International Foundation Year in Humanities, Law and Social Science (3-Terms), Leading to Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English Literature Study Group - Durham University International Study Centre - Queens Campus, UK

International Foundation Year

The International Foundation Year in Humanities, Law and Social Science prepares you for an undergraduate degree at Durham City. This programme lasts for three terms.
Upon successful completion of the programme you can choose from a range of related degrees at Durham University.

Who is this programme for?

This humanities, law and social science foundation year is for international students looking to study a related degree at Durham University but need additional time to prepare.   

• Improve your academic and English language skills needed for your chosen degree.
• Explore concepts, terminology and practical skills needed to succeed at a world-class university.
• Study core modules for humanities, social science and law with this foundation year, developing your critical skills and understanding of key themes and models.
• Take the time to adjust to the UK education system so you can be ready to start your degree with confidence.

Leading to: Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English Literature

Not only does English Studies provide a thorough grounding in the ‘great tradition’ of English literature – from Chaucer and Shakespeare through to plays, poems and novels written in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries – and in literary theory, but it also offers a wide range of imaginative and research-led modules.

The comprehensive syllabus combines traditional areas of literary study with new and developing areas of the discipline. It aims to develop your conceptual abilities and analytical skills by exposing you to a variety of literary-critical approaches. This will promote and develop the clarity and persuasiveness of your argument and expression, enabling you to develop, to a high degree of competence, a range of skills which are both subject-specific and transferable.

You can also apply to add a placement year or a year abroad to your degree; this would increase the course from three years to four.

The first year will focus on advancing skills of critical analysis and argument you have already acquired at A level. This includes close reading and analysis of texts, such as the awareness of formal and aesthetic dimensions of literature and of the affective power of language, alongside the introduction of more advanced concepts and theories relating to literature.

In the second year, you will build on the knowledge and skills developed in your first year by broadening the range of literary texts and periods with which you will engage. You will study a substantial number of authors, topics and texts and gain awareness of the range and variety of approaches to literary study.

The final year includes a dissertation on a subject of your choice related to English literature. The dissertation involves guided research on a self-formulated question, the gathering and processing of relevant information and materials, and results in a work of sustained argumentative and analytic power.