...

Acting, Performance and English Literature BA(Hons)

Select the year

Start Dates

21 September 2026

Duration

3 years full-time 4 years inc. placement year

UCAS Tariff

120-104


Recent Awards For Excellence

Ofsted outstanding provider logo Performing Arts - QS 2025
Find out more about these awards
About this course

Overview

Why choose Huddersfield for this course?

  • Develop practical performance and acting skills while studying English Literature to enhance your understanding of drama and texts
  • Collaborate with fellow students and industry professionals on productions, residencies, and real-world projects
  • Gain work experience, festival involvement, and industry insight to support careers in acting, theatre, stage production, or writing for performance

Our Acting, Performance and English Literature BA(Hons) course is designed for students who want to explore both performance and the written word, combining practical acting and performance training with a deep engagement with English literature. You’ll study a range of drama texts and literary works, gaining a richer understanding of the stories, forms, and contexts that underpin contemporary theatre and performance.

Throughout the course, you’ll develop practical acting skills alongside analytical and creative writing abilities, allowing you to investigate drama through performance while building an appreciation of prose and poetry. You will also engage with original scriptwriting, adaptations, and critical literary analysis to support your own creative and professional development. The Creative Futures module supports your career development, offering guidance on entering the industry and creating professional opportunities.

Performing Arts at Huddersfield is ranked 37th in the world (QS World University Subject Rankings 2025).

The course features public-facing performances, workshops, and literary projects, alongside masterclasses and residencies with industry professionals, including actors, directors, writers, and theatre companies. You’ll also have opportunities to work with the award-winning Huddersfield Literature Festival, gaining experience in festival planning, programming, curating, and stewarding.

Graduates leave with a unique blend of practical performance skills, literary insight, and creative writing expertise, preparing them for careers in acting, performance, theatre production, scriptwriting, literary work, or further study in English, literature, or drama.

Career opportunities after the course *

Drama Teacher

Secondary School Teacher

Marketing Executive

Content Creator

Bid Writers

*Lightcast

Who can apply?

Entry Requirements

BBB-BCC at A Level.
120-104 UCAS tariff points from a combination of Level 3 qualifications.
Merit at T Level.
DMM-MMM in BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma.
Merit in UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma.
Merit in RSL Level 3 Extended Diploma.
Access to Higher Education Diploma with 45 Level 3 credits at Merit or above.
120-104 UCAS tariff points from International Baccalaureate qualifications.


If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.5 overall with no element lower than 6.0, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

Other suitable experience or qualifications will be considered. For further information please see the University's minimum entry requirements.

What will you learn?

Course Details

A series of lectures will introduce you to a range of historical performance practices from the late-Victorian period to the present. Seminars will follow up the lectures in order to probe the issues raised with reference to texts taken from a range of cultures and periods.

You’ll have the opportunity to explore the ways in which a play script can form the basis for a live theatre production through working together as a company to stage a short text. Training in acting, voice, and the physical can be explored through the challenge of staging the work.

Critical thinking enables us to go beyond the surface of information, using analytical skills to dissect, question, and evaluate ideas with a detective's curiosity and a scientist's precision. This skillset is common to all disciplines in the Humanities, where the challenge lies in unravelling complexities, probing assumptions, and exploring the neglected features of human culture, language and history. The module will hone your intellectual skills in reasoning and close analysis, improve your ability to present arguments effectively, and equip you to plan and conduct an independent research project. This module will also provide support for planning your personal and career development.

This module is your gateway into the world of English literature - from epic adventures and timeless tragedies to modern classics. You’ll explore the major genres that have defined Western literature, and see how writers over time have shaped and broken its rules. Along the way, you’ll pick up the key ideas, tools and skills that will guide you through studying literature on your degree, helping you read deeper, think sharper, and write with confidence.

Gothic emerged as the dark twin of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century and has remained perennially popular ever since. Gothic novels, ghost stories and horror films offer scintillating and often scandalous popular entertainment, while counterbalancing the values of modernity and order celebrated in realism and rational philosophy. This module will explore the origins and development of the Gothic, from its emergence in the age of revolutions and Regency decadence, through nineteenth-century parodies and re-appropriations, to its manifold transformations within the cultural industries of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

You will be expected either to complete a graduate or professional level work placement – or, as an alternative an enterprise or citizenship project with a tangible end product (e.g. feasibility study for turning hobby/idea into a personal business or setting up campaign group/developing volunteering/charity initiative) plus associated documentation – plus a self-reflective evaluation of the process. In preparation for this you will undertake career planning and placement research, supported by workshops and tutorial meetings.

