English

Number of places at Balliol

7-8

Subject information

Please see the Faculty of English website, and the subject page on the undergraduate admissions website.

Course requirements

Please see the entrance requirements pages on the undergraduate admissions website for more information.

College requirements

None specific to Balliol.

Admissions/Selection criteria

For information on how applicants are assessed, see the selection criteria pages on the Faculty of English website.

English at Balliol

Balliol was one of the first colleges to appoint a Fellow in English when the Honours School was established, and the subject has flourished here ever since. Students at Balliol cover the full range of the course, from Old English to the present day: we encourage you throughout to explore the subject as widely as possible, and to develop in depth your own academic interests in the final year Special Papers. English graduates go on to pursue a variety of careers, including academia, journalism, teaching, media, law, and finance. Some become writers. There are College prizes for essays and for poetry; and annually the second year take a field trip to the Lake District as part of their study of Wordsworth and Coleridge and the other English Romantic poets.

Tutors

Seamus Perry, the Tutorial Fellow in English, teaches English Literature 1660-present. He has published widely on many topics, including Coleridge, Wordsworth, Tennyson, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, and later writers.