Music and English Literature - BA (Hons)

Cardiff University

Our Music and English Literature (BA) programme combines studies in literature, music and culture with creative and practical skills development which will open doors to a variety of career pathways. During your time with us, we’ll nurture your critical and creative thinking, encourage your understanding and appreciation of diversity, enable you to communicate to a high standard and foster your resilience and independence. You will also acquire a wealth of transferable skills that are valued by employers and will support your professional ambitions. Our dynamic, flexible degree programme allows you to study English literature from different periods and cultures, and across the range of principal literary genres. You won’t be restricted to studying the printed word: we’re intrigued by the connections between literature and film, art, history, technology, language, and everyday life, and our teaching reflects these interests.

Your music studies will include a range of academic modules which will develop your understanding of music theory and ensure you’re equipped to critically and reflectively assess styles and techniques. Alongside this, you’ll be encouraged to take full advantage of our ensembles representing a wide range of musical repertoires and traditions, such as the Jazz Ensemble, Symphonic Winds, Symphony Orchestra, Gamelan Ensemble, Chamber Choir, Chamber Orchestra, Lanyi (West African Ensemble), Symphony Chorus and the Pop Collective.

You’ll also benefit from our home in Wales’ capital city. Cardiff is a creative and cultural hub, with a rich and diverse artistic and literary heritage. The city is home to a professional opera company, the Welsh National Opera, and a professional symphony orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with which we enjoy long-established and fruitful relationships. Through these relationships, our students can attend dress rehearsals and purchase cut-price tickets for concerts. Alongside professional groups, Cardiff is home to a range of music and performance venues with passionate and welcoming communities.

Career prospects

Our graduates are versatile, collaborative, and critically independent individuals who are able to communicate complex ideas effectively to diverse audiences. They demonstrate personal and professional integrity, reliability, and competence, and they have the ability to motivate themselves and others in meeting agreed responsibilities.

During your degree you can take full advantage of the wide-range of career-building opportunities provided by the university's Student Futures team. This support will help to develop your practical know-how and confidence and can include help identifying a career, searching for jobs, preparing for interviews and assessments and gaining work experience.

Further opportunities to gain work experience are incorporated into the degree, with our Business of Music modules designed to help you better understand different branches of the music profession and provide an opportunity to undertake a short placement in a music-related or arts-related area.

Our graduates progress into a wide range of careers, using the skills developed throughout their studies. Some choose to pursue professions that make direct use of their expertise in the discipline, while others enter the public or private sectors, from teaching to graduate-track management.

You’ll find our graduates in roles across education, HR, marketing, publishing, public relations, the civil service, the military, journalism, banking and insurance, and the charity sector, in first posts that include Trainee Teacher, Marketing Assistant, Account Executive, Digital Editor and Editorial Assistant.

Placements

Year 2 modules on the Business of Music I/II give an opportunity for a short placement, either in one block or as a series of regular workplace visits.