Student review [#82151] for English Literature
at The University of Edinburgh

Edinburgh University is an extremely prestigious and widely reknowned University. Overall, I would recommend any student to come to this university if they are given the opportunity as it is located in a beautiful city and has great prestige. Nevertheless, the student satisfaction in general is quite low, there is an extremely expensive housing crisis, and our tutors are underpaid and on short term contracts!

It’s MA English Literature programme is the oldest English Literature department in the world. I am in my third year of the four year course. I love the Honours part of the course as I am able to choose my modules and study literature in depth from specific time periods and of specific styles, eg Early Modern Tragedy Plays.
Despite this, I think that the first two years of the course, the pre-Honours years, could definitely be improved. This is for a few reasons;
1. There is little contact hours for the course eg 2 lectures and 1 tutorial. If you are a Single Honours student you take other modules such as Politics and Philosophy. Whilst these are enriching, your English Literature knowledge doesn’t improve which is what you have gone to Uni to study!
2. The courses are far too breadth focussed eg over large time periods, rather than being in depth
3. There is no marked attendance, which means little student attendance and contribution
4. The first 2 years do not count towards your final degree grades

The difficulty with all of these things are that the first two years, despite not contributing to your overall degree, obviously require money to achieve. Rather than doing a 3 year course in England, a 4 year Scottish degree is extra money. Thus, the first 2 years of the English Literature degree at Edinburgh is disappointing for Single Honours students.

Despite this, I am still very happy that I chose to go to Edinburgh and the first 2 years, although not academically challenging, have allowed me to enjoy different elements of student life such as Societies and Volunteering.