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Ph.d. requirements.

We attempt to make each stage of the progress towards the doctoral degree less an obstacle race, with each stage a step to be got through before the "real work" can begin, than an integral and component part of the making of an intellectual.

Course Requirements

At Duke, the doctoral candidate must be enrolled for six semesters of full tuition. Students must successfully complete eleven graduate courses for credit in their first two years, but they may, of course, take more than the minimum number of courses, either as audits or for credit: typically students take between twelve and fourteen courses in their first three years of study. All courses at the 500-800 levels in both the English department and the Program in Literature may be counted toward the eleven-course requirement and courses in other departments for which students have an intellectual rationale can also be counted. At the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies, up to three courses of the eleven normally required may be remitted for a student who has completed an MA degree at another university.

Foreign Language Requirement

Our program requires foreign language proficiency in at least one language. We ask that the student establish this proficiency within the first two years of the program, either by certifying a grade of "B" or better in a literature course conducted in the language at another college or university within two years of matriculating at Duke, or by successfully completing one of the departmentally approved modes of satisfying the requirement listed in the Handbook.

Areas of Concentration

Beginning in the second year of the program, the student selects one major and two minor fields of concentration that will form the basis of the preliminary examination on a major area of concentration. The student should also select a preliminary examining committee, consisting of a major-field faculty advisor and three other faculty members, by the end of the second year. A summer reading list is due to the Director of Graduate Study before the summer of the student's third year. For a helpful list of questions to ask as you assemble a committee and prepare for exams, please see the Graduate English Association Best Practices Sheet for Exams and Reading lists .  

Portfolio Review

At the end of the Fall semester of the second year, the student selects three papers that they have written for coursework to make a portfolio.  They write a brief reflective statement about the portfolio and select two faculty members—usually one of these the prospective committee chair and one a possible committee member—who, along with the DGS, read the three papers and discuss them with the student before the end of the Spring semester. 

Preliminary Examination

In the spring semester of the third year, the student takes two written examinations, one on the major and one on the two minor areas of concentration. These take the form of two take-home 12 hour exams. The written portion is followed within two weeks by an oral examination on the major as well as the two minor fields. Both the written and the oral examinations are administered by the preliminary examination committee (see above).

Dissertation

In the fourth and fifth years, the student will be expected to complete a book-length thesis of original scholarship. The Ph.D. degree is awarded upon completion and successful defense of the dissertation. The dissertation committee of four members (typically, though not invariably, the four members of the preliminary examining committee) is responsible for assisting as appropriate in the dissertation research and writing, deciding on the acceptability of the work, and administering the Final Doctoral Oral Examination.

Dissertation Chapter Meeting

A chapter consultation for the dissertation is scheduled within six months of the preliminary examination. At this meeting, the student submits a draft of the first chapter and a brief outline of the projected shape of the rest of the dissertation for discussion with the assembled dissertation committee. From this point forward, the director of the dissertation serves as the principal advisor, and the second and third reader are typically also asked to read work in progress. The fourth reader usually reads the dissertation in full only when it has reached its final form.

Time Limits and Deadlines

The dissertation should normally be submitted and accepted within two years of the preliminary examination; extensions may be granted, but only in extraordinary circumstances will they be granted for longer than two further years. Regulations  governing details such as the filing of the title  by a stipulated deadline, the format, and the deadline for submission of a final version before the scheduled examination, are all set by the Graduate School and should be carefully followed.

The Final Doctoral Oral Examination

All members of the dissertation committee must participate in this examination. Typically, the exam takes two hours, and it may involve questions not only about the content of the dissertation, but on the candidate's major field. Minor changes or corrections on the dissertation may be requested. Three committee members, including the dissertation director, must agree that the candidate will pass.

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Ph.D. Program

Click  here for the Handbook for Graduate Study in English .  This document includes departmental policies and procedures concerned with graduate study.

The Berkeley English Department offers a wide-ranging Ph.D. program, engaging in all historical periods of British and American literature, Anglophone literature, and critical and cultural theory. The program aims to assure that students gain a broad knowledge of literature in English as well as the highly-developed skills in scholarship and criticism necessary to do solid and innovative work in their chosen specialized fields.

Please note that the department does not offer a Master’s Degree program or a degree program in Creative Writing. Students can, however, petition for an M.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing upon completion of the Ph.D. course requirements (one of which must be a graduate writing workshop) and submission of a body of creative work.

Students interested in combining a Ph.D. in English with studies in another discipline may pursue Designated Emphases or Concurrent Degrees in a number of different fields

Normative time to complete the program is six years. The first two years are devoted to fulfilling the course and language requirements. The third year is spent preparing for and taking the Ph.D. oral qualifying examination. The fourth through sixth years are devoted to researching and writing the prospectus and dissertation.

The general goal of the first two years is to assure that the students have a broad and varied knowledge of the fields of British and American literature in their historical dimensions, and are also familiar with a wide range of literary forms, critical approaches, and scholarly methods. Students will complete twelve courses distributed as follows:

• 1) English 200, “Problems in the Study of Literature”
• 2) Medieval through 16 th -Century
• 3) 17 th - through 18 th -Century
• 4) 19 th -Century
• 5) 20 th -Century
• 6) a course organized in terms other than chronological coverage.
• 7-12) Elective courses.