Choose up to four from the list which may include:

The aim of this module is to allow you to participate in and analyse a process leading to a performance or performance-related event (installation, series of workshops, etc) and also to study in detail the text or material which forms the basis for the work. You will contribute in one or more roles within a creative process which will be staff initiated and/or directed, developing and extending your own skills and knowledge.  Typical examples might include: a Renaissance text, a devised performance, a contemporary playtext, a filmed performance, a piece of live/performance art, or a series of Applied Theatre workshops. You will document the process in detail using analysis and reflection. Research and discussion will form an integral part of each process, and Academic Skills and PDP reflections will be embedded in the curriculum.

You’ll have the opportunity to undertake a training project in one of a range of theatre skill areas, such as directing, performing, physical theatre, technical theatre, or workshop facilitation. A programme of training will help to prepare you to undertake an independent project which demonstrates your skills and understandings.

You will draw on examples of contemporary practice in responding to theoretical approaches and debates. You will encounter a range of contemporary examples of performance practice across media through a series of lectures which will be supported, where possible, by theatre visits, video materials, and other media resources. The workshops will introduce you to the critical and aesthetic contexts in which such work exists, and assessment will focus on your ability to locate and devise specific examples of practice within the relevant critical frameworks.

In this module you will examine contemporary cinema as a global media industry, with a particular emphasis on the processes of globalisation and circulation that allow film texts to become meaningful far outside the contexts in which they were made. While the global dominance of Hollywood is central to this, cultural influences, values and meanings flow in multiple directions. You will develop knowledge of key theories in film and global media studies, including theories of globalisation, cultural hybridity and exchange, national identities, and imagined communities. By focusing not only on the films themselves, but on their production, distribution, promotion and reception, the module provides you with a detailed understanding of how and why cinema spreads around the globe, and the tensions this cultural flow creates at a political, social, economic and cultural level.

The nineteenth century was the period in which the novel was the dominant literary form, in the wake of the heyday of Romantic poetry and before the advent of cinema. In this module we will study and analyse a selection of novels that represent some of the most significant developments in the genre during the Victorian age. We will explore the ways in which the Victorian novel reflected the most important issues of the day, from industrialisation and political reform to women’s rights and class conflict. The module will also investigate the significance of novelistic subgenres such as Sensation fiction and the late gothic novel during the second half of the nineteenth century, mapping these onto shifting attitudes towards the politics of gender, race and empire.

This module gives you the chance to study some of the most exciting and experimental novels ever written. Beginning at the start of the twentieth century, with ground breaking works of modernist fiction by the likes of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, you will study innovative new developments in form, style, and technique, as well as the historical context behind these transformative texts. The module then introduces you to the postmodernist experimentation of the later twentieth century. Together, we will explore new departures in narrative, style and language; the relationship between fiction, history and text; and the breakthrough novels that shaped the twentieth century.

This module takes a tour through modern and contemporary American poetry. We’ll explore history, politics, identity, and competing ideas of what is means to be ‘American’, by studying the work of 10 extraordinary poets. We’ll be exploring American poetry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, looking at significant poetic movements and sociopolitical contexts. The module explores a range of poets which may include Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Claudia Rankine, and Robert Lowell.

No English degree would be complete without the opportunity to study the greatest writer in the language – Shakespeare. This module is your chance to do just that, both by situating Shakespeare’s plays in relation to their historical and cultural backgrounds, and by considering their rejuvenation in recent film and stage productions. For a greater understanding of Renaissance drama, the module will also compare Shakespeare’s work to some of his contemporaries, such as Marlowe, Jonson, or Webster.

For more information on when and how we update our modules please see the ‘Legal Information’ section below.

The placement year is your chance to gain hands-on experience and build on the skills you’ve developed in your first two years of study. You’ll spend up to 48 weeks (minimum 36 weeks) in a graduate-level role, sharpening your professional skills, exploring career options, and boosting your future job prospects. During your placement, you'll reflect on your performance, develop real-world skills, and learn to approach your role with a critical eye. Your placement will be monitored, and you’ll be assessed on your achievements, setting you up for success in your final year and beyond.

For more information on when and how we update our modules please see the ‘Legal Information’ section below.

This module aims to develop skills enabling you to communicate the value and importance of literary study to a non-specialist audience. More broadly, you'll be encouraged to think about the real-world applications of a degree in English Literature, and about the role of the humanities in challenging and changing society. The module is based around, and explores numerous strategies for community and public engagement, with an emphasis on considering different ways in which literary study can be taken outside the academy and into society.

