How to apply

The Department welcomes applications from candidates who wish to pursue postgraduate study in English at York. Candidates may apply for full-time or part-time study on all courses.

Admissions to postgraduate courses at the University of York are handled centrally by Postgraduate Admissions. Their website offers guidance on the applications process. Admission is primarily dependent upon academic and (if appropriate) English language conditions.

How to fast track your application

Academic requirements

MA programmes

Applicants for MA programmes in English and Related Literature will normally be expected to have obtained upper second-class honours, or equivalent, in an appropriate subject.

MPhil/PhD

For doctoral research, we would generally expect you to have completed an MA in a relevant subject.

Preliminary enquiries are welcomed and should be made as early as possible. However, a scattershot approach - emailing all staff members regardless of the relationship between their research interests and yours - is unlikely to produce positive results. Before writing your research proposal, we advise you to consult the list of staff research interests and identify potential supervisors in the department. When making their application, candidates are advised to make their research proposals as specific and clear as possible. Candidates should indicate the member(s) of staff that they would wish to work with.

If it is not clear which member of staff is appropriate, you should email the Graduate Chair (see the listings and contact details pages).

Students embarking on a PhD programme are initially enrolled provisionally for that qualification. Confirmation of PhD registration is dependent upon the submission of a satisfactory proposal that meets the standards required for the degree, usually in your second year of study.

Finance

All students are expected to make adequate financial arrangements to cover both tuition and maintenance for the duration of their courses. There are many sources of financial assistance available to students at the University of York. These include the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), through the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities.

Details of these awards can be found on the Department's Funding and money page and the Postgraduate Admissions page on Fees and Funding.

English language requirements

For those whose first language is not English, there are English language requirements.

Please note that English language requirements for Tier 4 general student visa purposes may be different from those required by this Department.

Pre-sessional courses in English language skills, to be taken before the commencement of the degree courses, may be recommended or required.

Application deadlines

As far as the Department is concerned, there is no formal deadline for the receipt of applications, but most funding bodies have strict deadlines which you should be aware of.

In addition to the information on these web pages, further information may be obtained from:

Graduate Admissions
Department of English and Related Literature
University of York
Heslington
York, Y010 5DD
Email: engl13@york.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1904 323369
Fax: +44 (0)1904 323372