Creative Writing and Drama

You’ll study plays, practitioners and genres that have been particularly influential in shaping contemporary theatre and performance. We give you the opportunity to explore:  

• Theatre practitioners  
• Playwrights  
• Performance making  
• Writing, directing and performing.  

Contemporary creative writing is diverse. It’s digital and on the page; social and singular. Our comprehensive programme includes prose fiction, YA, flash fiction, poetry, scriptwriting for live performance and screen, life writing and memoir.  

In fact, whatever you want to write, you’ll find an opportunity to explore it with us. You'll have the opportunity to collaborate on creative projects with other students both within and outside Creative Writing.  

The course also includes a focus on:  

• Plays and musical theatre productions in the University Theatre  
• Theatre in education performances and workshops in local schools  
• New plays written by students  
• New and existing works devised, directed and performed by students.  

You’ll be able to work on magazines, local literary festivals and podcasts, while collaborating with fellow students through our creative writing, publishing and journalism student-run societies.  

At BSU, our courses are designed to equip our graduates with the knowledge and skills they’ll need for the real world. To do this, we are continually improving our courses by responding to feedback from students and other stakeholders. This may mean changes may be made to the curriculum. You’ll always be given notice of any such changes.

For more information on how we approach such changes at the university, please read our policies on

• Suspensions and Discontinuations
• Programme modifications.

Year one

Build the foundations. You’ll gain skills in working with play texts as part of a theatrical ensemble, performing and directing, theatre production and performance; these will underpin your work in years two and three.    

The course is carefully designed to enable you to explore and experiment with your writing and understand the foundations of writing craft. In addition to learning how to give and receive feedback from other writers in the BSU writing workshop, you’ll be experimenting with an array of different writing forms and genres.   

You’ll also attend lectures from visiting writers and members of staff who will talk to you about their writing lives and experiences in the industry. 

Year two

Apply your skills. You’ll work with local practitioners, collaborate with local venues and learn from visiting professional companies and artists. You'll also have the opportunity to apply yourself in a variety of performance projects. Our focus is allowing you to create original work, while you explore your particular areas of interest such as puppetry, acting and directing, devising, performance analysis, applied theatre, musical theatre and theatre production.   

You’ll take a mixture of core and optional modules from a list that includes, for example, genre fiction, life writing, short stories, form and listening in poetry, and writing for screen. This range will enable you to specialise in a particular form or genre of writing.  

You'll also take the project module, Professional Portfolio, designed to help you develop the skills you need as a professional writer. For this, you'll be assigned a member of staff to be your project supervisor. They'll help guide and advise you as you develop your idea.

Year three

Develop your specialisms. Increasingly, you'll define and manage your own work, and carry out research into an area of drama or performance of your choice. You may explore topics such as performance, podcasting, staging gender, staging Shakespeare, musical theatre, theatre for social change, media and performance, and devising and puppetry. There's also the opportunity to collaborate with staff on projects relating to their areas of expertise.   

The final year of the programme is designed to consolidate your writing practice and support your progression into a writing-related career. You will take a dissertation-equivalent module in at least one of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, scriptwriting or writing for young people.   

Alongside that you have a choice of career-focused modules which include Live Literature and Professional Practice which offer you the opportunity to develop your own industry-facing creative projects.   

Assessment is based on 100% coursework (no exams). 

We use a variety of assessment tasks across the programme, including:  

• Public performance  
• Playwriting  
• In-class performance of devised or published work  
• Oral presentations  
• Performance of backstage/technical roles  
• Critical reflection  
• Working as part of an ensemble  
• Script analysis  
• Devising  
• Individual and group research projects.   

Most creative writing modules will require you to submit a portfolio of creative writing along with a reflective or contextual essay in which you describe what you have learned in class, what you have learned from the set texts and working on your own writing.  

Creative Writing and Drama at Bath Spa University is taught through a mixture of workshops, seminars, rehearsals, work placements, theatre visits, lectures, presentations and tutorials. Throughout the course you'll have the opportunity to read and discuss each other's work in a supportive, informal and informative atmosphere as well as discuss your work with your tutor on a one-to-one basis.  

We believe that for you to achieve your maximum potential you have to take yourself and your writing seriously, and that the best way to do this is to develop a professional approach. Therefore, wherever appropriate, our modules run to industry standards and adopt industry practices.  

