Awards

Target Award

Award Description:Bachelor of Arts with Honours - BAH
Alternative Exit
Alternative Exit
Alternative Exit

Programme Offerings

Full-Time

F2F-JMU-SEP

Educational Aims of the Course

The Single Honours degree programme in Drama and English gives students the opportunity to study two distinct but cognate academic disciplines. Both subjects are concerned with the ways in which cultural artefacts express meanings that are central to an experience of life. English emphasises reading, analysis, contextualisation and discussion of a range of fictional and non-fictional texts while Drama focuses on texts in production and performance, their creation and history as well as the development of a range of new theatre crafts and new work.

In Drama there is an emphasis on group work in production and performance, combining the theoretical with the creative and practical such that learning is achieved both through the collaborative process and individual study.

Although group discussion is central to the study of English, there is more emphasis on students working as individuals engaged in reading and writing on issues in literature.

In combination the two disciplines aim to enable students:

  1. To produce clear, artistically coherent, and original written and performed work, which articulates a combination of research and creative ideas.
  2. To read as a writer and view as a theatre maker/performer– with an ability to analyse texts, performances, and broadcasts, and respond to the effective power of both written, oral and visual language.
  3. To challenge students to read and view analytically across a culturally and historically broad range of writing and theatre, related to the aesthetic, ethical and social contexts of human experience.
  4. To use the views of others in the development and enhancement of practice and to formulate considered responses to the critical judgements of others.
  5. To develop their abilities to work both as independent thinkers and in team or group work,
  6. To enable the student to become rigorous, critical, and analytical in their thinking, initiating and taking responsibility for their own work.
  7. To engage in the creation, writing and/or production of performance through an understanding of appropriate performance vocabularies, techniques, crafts, and technologies, including digital.
  8. To foster students’ creative enthusiasm for Drama and English Literature and develop the capacity to respond creatively to a broad range of stimuli by engaging in scholarship through practice.

Learning Outcomes

1.
Envisage and articulate the performance potential implied by a playscript or other text.
2.
Apply and maintain professional employment standards of ethics, codes of conduct and industry working practices in a company context.
3.
Engage in independent and group research as part of the processes of experimentation and creating new work.
4.
Produce written or oral critique of literary and performance texts appropriate to target readership and/or audience.
5.
Demonstrate and articulate their range of transferable skills and demonstrate knowledge of potential career opportunities.
6.
Respond to feedback and critical stimulus to effect continuing professional and academic development.
7.
Analyse and evaluate their work and the work of others in an appropriate critical framework.
8.
Exercise independent judgement, undertake investigations, select and present cogent conclusions about a given body of information and engage in rational informed debate.
9.
Engage with a series of themes and issues essential to the understanding of society, culture, and the forms of representation that prevail in them.
10.
Research and synthesise information, ideas and critical perspectives on literary and performance texts and present reasoned argument.
11.
Engage in performance and production of a script based on an acquisition and understanding of appropriate performance and production vocabularies, skills, structures and working methods.
12.
Work collaboratively to make new work or original interpretations of extant work, both in ensemble and individual contexts, as a creative practitioner in an identified role and in a range of theatre/performance contexts.
13.
Effect significant communication with an audience through the application of the practical skills associated with performance.
14.
Apply performance and workshop techniques associated with key cultural forms or practitioners.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

