How to prepare for your Master’s in English

Starting your postgraduate studies with us soon? We're looking forward to welcoming you! If you want to get a head start on your studies and get clued up on what's to come, take a look at our list of resources for things you can do to prepare for your course.

Reading and Research

Studying English, no matter which degree, means you will be encouraged to read a plethora of different sources. Depending on your course, you should look at historical and contemporary literature, poems, articles, short and longform stories and more.

As well as reading for pleasure, try taking the time to analyse and think on a deeper level about your source. Critical thinking is one of the most important skills to develop when studying English.

Visit

You will gain a lot from visiting one of our Postgraduate open days. Here, you will be able to take a look around our School of English facilities, housed at our £63 million Curzon building.

English Courses

Find out more about our courses

Watch

As an English student, you will want to look at a wide range of shows and movies that cover various time periods and genres, there are plenty to choose from on TV and streaming services. Generally, just keeping engaged with dramas and shows that are written by or based on works by authors will be beneficial.

Other than this, you can check out the BCU YouTube channel for information on student life, facilities, and further course details. There are several videos dedicated to the School of English and our English facilities and courses.

Listen

There are many podcasts you can listen to that will help you to engage with English in different ways. These include:

  •         Classic Literature Podcast
  •         The Daily Poem
  •         Get Lit Podcast
  •         History of English Podcast
  •         All Ears English

Follow

Keep up to date with all things BCU on our main Twitter account, where we post ongoings, news, and more. We’re also on Instagram and Facebook.

What should you do next?

Find out about our Graduate Scholarship

You could be eligible for a 20% fee reduction if you're a BCU graduate enrolling onto an eligible Master's or PhD qualification for the first time in 2024/25 or 2025/26!

BCU's Graduate Scholarship

Discover what it's like to study a Master's

Josi shares her experience of starting a Master’s straight after her Bachelor’s degree at BCU and discusses a lot of the questions you may currently have about the transition between courses.

Josi's experience

Apply using our fast track application

Our fast track application means you can apply for postgraduate study in just a few minutes if you're a current BCU undergraduate student. 

How apply using the fast track application