Scottish Literature

Entry requirements

Our regular standard of admission is at least an Upper Second Class Honours degree (2:1), although candidates will usually also have completed or be undertaking a Masters qualification.

Research proposal

Candidates are required to provide an outline of the proposed research subject in about 1000 words. This need not be a final thesis proposal but should include:

• a straightforward, descriptive, and informative title
• the question that your research will address
• an account of why this question is important and worth investigating
• an assessment of how your own research will engage with recent study in the subject
• a brief account of the methodology and approach you will take
• a discussion of the primary sources that your research will draw upon, including printed books, manuscripts, archives, libraries, or museums
• an indicative bibliography of secondary sources that you have already consulted and/or are planning to consult

Your application, including your references and research proposal, will be passed to members of staff whose expertise and research interests most closely match the area of your proposed study.

Months of entry

Anytime

Course content

The University of Glasgow hosts the only academic unit in the UK exclusively dedicated to the teaching and research of Scottish Literature.

Scottish literature fulfils a unique role at the University of Glasgow where it has been a fully-fledged independent subject since the early 1970s. As a relatively ‘new’ subject in the academic context there is a great deal of research work still to be undertaken in Scottish literary studies. Glasgow is supremely well placed to support exciting postgraduate and postdoctoral research.

Scottish literature at Glasgow is well connected to a number of key archives of Scottish material held by our own Special Collections and the Mitchell Library in the city. Moreover we have strong connections with Edinburgh’s National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Poetry Library, both of which house a wealth of materials relating to Scottish writers and literature of all periods.

Our students have had much success in the last ten years with funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. And we offer smaller student bursaries for specifically Scottish projects.

Topics in which we would welcome postgraduate research include:

• Scottish literature of the 16th and 17th century Renaissance’
• 18th-century literary tradition
• Robert Burns studies
• Scottish Romanticism
• 20th-century Scottish modernism
• contemporary Scottish literature.

Information for international students

International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic module (not General Training)

• 7.0 with no sub-test under 7.0.
• Tests must have been taken within 2 years 5 months of start date. Applicants must meet the overall and subtest requirements using a single test.