Dickens Studies

Entry requirements

The minimum entry level required for this course is as follows:

• a first or second-class honours degree from a recognised university or,
• a recognised professional qualification with relevant work experience

Months of entry

January, October

Course content

Based in the city that gave Charles Dickens inspiration throughout his writing life, this groundbreaking London research programme offers students unique access not only to world-class scholars and practitioners drawn from the field of Dickens Studies and the media, but furthermore to the unique collections of the Charles Dickens Museum.

It is directed by Professor John Drew and Dr Pete Orford, Dickens experts of international reputation, who are also full-time members of the University’s highly regarded Department of English.

The course enables the student to undertake research on a specific topic, agreed with the supervisor, in any area of Dickens Studies: his novels, short fiction, journalism, plays, the public readings, adaptations of his work (cinematic, theatrical) as well as comparative work on translations, writing by precursors, contemporaries, rivals, imitators and inheritors. The research is presented in the form of three ‘Project Preliminaries’: an extended research proposal, an annotated bibliography, and a short research-based case study for which students will be invited to investigate either the archive holdings of the Charles Dickens Museum or the network of Dickens’s collaborators for his journals, as made available by the University’s celebrated project Dickens Journals Online. On successful completion of these three preliminary projects, students will then progress to their dissertation, written under the guidance of the supervisor, of not less than 20,000 words.

A central feature of the course will be its series of ten evening seminars with distinguished speakers, held both at the University’s Gower Street premises and in the Board Room of the Charles Dickens Museum, each followed by a dinner and discussion, in private rooms at a nearby restaurant in Bloomsbury.

Information for international students

We are happy to consider all international application. If English is not your first language, please check our postgraduate English language requirements.

Fees and funding

Please visit our website for the latest information relating to our tuition fees, scholarships and bursaries.