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About the School of English
Welcome to the School of English at Trinity College Dublin.
The School of English at Trinity is one of the oldest in Britain or Ireland, and in 1867 it founded the first ever Chair in English Literature. Today the School comprises a total of approximately 500 undergraduates, over 100 hundred visiting students, and about 90 students who are reading for a higher degree. There are around twenty-three permanent members of staff whose research and teaching expertise encompasses a wide range of areas and topics, and a substantial number of Teaching Associates and Teaching Assistants.
In spite of the large numbers of students, the School maintains a strong commitment to small-group teaching. In the first two years of the undergraduate degrees all lectures are supported by tutorial groups (of up to nine students) dedicated only to that course, and in the final two years most courses are taught through seminar with an intended maximum of twenty students in each option.
Undergraduates
Students may read English in one of two ways: as a Single Honors degree in English Studies or as part of the Two-Subject Moderatorship. The Single Honors degree has about 40 students in each year, and the TSM approximately 85. In addition to these students, the School attracts a large number of Visiting Students each year. Both the Single Honors Degree and the TSM degree are four-year courses, divided into two Freshman years and two Sophister years. In the first two years, students follow a prescribed set of courses which serve both to explore a wide range of literature and to develop the skills for critical analysis. Teaching is by lecture with dedicated tutorials. While the Sophister years do include some compulsory courses, almost all courses are options, with students having a wide range of choice. Only the marks achieved in the Sophister years count towards the final degree.
Single Honors students share courses with TSM students, but also take courses that are designed to develop expertise in the earlier literary periods (pre-1400) and in specific genres. The study of pre-1400 literature requires learning Old English and this is an essential aspect of the Single Honors Degree. TSM students take both of their subjects for the first three years but after year three they drop one of them and concentrate solely on the other during their final year.
The School of English participates actively in the Socrates exchange programme and students are encouraged to study abroad in either their second or third year. We also encourage students to take the language options that are offered in College, and the Broad Curriculum courses.
For Trinity students taking degrees outside the Faculty of Arts (Letters), the English Department runs a Broad Curriculum course, "Understanding Literature." The Department also offers two Evening Lecture series each year; one devoted to texts on the Leaving Certificate course in English, and intended mainly for pupils and teachers, the other intended for anyone interested in reading. For details on the courses offered this year, see evening courses.
Postgraduates Courses
The School offers four taught Master of Philosophy courses, in Creative Writing, Popular Literature, Anglo-Irish Literature and Literatures of the Americas . These are one-year courses with strict limits on the numbers of students. The closing date for applications to these courses is at the end of February each year.
Research degrees
There are approximately 65 students undertaking supervised research in the Department, leading either to the M. Litt. or Ph. D. degree by thesis. If you are interested in applying to do research see the Staff and Research pages for more details. The closing date for research applications is at the end of February each year.
Last updated: September 2, 2008. Email: english@tcd.ie.