Thank you for considering an application
To apply you’ll need to:
- Make note of the Queen Mary institution code: Q50
- Make note of your chosen course UCAS code:
Drama
- W400 — BA (Hons)
- W401 — BA (Hons) with Year Abroad
- Click on the link below:
Have further questions? How to apply | Entry requirements
Drama
2 study options
Drama BA (Hons)
Key information
- Degree
- BA (Hons)
- Duration
- 3 years
- Start
- September 2025
- 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
- £9,535
- Overseas fees
- £25,000
Funding information
Paying your fees
Drama with Year Abroad BA (Hons)
Key information
- Degree
- BA (Hons)
- Duration
- 4 years
- Start
- September 2025
- UCAS code
- W401
- 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
- £9,535
- Overseas fees
- £25,000
Funding information
Paying your fees
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.
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
- Performance, Acting, Text
- 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.
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.
I've enjoyed focusing on the concept of race - especially within casting.
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
Hear from our students Blanka, Dubem and Charlie about why you should join the #QMULfamily.
Entry requirements
| A-Level | Grades BBB at A-Level. This must include at least one arts, humanities or social sciences subject. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking. |
| IB | International 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. |
| BTEC | See our detailed subject and grade requirements |
| Access HE | We 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. |
| GCSE | Minimum 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: BCC at A-Level. Our enhanced contextual offer: CCC at A-Level. More information on our contextual offer criteria can be found on our contextualised admissions page. Please note that General Studies and Critical Thinking are excluded from any A-Level offer and cannot be considered. |
| A-Level | Grades BBB at A-Level. This must include at least one arts, humanities or social sciences subject. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking. |
| IB | International 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. |
| BTEC | See our detailed subject and grade requirements |
| Access HE | We 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. |
| GCSE | Minimum 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: BCC at A-Level. Our enhanced contextual offer: CCC at A-Level. More information on our contextual offer criteria can be found on our contextualised admissions page. Please note that General Studies and Critical Thinking are excluded from any A-Level offer and cannot be considered. |
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
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.
