- You will be taught by internationally renowned academics in a School which is ranked in the top 10 English departments in the UK for research, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework.
- You will be joining a genuinely global university, with opportunities to study at one of our campuses in Malaysia or China, or at one of our Erasmus or U21 partners in the USA, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong or Europe.
- You will have the chance to gain valuable work experience through subject-related work placements that run alongside your studies.
Visting us: undergraduate open days
Teaching and Learning
When you begin studying at university, you will probably find that you cover material much more quickly than you did while studying for your A-levels. The key to success is preparing well for classes and then taking the ideas you encounter further in your own time.
Lectures
Lectures provide you with a stimulating but accessible overview of what you are studying, using a variety of audio and visual materials to support your learning. They are a great format for conveying information that is not readily available in books to a large number of people, often giving you the opportunity to hear significant (and perhaps as yet unpublished) arguments and areas of debate.
Seminars and Workshops
Seminars and workshops give you the chance to explore and interact with the material presented in lectures in a friendly and informal environment. You will be taught with a smaller group of fellow students, with discussion focusing on a text or topic you've previously prepared.
Seminars are a great place to discuss and share your ideas, to consider the opinions of others, and to think through issues raised by the texts with the support of your peers. Workshops are likely to involve more practical exploration of ideas, perhaps through exploring dramatic texts, working with digital materials, or developing presentations.
Tutorials
Individual and small-group tutorials offer you the chance to explore your work with your module tutor, perhaps discussing plans for an essay or presentation, or following up on an area of a module which has interested you.
eLearning
The school has an interactive virtual-learning environment, Moodle, which complements our lectures and seminars, providing 24-hour access to teaching materials and resources to support your learning.
School online journal: Innervate
The School of English online journal, Innervate, showcases the very best work produced by our final-year students, and is a useful and inspiring resource for your own essay writing.
Self-directed learning
With twelve hours of contact time per week in your first year, the rest of the time is yours to carry out independent work. This may mean time spent in the library, doing preparation work for seminars, reading books and journal articles from the reading list and researching your assignments.
Our degree programmes are modular, with mainly full-year modules in the first year and mainly semester-long modules in the second and final years. Assessment for most modules takes place at two points - around the mid-point and end of the module.
Assessment Methods
Assessment for your degree is based on a combination of coursework, including essays, close-reading exercises, research projects and dissertation; oral and performance presentations; and formal examinations. The precise assessments vary from one module to another and across the years of your degree.
Feedback
The opportunity to discuss ideas and coursework with your tutor is an integral part of your studies at Nottingham and can be one of the most rewarding aspects of your learning. Whether by giving feedback on an essay plan or discussing the results of an assessment, the school is committed to helping you work to the best of your ability.
All teaching staff hold weekly office hours for students throughout the academic year which are a great opportunity for one-to-one discussion of your ideas and your progress. We also seek students' feedback on all modules during the year to ensure that we offer you the best learning experience possible.
Sharing our students' success
Every year, the School awards a number of prizes to our Undergraduate students to acknowledge their efforts and achievements during their degree studies. These prizes range from Best Dissertation to Highest Average Mark, with prizes also for impact in the local community.
Peer Mentoring
All new students are allocated a peer mentor.
New first year students in the school have the opportunity to be matched with peer mentors — volunteer students at an advanced level of study. Peer mentors are on hand to help new students acclimatise to life at Nottingham, provide advice on the transition to university-level study and help students access support if needed. In a large school community, peer mentors help new students find their feet, and students will in turn have the opportunity to gain valuable experience by becoming mentors themselves in subsequent years.
As part of the Peer Mentoring Scheme:
- Every incoming student has the option of a designated peer mentor
- Students meet regularly in small groups with their peer mentor
- Mentors are on hand to guide students through the process of settling in, submitting work, learning how to use campus resources
- Peer mentors are an additional source of support, alongside personal tutors, from whom new students can seek advice
- Students will have the opportunity to become peer mentors themselves in their second year
Facilities and resources
The School of English is located in the Trent Building, University Park Campus.
Common Room
The School of English has a common room on the ground floor of the Trent Building for our students. This provides flexible work/study space for students throughout the year (from 8.00 am to 6.00 pm) and, with wireless access in the building, students can either bring their laptops or use the PCs provided and work in this social/work study space.
Library Facilities
The University of Nottingham has rich library resources in the early and medieval periods, with a large collection of manuscripts from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries and extensive book holdings in Old and Middle English, Old Icelandic, Viking Studies, and runology. Find out more about Manuscripts and Special Collections.
The School is, in addition, home to the English Place-Name Society (EPNS) library and archive.
In English Literature, the University's Hallward Library has an exceptional DH Lawrence archive, containing Lawrence family papers, manuscripts, first editions, and books owned by Lawrence. It has also recently acquired the famous Lazarus collection.
Other internationally renowned collections include the Portland Literary Collection (seventeenth and eighteenth century materials), the Cambridge Drama Collection (a printed collection of over 1,500 items, comprising plays and works about the British theatre from 1750-1850), and a rich collection of 1930s theatre materials.
Additional resources are offered by the locally held Byron collections and the Tennyson Research Centre.
Eye-tracking
In the School's own Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics we have a psycholinguistics lab housing an Eyelink 1000+ eye-tracking system from SR Research. Some of the primary participants in this research are our undergraduate students, who all take part in a language study in their first year and have the opportunity to conduct their own research in their final year.
Learn more about Eye-tracking
Innervate: Online Essay Journal
The School of English's own online journal, Innervate, showcases the very best work produced by our final-year students, and is a useful and inspiring resource for your own essay writing.
Computer Rooms
Students can access general IT facilities through a number of IS computer rooms/areas conveniently located around the University campuses.
Visiting us
There are many opportunities to see the campus, School and all the facilities Nottingham has to offer.
Open days
University-wide open days are held in June and September each year. These open days provide a great opportunity fo meet current students and members of staff and get a taste for what life is like as an English student.
See what happens at our Open Days.
Mini open days
Throughout the year, the University runs a number of mini open days at University Park. These days are designed for visitors who missed out on the annual open days in June and September and provide a further opportunity to attend School talks, speak to students and staff, and take a tour of the campus.
Offer-holder days
All undergraduate applicants who receive an offer are invited to an offer-holder day, which is an opportunity for you to see the School of English and the University for yourself.
What happens on the day?
You will be welcomed by the current Head of the School of English and be given an introduction to our English degree courses by the current Director of Undergraduate Studies along with a question and answer session.
During the day you will also have a chance to experience some of the teaching we do in the school. You will have the opportunity to meet our staff and students and find out all you need to know about the subject you want to study and to help you decide if The University of Nottingham is right for you.
There will also be an opportunity to hear about our Placement and Literacy Volunteering activities and a guided campus tour led by current students.
Other visits
If you are unable to attend any of these, and wish to make an informal visit to the University prior to applying or accepting your offer, please contact us at englishenquiries@nottingham.ac.uk to arrange a suitable time to visit when staff will be available to meet with you.
Campus tour video
Virtual open day
The University of Nottingham welcomes you on a virtual open day.
Accommodation
The University of Nottingham has a wide range of available accommodation for students. Further information can be found on the University's Accommodation webpages.
Take a look at the different types of accommodation on offer at The University of Nottingham.
Find out more about studying English at Nottingham
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