent.

Examples of the above tariff may include:

A-levels: DDD

BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma: MMP

T-levels: Pass with an E in core

International & EU entry requirements

We accept a wide range of qualifications from applicants studying in the EU and other countries. Get in touch with any questions you may have about the qualifications we accept. Remember to tell us about the qualifications you have already completed or are currently taking.

Part Time Work Details

20 hours per week.

Language Requirement

• If you do not require a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK then we will assess your English language proficiency/ability at your interview or audition.

  If your first language is not English and you are an international student that requires a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK then you will need IELTS 6.0 overall, with 5.5 in each component.