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Drama

Entry Year: 2024

2 study options

Drama BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
3 years
Start
September 2024
UCAS code
W400
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades BBB at A-Level. This must include at least one arts, humanities or social sciences subject. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£23,350
Funding information
Paying your fees

Drama with Year Abroad BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
4 years
Start
September 2024
UCAS code
W401
Institution code
Q50
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£23,350
Funding information
Paying your fees

Year abroad cost

Finances for studying abroad on exchange

View details

Overview

Follow your curiosity and challenge your ideas of what performance can be and how it can impact the world.

There’s more to studying drama than being a skilled performer – it’s about being a skilled writer, researcher and collaborator too. As the lines between arts and life are blurring, this multifaceted subject will have you studying a variety of cultures and historical periods, across a range of plays, site-specific performance, live art and socially engaged performance.  
 
Ranked 2nd in the UK for drama in Times Good University Guide 2022, and 1st for research in the UK (REF2021), you know you’re being taught by academics at the forefront of their discipline. You’ll be challenged to make discoveries using a mixture of practice and theory. And with previous projects including women’s theatre in prison, you’ll question how performance can be used in different settings from museums to the street. 

Register your interest

Step into the limelight 

Providing opportunities for your development is important to us. Benefit from using our studio theatres, rehearsal rooms, cinemas and production suite. Not only that, but our technical team will be on hand to make your ideas happen.  

Make the most of our London location with free theatre tickets to the city’s contemporary theatre, good employer links and internship opportunities. We work with companies like Clean Break who were recently at the National Theatre. And we provide creative skills workshops and bespoke careers events throughout the course.  

Drama is a great launchpad into a range of careers. Our graduates aren't just performers and actors – they are communications managers, marketing executives, PR professionals and teachers. Or perhaps you’ll follow in the footsteps of graduates who now work for the National Theatre, Netflix and Disney.  

Structure

You can complete your Drama degree in three or four years. If you choose to do a year abroad this will take place in Year 3 and Year 3 modules will instead be studied in Year 4.

Year 1

Your first year includes a combination of practice-based and seminar-based modules:

  • London/Culture/Performance
  • Power Plays
  • Making Theatre and Performance
  • Beyond Acting
  • Interventions
  • Spectatorship: Time, Place, Performance

You can find out more about our modules from Queen Mary’s module directory.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 2

Compulsory

  • Culture, Power and Performance (seminar)
  • Group Practical Project (practice-based)

You select the rest of your modules from a range of seminar and practice-based options that changes each year.

Modules may include

Practice-based:

  • Action Design
  • Adaptations
  • Making Contemporary Theatre
  • Performing Personae
  • Performing Shakespeare
  • Theatre Writings

Seminar-based:

  • Acting Theory
  • Art and the Climate Crisis
  • Costume Dramas
  • Costume, Fashion, Performance
  • Dance Theatre
  • Illness and Disability in Performance
  • London Performance Now
  • Naturalism
  • Performance and Visual Culture in South Asia
  • Places of Performance
  • Race and Racism in Performance
  • The Senses in Performance
  • Theatre for the People
  • Voice, Gender and Performance

You can find out more about our modules from Queen Mary’s module directory.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 3

Select from

  • Practice-Based Research Project
  • Written Research Project

You select the rest of your modules from a range of seminar and practice-based options that changes each year

Modules may include

Practice-based:

  • Applied Performance
  • Choreographic Performance
  • Making Site-Specific Performance
  • Performance Composition
  • Performance in the Gallery
  • Verbatim, Testimonial, Tribunal

Seminar-based:

  • Culture, Performance and Globalisation
  • Feeling It: Emotion and Sensation in the Theatre
  • Live Art: Then and Now
  • Madness and Theatricality
  • Offstage London
  • Performance and Community
  • Performance, Sexuality, Identity
  • Shakespeare After Shakespeare
  • Show Business: Theatre and Capitalism
  • Staging Selfies: Performance and Social Media
  • Writing about the Arts

You can find out more about our modules from Queen Mary’s module directory.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Study options

Apply for this degree with any of the following options. Take care to use the correct UCAS code - it may not be possible to change your selection later.

Year abroad

Go global and study abroad as part of your degree – apply for our Drama BA with a Year Abroad. Queen Mary has links with universities in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia (partnerships vary for each degree programme).

Find out more about study abroad opportunities at Queen Mary.

Additional Costs

Some modules require you to buy books, tickets to performances or exhibitions, and travel within London. Tickets are free in your first year and, where possible, offered at a discounted rate in subsequent years.

student profile image
Testimonial

I've enjoyed focusing on the concept of race - especially within casting.

Dubem Udemezue, Drama (2019)

Teaching

Teaching and learning

You’ll usually attend eight hours of classes weekly, mainly in the form of seminars and studio-based workshops.

Practice-based modules include additional scheduled studio time weekly for student-led practice. Some modules also include lectures, tutorials and field trips.

For every hour spent in class, you'll complete approximately three to four further hours of independent study preparing for classes and assignments.

Assessment

Assessment typically includes a combination of written and practical assignments, such as essays, performances, presentations, portfolios, programme notes, reviews, feature articles, artist websites, podcasts and dissertations. Some assessment is based around group work, especially for performance projects and presentations.