World Literature is a module that invites you to look beyond the “Englishness” of English Literature. Your reading list will take you on a voyage of discovery around different cultures, countries, and continents, which you will explore through their literary texts. These texts will reflect both the global reach of the English language and the enthralling experience of reading works in translation. Besides embracing the challenges posed by studying works from unfamiliar cultures and traditions, this module will consider some of the important questions raised by the study of world literature, such as the nature of hybridity, the limitations of the canon, and the globalisation of literature.

Choose up to four from a list which may include:

You will contribute your artistic skills to the preparation of a staff-led performance , developing and extending your own skills and knowledge. You will document the process and share the results of your analysis through reflective reports. The project will be rooted in an area of staff research and teaching expertise, and its initial focus will be staff initiated. Typical examples might include: contemporary or classical texts; musical theatre; a filmed performance; a piece of devised work. Although the performance may be staff directed, you will be expected to take clear responsibility and initiative for co-ordinating different aspects of the process and/or for running sessions.

The Final Year Project is an opportunity to demonstrate practical skills in a significant theatre or performance role. Building on skills developed through earlier study, you will be able to negotiate a practical project that may focus on performing, directing, applied theatre practice, writing or technical and production skills. With input from a supervisor, you will then be asked to work largely independently to deliver the agreed project. Many of the practical projects appear in the Department’s annual Common Grounds Festival.

The Research Dissertation module facilitates your journey to acquiring expertise and specialism in a project allowing you to showcase summative learning across your course. You will be supported in undertaking guided independent research aimed at the generation of original knowledge in the study of media content, industries, practitioners, technologies or users and/or their cultural, social, political and economic premises and consequences. You will synthesise primary and secondary data and sources in your systematic, methodological analysis of a chosen topic in a field reflecting your course such as communication, journalism, film, digital media, entertainment, acting and performance, cultural production, sports media, music or promotional culture. This involves reviewing appropriate literature, identifying and executing a suitable methodology and research design and carrying out appropriate forms of analysis.

This module will help you imagine and plan for your future. Whether you want to be an actor, director, film-maker, producer, technician, or teacher, or to do something outside the creative industries, you will need to find the right context in which to work with others and develop your practice. In this module you will reflect critically on your current work and investigate potential employment opportunities, thinking about where you may want to take your career. You will conduct research into a specific industry and/or cultural context that matters to you, learning about what others are doing and imagining what you might contribute.

This module takes the form of a Working Party research process in which the group collectively researches, designs and delivers a Panel Session within a ‘Conference’ on a set topic chosen from a range of options. At that Session, each of you will present a provocation or make an alternative research presentation. Initially, the group works with the tutor on gaining a broad understanding of the field in question and designs a Call for Papers which summarises the field and identifies the main questions and debates. Each of you then respond to their Call for Papers by designing a detailed proposal for a research process which will culminate in a contribution to the Panel Session. There is scope for creativity in the design of individual presentations and in the curatorship of the event.

The twentieth century saw a golden age of experimental playwriting, to rival any since ancient Greece. From the pathos of Arthur Miller’s resurrection of tragedy to the hilarity of Dario Fo’s farces; from the politically motivated criticism of Bertolt Brecht’s plays to the bafflingly enigmatic absurdities of Samuel Beckett’s; from the witty repartee of Tom Stoppard’s dialogue to the grotesque brutality of Sarah Kane’s in-yer-face theatre – this is a unit in which no two weeks are even remotely the same. Besides embarking on an odyssey of innovation and controversy in modern drama, this module will also take you far beyond the English-speaking world, giving you a chance to study playwrights from a range of countries who changed the face of the western tradition of dramatic literature.

The late nineteenth century witnessed surging interest in the market for popular fiction and the emergence of new genres that responded to and helped to shape public attitudes to empire and criminality through the invention of characters that embodied various forms of heroic and/or demonic masculinity. The ‘Extraordinary Gentlemen’ of this era of popular fiction have retained an appeal that has proved resilient to transformations in attitudes to national identity, class and gender, as well as to the challenging of stigmas associated with ‘otherness’ and queered identities. In this module we will try to understand the basis for the appeal of ‘Extraordinary Gentlemen’ for late-Victorian and Edwardian audiences, and to examine their plasticity and openness to subsequent adaptation.

This module explores British poetry produced in the twentieth century. We may study poets from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. There will be a consideration of political events and their impact on poetry. This may include The Troubles in Ireland and the Thatcher government in Britain. There will also be an exploration of sociopolitical and minority identities which may include gender, race, sexuality, and disability. We will go on a journey, exploring different poetic movements and the development of poetry from the early to late twentieth century.

For more information on when and how we update our modules please see the ‘Legal Information’ section below.

Teaching and Assessment

Discover what to expect from your tutor contact time, assessment methods, and feedback process.

