📖Introduction

The University of Birmingham is a public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham, and Mason Science College, making it the first English civic or 'red brick' university to receive its own royal charter. The University have a long and proud history of firsts, at the University of Birmingham; they were the first – and are now one of the largest - civic universities in the UK.

At Birmingham, the institution teach and research across the full breadth of academic disciplines, creating a vibrant community with multi-disciplinary opportunities for research and education. The University is a truly international community consisting of more than thousands of staff, students, and alumni. The student community is not only one of the largest of any UK university, it is highly diverse, with 82 per cent of home undergraduate students from state schools, 32 per cent from a BAME background, and 35 per cent in the first generation of their family to attend university.

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📖Program Curriculum

You will learn among a community of writers and scholars, taking a series of structured modules across the discipline. You will study four core taught modules plus a dissertation.

Core modules
The Writer’s Workshop
The module provides an introduction to technical and conceptual issues encountered by the creative writer, along with research training to facilitate the critical work you will have to complete as part of your studies. The module introduces you to creative writing techniques and genres by analysing other people’s writing and through hands-on practice, as well as introducing you to the procedures and challenges of the creative writing workshop environment. The module also provides guidelines on how to approach agents/editors, along with a grounding in research practices.

Assessment: A 5,000-word portfolio of creative writing, and a 3,000-word portfolio of critical writing

Creative Writing Masterclass: From Workshop to Bookshop
This module builds on the research and professional skills developed in The Writer’s Workshop. It provides a venue for in-depth editorial discussion of your own work, while also providing systematic training in editing and in providing detailed, constructive critiques of other writers’ works. The module will help you to articulate your personal artistic vision in both formal and conceptual terms by studying a range of artistic manifestos and writerly positions.
Assessment: A 5,000-word portfolio of creative writing, and a 3,000-word portfolio of critical/professional writing

Poem as Story – Story as Poem
This module allows for a simultaneous focus on poetry and fiction, allowing you to work in both forms rather than choosing to be a “poet” or “prose writer” at this stage in your development as a writer. There will be weekly writing exercises and the opportunity to critique the work of your peers as well as a weekly set text exploring contemporary poetry and fiction.
Assessment: A 3,000-word poetry and/or short fiction portfolio and a 2,000-word essay

Intertextuality: Story, Genre, Craft
This module encourages you to explore notions of intertextuality, viewed as an integral part of all creative writing, and representing a broad continuum, from one-off textual allusions or verbal echoes on the one hand, to full-length adaptations on the other. 'Story' and 'story-telling’ will be used as a focus for identifying both generic and genre-specific, popular and literary, narrative techniques and conventions (to include a focus on language, character, plot, time and vision). In addition, you will explore ways in which 'reading' in the broadest possible sense can generate ideas, strategies and structures for the developing writer. This will entail an engagement with narratology and with aspects of genre theory and translation theory, key principles of which will be illustrated through case studies of texts that form part of intertextual clusters.
Assessment: A 3,000-word piece of creative writing in any genre, and a 2,000-word analysis of the intertextual relationships between two or more of the literary texts studied, with reference to your own creative writing

Dissertation
In addition to your taught modules, you will complete a dissertation. This will be 75% creative portfolio and 25% critical essay. You will write a 12,000-word portfolio of creative work in the form of a screenplay, excerpt of a novel, a collection of short fiction or a collection of poetry (600 lines). This will be accompanied by a 3,000-word essay placing your work in a critical and creative context, with reference to your development as a writer over the course of the MA. You will receive feedback on dissertation work in progress during one-to-one tutorials and/or in small group work-sharing seminars with peers (groups divided along the lines of genre/form and led by a specialist in this field).

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🏫About University of Birmingham, England

Effective leadership is a hallmark of the University of Birmingham. Today, the institution have a global reputation as a rich and diverse institution known for inspirational thinking, financial stability, and strong local, national, and international partnerships. Its heritage as the original ‘redbrick’ is combined with one of the most compelling and ambitious agendas in higher education. The University has been transformed in recent years, characterised by major investments in academic staffing, investment of £1 billion in campus facilities, strong and improving outcomes for its students, annual growth in research performance, and bold new moves such as establishing the only university-run secondary school and sixth form in the country, and opening a new campus in Dubai.

The single biggest investment that the University has made in recent years is in people. Since 2015 the University have expanded its academic staff numbers by more than 500, including world-class researchers and teachers, leading early-career academics (including through a much-emulated Birmingham Fellows scheme), and Interdisciplinary Professorial Fellows, its innovative scheme to enhance cross-disciplinary working. The University are developing an enviable reputation for attracting some of the finest minds in the world to teach and research at the University.

🏠 Accommodation

You will need to book the accommodation after you have been accepted.

You can choose to live on campus or off campus in private accommodation.

How to book:

  • Make a booking online after you have been accepted (in this case please let us know your choice when you apply).
  • Register when you arrive - its not possible to reserve a room before arriving. You can arrive a few days before and book it
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💰 Fees

Application Fee:

442 RMB

Tuition fee:

21,960 GBP per year

21,960 GBP in total

Entry Requirements

You are not eligible to apply to this program because:

The minimum age is 18.

English fluency is required.
You need to be either:
- A native English speaker
- Studied in English at high school or a degree
- Have passed IELTS level 6.5 or TOEFL 95 or above.

Minimum education level: Bachelor's.

The program is competitive, you need to have a high grades of Average A, 70%, or a high GPA.

All students from all countries are eligible to apply to this program.

Is this not correct? You can edit your profile or contact us.
Or see the list of programs you are eligible for here .
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📬 Admissions Process

3 Steps to Apply to a University

Application step 1

Application step 2

Application step 3

Please choose the programs here , "You are advised to select 2-3 programs to increase your chances of getting accepted.

Required Documents:

  • Passport
  • Graduation certificate
  • Passport size photo
  • Official transcript
  • Personal statement
  • English certificate (You can take the English test online)
  • Guarantor letter
  • 2 Recommendation letters

Preparing documents:

You can start your application now and send the application documents during your application. Some documents you can send later if you don’t have them right away. Some more info about preparing application documents is here

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Application process:

Applying Online is simple in just a few steps. More information is available here.

The first steps are to choose the programs, pay the application fee and upload the application documents.

Once submitted to Global Admissions, we will review your application within 2-3 days and proceed to the university or ask you for further clarification

After it has been processed to the university you will receive your unique application ID from each university.

The university may contact you directly for further questions.

We will then follow up each week with the university for updates. As soon as there is any update we will let you know. If you have made other plans, decide to withdraw / change address at any time please let us know.

After you have been accepted you will receive your admissions letter electronically and asked to pay the non-refundable deposit to the university.

Once you have paid the deposit the university will issue you the admissions letter and visa form to your home country.

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Here is some more information about the enrollment process after you have been accepted.

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