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our information on Your Learning and Teaching at BSU.

Both Creative Writing and Drama are taught at our stunning Newton Park campus, where you’ll be surrounded by wildlife and a beautiful 18th century landscape and lake.

You'll have access to a range of excellent Virtual Learning Environment, including:

• facilities with its state-of-the-art classrooms, study spaces and cafe
• Digital labs (Mac rooms) for students learning new media
• Commons building to support you in your modules.

As a Drama student, you'll also have access to our range of theatre and performance spaces, including a state-of-the-art equipped theatre, rehearsal spaces and studios. 

As a student of both Creative Writing and Drama, you'll be able to benefit from:

• Cameras, audio recording equipment available for students to borrow absolutely free
• Technical staff to help students use industry standard software
• Library with print and ebooks, digital resources, literary magazines and journals
• Amphitheatre 
• University Theatre
• Michael Tippett Centre
• Oldfield Park Theatre Workshop.

As part of your degree, you could study abroad on a placement at one of Bath Spa’s partner universities.

Creative Writing students often find exciting subject-related placements and we do our best to help students make connections and gain experiences in companies and organisations that interest them. Students often work with the Bath Literature Festival, for instance, or with production companies such as the BBC. The course team will help you on an individual basis as opportunities present themselves.

Past students have benefited from industry-based opportunities and experiences that have been incorporated into their modules, enabling them to secure credit for the time they have spent in industry environments.

You’ll benefit from visits from industry professionals. Previous visitors have covered a range of specialisms including: playwriting, directing, acting, television production, theatre in education, and children’s theatre. We also have partnerships with local venues, local schools and local community groups.

We equip you with creative, collaborative, writing, presentational and communication skills that are useful in many professional and vocational areas.

The graduates from our Creative Writing and Drama degrees have careers in:

• Novelist
• Science magazine editor
• Children’s author
• Playwright
• Digital Marketing Executive
• Social media writer
• Commercial copywriter for brands or charities
• Regional editor for an online magazine
• University lecturer
• Editor (Random House)
• Poet
• Founder of an award-winning theatre company
• Executive Director of a theatre school
• Principal of an Academy of Performing Arts
• Dramatherapist and Tutor.

Some graduates choose to pursue postgraduate study, especially in teaching, or vocational training. Recent graduates have gone on to study Master's degrees at Central School of Speech and Drama, Yale Theatre School and the Royal Academy of Music. Many of our students go on to study one of our specialist MA programmes in either Creative Writing, Writing for Young People, Scriptwriting, Nature and Travel Writing, or Children’s Publishing.

You'll get the chance to take part in Sparkfest – a four-week celebration of the creative work from students, alumni, partners and our collaborators at Bath Spa School of Music and Performing Arts.

You'll create the material, then perform and produce it. You'll also design and construct the sets and take on roles in stage management, publicity, and health and safety. In doing this, you'll gain transferable skills such as project management, collaboration and teamwork you can use in a range of careers.

Each year Creative Writing awards a range of prizes to its students to celebrate the best writing produced in the final year. The department also awards the Les Arnold Prize for the top student in the second year, honouring the memory of poet Les Arnold, who started the writing programme in 1992.

Students are given numerous opportunities to focus on project work – from the first year core module (Writer's Workshop One) to the second year core module and into several project modules in the third year. Student projects are a core part of the Creative Writing curriculum and students are assisted to develop project ideas that support their creative and career ambitions. 

If you’re a full-time undergraduate student starting your first year at Bath Spa University, you can apply for the Certificate in Global Citizenship, which you’ll study alongside your degree.

You’ll gain global awareness and add an international dimension to your student experience, and funding is available. On successful completion of the programme, you’ll be awarded a Certificate in Global Citizenship. This is in addition to your degree; it doesn’t change your degree title or results.

The Professional Placement Year (PPY) provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for, and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Before your PPY, you'll work to identify roles of interest and secure a placement. The Placements Team will support through timetabled sessions and 1:1 appointments.

As well as completing a minimum of 900 placement hours, you will complete two assessments demonstrating your skill development, growth in professional behaviours and how the PPY has impacted your future career aspirations.