Global Professional Award

At Huddersfield, you’ll study the award-winning Global Professional Award (GPA) alongside your degree* — so you’re ready for the career you want, whatever subject you choose.

Interested in a placement?

Placements

Every term you are here as a student, you will have the opportunity to be onstage in front of a paying audience in a staff-led performance. We produce dramas, comedies, period shows, and musicals which means you can experience many different performance genres. You can direct your own show in year two, and create a festival performance in year three.

We also have a student-run theatre company, HAT Soc, which produces multiple shows each year. Along with the Musical Theatre Society and numerous films being made in our Film School, there are numerous opportunities to perform across the three years you'll be with us.

Where could this lead you?

Your Career

Drama graduates have gone on to work in the performing arts, award-winning films, in television, touring theatre, and running their own performance companies. English Literature graduates have gone on to work in teaching , PR, social media, script writing and law. Some students have chosen postgraduate study or additional vocational training in specialist areas, whilst a significant number successfully gain teaching qualifications and enter the teaching profession.
A selection of companies that have employed Huddersfield graduates in recent years include BBC One, ITV, Channel 4, Lawrence Batley Theatre, BBC 6 Music, Royal National Theatre and Point Blanc Theatre Company.**
**Source: LinkedIn.

85%
Percent of graduates from this subject area were in work or further study 15 months after graduation

* HESA Graduate Outcomes 22/23, UK Domiciled

I am now a self-employed actor, dancer, creative writer, radio presenter, marketing field interviewer and support worker in primary schools My interests lie in creative writing, acting and dancing; I like to think creatively and analytically.

- Shazia Bibi
Drama and English Literature BA(Hons) graduate

How much will it cost?

Fees and Finance

£9,790 per year

This information is for Home students applying to study at the University of Huddersfield in the academic year 2026/27.

Please note that tuition fees for subsequent years may rise in line with inflation (RPI-X) and/or Government policy. 

From January 2027 the UK government is launching a new student funding system for people starting university education. Read more about the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE).

For detailed information please visit https://www.hud.ac.uk/study/fees/

£17,600 per year

This information is for international students applying to study at the University of Huddersfield in the academic year 2026/27.

Please note that tuition fees for subsequent years may rise in line with inflation (RPI-X) and/or Government policy. 

For detailed information please visit https://www.hud.ac.uk/international/fees-and-funding/

Home

The tuition fee for a placement year is £1000. If you go on work experience or work placement, you will need to fund your own travel and/or accommodation costs to and from the placement.  Please be aware that if your placement is outside of the UK, you will still be responsible for your travel and living expenses and may need to consider issues like health care and insurance costs.

International

The tuition fee for a placement year is £3,300. If you go on work experience or work placement, you will need to fund your own travel and/or accommodation costs to and from the placement.  Please be aware that if your placement is outside of the UK, you will still be responsible for your travel and living expenses and may need to consider issues like health care and insurance costs.

Scholarships and Bursaries

Discover what additional help you may be eligible for to support your University studies.

Tuition Fee Loans

Find out more about tuition fee loans available to eligible undergraduate students.

What’s included in your fee?

We want you to understand exactly what your fees will cover and what additional costs you may need to budget for when you decide to become a student with us.

If you have any questions about Fees and Finance, please email the Student Finance Team.

Explore More

Why Hud

Explore the unique opportunities and resources that make our institution a top choice for students seeking a well-rounded and future-focused education.

Need more details?

More Info

Careers support

We know you’re coming to university to study on your chosen subject, meet new people and broaden your horizons. However, we also help you to focus on life after you have graduated to ensure that your hard work pays off and you achieve your ambition.

Find out more about careers support

Student support

At the University of Huddersfield, you’ll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you’ll soon discover that you’re never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey.

See our support services

Teaching Excellence

Great teaching is engaging and inspiring — it helps you reach your full potential and prepares you for the future. We don’t just teach well — we excel — and we have the awards and recognition to prove it.

Find out more

Inspiring Academics

Our researchers carry out world-leading work that makes a real difference to people’s lives. Staff within the Department of Media, Humanities and the Arts may teach you on this course.

Find out more about our staff

Research Excellence

You’ll be taught by staff who want to support your learning and share the latest knowledge and research.

Find out more

Accommodation

Looking for student accommodation? Huddersfield has you covered. HudLets has a variety of accommodation types to choose from, no matter what your preference. HudLets is the University’s approved accommodation service, run by Huddersfield Students’ Union.

Take a look at your options

Further Study

If you want to continue your learning beyond your undergraduate degree, there is a range of financial support available for postgraduate study, including discounts for Huddersfield graduates.

Discover postgraduate courses
Ask us a question