Resources and facilities

The School offers on-campus resources to support your studies, including:

  • BLOC Arts Centre including a state-of-the-art cinema with DOLBY Atmos 
  • rehearsal spaces
  • dedicated performance spaces: the Pinter Studio and Film and Drama Studio
  • motion capture equipment, allowing students to explore innovative practices with new technology and film
  • opportunities to meet visiting experts including artists, directors, producers, playwrights and activists
  • opportunities to act, direct and stage manage through the Queen Mary Theatre Company
  • proximity to specialist archives and collections such as the National Theatre Archive, Live Art Development Agency Study Room, Women’s Library, Black Cultural Archives
  • access to Senate House Library and the British Library
Video

Hear from our students Blanka, Dubem and Charlie about why you should join the #QMULfamily.

Entry requirements

A-LevelGrades BBB at A-Level. This must include at least one arts, humanities or social sciences subject. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
IBInternational Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 30 points overall, including 5,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects. This must include at least one arts, humanities or social sciences subject.
BTECSee our detailed subject and grade requirements
Access HEWe consider applications from students with the Access to Higher Education Diploma. The minimum academic requirement is to achieve 60 credits overall with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 15 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. This must include at least 6 Level 3 credits in arts or humanities modules at Distinction.
GCSEMinimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4.
EPQ

Alternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification.

For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq

Contextualised admissions

Our standard contextual offer: Grades BCC at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

Our enhanced contextual offer (for care experienced students, refugee/asylum seekers or students who have completed Realising Opportunities or Access to Queen Mary): Grades CCC at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

More information on how this information is used for a contextual offer can be found on our contextualised admissions page.

A-LevelGrades BBB at A-Level. This must include at least one arts, humanities or social sciences subject. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
IBInternational Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 30 points overall, including 5,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects. This must include at least one arts, humanities or social sciences subject.
BTECSee our detailed subject and grade requirements
Access HEWe consider applications from students with the Access to Higher Education Diploma. The minimum academic requirement is to achieve 60 credits overall with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 15 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. This must include at least 6 Level 3 credits in arts or humanities modules at Distinction.
GCSEMinimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4.
EPQAlternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification. For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq
Contextualised admissionsOur standard contextual offer: Grades BCC at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

Our enhanced contextual offer (for care experienced students, refugee/asylum seekers or students who have completed Realising Opportunities or Access to Queen Mary): Grades CCC at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

More information on how this information is used for a contextual offer can be found on our contextualised admissions page.

Non-UK students

We accept a wide range of European and international qualifications in addition to A-levels, the International Baccalaureate and BTEC qualifications. Please visit International Admissions for full details.

If your qualifications are not accepted for direct entry onto this degree, consider applying for a foundation programme.

English language

Find out more about our English language entry requirements, including the types of test we accept and the scores needed for entry to the programme.

You may also be able to meet the English language requirement for your programme by joining a summer pre-sessional programme before starting your degree.

Further information

See our general undergraduate entry requirements.

Funding

Loans and grants

UK students accepted onto this course are eligible to apply for tuition fee and maintenance loans from Student Finance England or other government bodies.

Scholarships and bursaries

Queen Mary offers a generous package of scholarships and bursaries, which currently benefits around 50 per cent of our undergraduates.

Scholarships are available for home, EU and international students. Specific funding is also available for students from the local area. International students may be eligible for a fee reduction. We offer means-tested funding, as well as subject-specific funding for many degrees.

Find out what scholarships and bursaries are available to you.

Support from Queen Mary

We offer specialist support on all financial and welfare issues through our Advice and Counselling Service, which you can access as soon as you have applied for a place at Queen Mary.

Take a look at our Student Advice Guides which cover ways to finance your degree, including:

  • additional sources of funding
  • planning your budget and cutting costs
  • part-time and vacation work
  • money for lone parents.

Careers

Our Drama graduates go on to work in a variety of roles – including performing, programming and producing – across many different sectors, such as the arts, media, publishing and teaching.

Recent Drama graduates have been hired by:

  • BBC
  • Electric Cinema
  • London Film Museum
  • National Theatre
  • Odeon
  • Shakespeare’s Globe.

Career support

You’ll have access to bespoke careers support during your Drama degree, including access to experts in Drama, specific modules (e.g. Applied Performance, Drama and Education, Writing about the Arts); School and Department-run careers and professional development workshops; opportunities for extra-curricular experience with arts organisations; and advice about postgraduate study.

Our Queen Mary careers team can also offer:

  • specialist advice on choosing a career path
  • support with finding work experience, internships and graduate jobs
  • feedback on CVs, cover letters and application forms
  • interview coaching.

Learn more about career support and development at Queen Mary.

Data for these courses

Drama - BA (Hons)

Drama with Year Abroad - BA (Hons)

The Discover Uni dataset (formerly Unistats)

About the School

The School of the Arts combines innovation, discovery and excellence in education and research in Drama, Film, Modern Languages, English & Comparative Literature, Creative Writing, Linguistics and Liberal Arts. We rank in the top 100 worldwide for Arts and Humanities (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024)

With our commitment to social justice, inclusivity and social mobility, our collaborations with external organisations, prominent writers and performers, and our facilities that support both academic and practice-based learning, an education in the School of the Arts equips our students with critical thinking and practical skills, unleashes their imagination and enables them to reach the levels of excellence needed in today’s industries.

We regularly host prominent writers and performers and collaborate with leading organisations such as the V&A, the Barbican, the Live Art Development Agency and Shakespeare’s Globe.

We are renowned for the depth and impact of research - which leads our teaching. We rank 1st for drama and in the top 10 for film in the UK for the quality of our research (REF2021). Our multilingual community brings together brilliant minds from across the world to share a wealth of expertise combining research excellence with an unrivalled commitment to social justice and social mobility.

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