The knowledge and understanding is acquired via skill based and exploratory workshops, lectures, seminars, production work and discursive sessions in tutorial. Knowledge and understanding is assessed via coursework, including group and individual practical work supported by evaluative statements/reports, formal essays, oral presentations, dissertations and viva voce, including self and peer assessment where appropriate. Intellectual (thinking) skills are promoted through teaching in lectures, practical class, seminar group discussion and tutorial. Learning to apply these thinking skills to Drama and English is achieved by practical production work, creative writing, seminars, formal essays and independent projects. Intellectual (thinking) skills are assessed by coursework essays, oral presentations and viva. At level six, students, with appropriate guidance undertake extended independent research and write a dissertation, which both addresses and measures key thinking. Workshop based classes and production projects are the fundamental means of teaching and learning professional practical skills. Self, group and tutor evaluation inform the learning process at all levels but particularly so at Levels 4 and 5. At level 6 students' independence to experiment, develop and test their practical skills in creative projects is supported by regular meetings with staff and peers. Students set themselves targets for the acquisition of specific skills following Personal Development Planning (PDP) meeting with tutors and have the opportunity as the course progresses to identify a particular area of specialism in practice for Level 6 study. In Drama, this is focused in Advanced Theatre Practice 1 and 2, and, in English, through the selection from a range of options. Students are encouraged to relate this to their understanding of their own employability or pathway after graduation. PDP further functions as a forum for discussion and a conduit for advice towards furthering the progress of the practice and the attendant skills. Specialist teachers are employed as necessary on courses requiring specific skills relevant to production projects. Assessment of the practical skills is via coursework, workshop and production projects. Assessment involves the staff team monitoring and marking both the process and performance against agreed and written criteria. Assessment of process learning is facilitated by tutor observation, individual logs, self-evaluative essays, self and peer assessment, and viva voce. Transferable skills are taught and developed through seminars, group work, tutorials, independent study, and work-related learning. Sustained independent learning is supported by individual or group tutorials, individual or group supervision, and the formulation of learning agreements. Independence both artistically and in terms of scholarship increases incrementally with the levels. Students receive induction into basic IT skills at Level 4 and are encouraged to use these skills throughout all levels. CANVAS is used to support students' learning on all modules. The ethic of group work is established at level four, based on industry best practices, and developed throughout the programme. Communication and creative skills and endeavour are central to the programme and inform all practical and production work at all levels. Assessment of transferable skills is through coursework at all levels. The forms of assessment are structured over the three years of the degree to allow students to develop certain transferable skills, such as those of presentation (oral or written) and communication, collaboration, self-reflection and the skills involved in learning independently.

Opportunities for work related learning

All students in their first year of study (Level 4) will have an opportunity to engage with the university’s career development and employability programme, as an integral part of a core module of study, establishing a context of assessing personal employability, within which students are encouraged to view their overall study. Further opportunities for work-related learning on the Drama and English programme are also offered by modules at Levels 5/6. English students work with a range of writers, publishers, literary editors, and theatre/film makers. They also benefit from external links with the publishing and related literary industries, and there are opportunities for placement within three work-related modules at Level 5 in English. Work-related learning has also been refined by the tutors and students of the Drama department over the past twenty years. The course encourages and facilitates student found placements and work related learning opportunities as an option at Level 6, There have been many examples of students gaining professional employment as a consequence of placements at Level 6 in professional environments such as; building based theatres (front of house, marketing, community outreach) small scale theatre companies (acting, tour booking, stage management) school drama departments( assistant teachers), casting agencies or media companies (production runners etc). Furthermore the course provides students with input from the staff who collectively have professional credits as actors, playwrights, designers, stage managers and drama teachers. Crucially this input is supplemented by guest speakers who are currently working professionally in the field. Many alumni of the department contribute to the course, including those who have successfully established new theatre companies. Work-related learning is embedded in the practical and theoretical work throughout the programme.

Programme Structure

Programme Structure Description

The programme lasts three years and leads at the end of the third year to the award of a BA (with honours). All modules are assigned a credit value according to the number of learning hours planned. All modules on the Drama and English Literature programme are worth 20 credits … For more content click the Read More button below. All students are eligible for transfer to BA Drama or BA English Literature at the start of Level 5, providing that they have successfully completed Level 4 of their original programme of study.

Structure

Level 6

Approved variance from Academic Framework Regulations

5104ENGL ‘International Experience’ (20 credit option module) – Module to run September to August, with consideration at September Assessment Board. 5118ENGL ‘English Work Experience’ (20 credit option module) – Module to run September to May, with consideration at June Assessment Board. 5144ENGL ‘Working in the USA’ (20 credit option module) … For more content click the Read More button below.

Entry Requirements

A levels
Access awards
Alternative qualifications considered
BTECs
GCSEs and equivalents
IELTS
International Baccalaureate
Interview required
Irish awards
NVQ
Reduced offer scheme
T levels
UCAS points
Welsh awards

Extra Entry Requirements

Can this course be deferred?

Yes

Is a DBS check required?

No

OCR National acceptability

  • National Certificate: Acceptable only when combined with other qualifications
  • National Diploma: Acceptable only when combined with other qualifications
  • National Extended Diploma: Acceptable on its own and combined with other qualifications

HECoS Code(s)

(CAH19-01) English studies
(CAH25-02) performing arts