(A thirteenth required course in pedagogy can be taken later.) Students who have done prior graduate course work may transfer up to three courses for credit toward the 12-course requirement. Up to five of the 12 courses may be taken in other departments.

Students must demonstrate either proficiency in two foreign languages or advanced knowledge in one foreign language before the qualifying examination. There are no "canonical languages" in the department. Rather, each specifies which languages are to count, how they relate to the student's intellectual interests, and on which level knowledge is to be demonstrated. "Proficiency" is understood as the ability to translate (with a dictionary) a passage of about 300 words into idiomatic English prose in ninety minutes. The proficiency requirement may also be satisfied by completing one upper-division or graduate literature course in a foreign language. The advanced knowledge requirement is satisfied by completing two or three literature courses in the language with a grade of "B" or better.

At the end of the second year each student’s record is reviewed in its entirety to determine whether or not he or she is able and ready to proceed to the qualifying exam and the more specialized phase of the program.

The Qualifying Examination

Students are expected to take the qualifying examination within one year after completing course and language requirements. The qualifying exam is oral and is conducted by a committee of five faculty members. The exam lasts approximately two hours and consists of three parts: two comprehensive historical fields and a third field which explores a topic in preparation for the dissertation. The exam is meant both as a culmination of course work and as a test of readiness for the dissertation.

The Prospectus and Dissertation

The prospectus consists of an essay and bibliography setting forth the nature of the research project, its relation to existing scholarship and criticism on the subject, and its anticipated value. Each candidate must have a prospectus conference with the members of their committee and the Graduate Chair to discuss the issues outlined in the proposal and to give final approval to the project. The prospectus should be approved within one or two semesters following the qualifying exam.

The dissertation is the culmination of the student's graduate career and is expected to be a substantial and original work of scholarship or criticism. Students within normative time complete the dissertation in their fourth through sixth years.

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UCLA Graduate Programs

English Requirements

English proficiency.

If your first language is not English, or if you did not receive your bachelor’s degree in an Anglophone country, you must certify proficiency in English when you apply to UCLA. This applies to U.S. citizens and Permanent Residents as well as international applicants. If you are admitted, you may also be required to confirm your proficiency upon arrival.

Submit your scores from the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System ( IELTS ) Academic as part of your application. TOEFL iBT Home Edition, IELTS Online, and IELTS Indicator test scores can count towards meeting current UCLA English language requirements. The TOEFL is administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). IELTS Academic is administered by local IELTS test centers throughout the world. Consult IELTS for the test center nearest your home or university.

Please note that TOEFL and IELTS scores are considered valid for only two years. The scores must be valid at the time you submit your application. If you took the examination multiple times, only the most recent score is considered.

Your test results can help you determine whether you are prepared to undertake graduate study conducted in English before making extensive plans for graduate study in the U.S.

Special note: If you studied at a satellite campus located in a country where English is not the primary spoken language of daily life, be sure to submit recent TOEFL or IELTS  Academic scores.  Citizenship, U.S. residence and/or work experience are not substitutes for meeting the requirement.

Meeting UCLA’s English Language Requirement

Do you hold a bachelor’s or higher degree from an accredited university located in the United States or in another country in which English is both the primary spoken language of daily life (e.g., Australia, Barbados, Canada, Ireland, Jamaica, New Zealand, United Kingdom) and the medium of instruction?

– OR –

Have you completed at least two years of full-time study at such institutions?

If you meet either of these criteria, you are exempted from both the TOEFL/IELTS requirement and the English as a Second Language Placement Examination (ESLPE) .  Please be sure to include such information and transcripts in your application.

In certain rare circumstances, an official transcript and diploma from the high school you attended in an Anglophone country may be used to fulfill the requirement.

Minimum IELTS & TOEFL Scores

UCLA does not currently accept MyBest TOEFL scores.

Your  IELTS Academic overall band score should be at least 7.0.  7.0 is the minimum required.

Your TOEFL score on the paper and pencil test must be at least 560 or at least 87 on the internet-based test. These scores represent the minimum required for applicants to graduate programs at UCLA. Some of our majors may require higher scores as noted in Departmental Information .

For the internet-based TOEFL (TOEFL iBT) , the following are the expected scores for each section:

• Writing:  25
• Speaking:  24
• Reading:  21
• Listening:  17

Please note that these expected section scores help you judge your English language ability in different areas.

Your application is not complete without the test scores.

TOEFL scores should be sent to your major department. Be sure to list the TOEFL institution code for UCLA 4837 .

Ask IELTS to send your scores to your major department and the Division of Graduate Education.

ESLPE for Admitted Applicants

If you are an admitted applicant who has not met UCLA’s English language requirement for waiving the English Requirements for this examination , you must, upon arrival at UCLA, take the UCLA English as a Second Language Placement Examination (ESLPE).  The ESLPE is an English diagnostic test.  Depending on your results on the ESLPE, you may be required to complete English as a Second Language courses beginning in your first term at UCLA. If English courses are required, you should enroll in them right away, and you should also anticipate spending a longer period of time at the University.

Admission is canceled for those who do not pass the ESLPE .

If you achieved a score of 100 or higher on the TOEFL iBT, or 7.5 or higher on the IELTS, the ESLPE requirement is waived!

If you scored below 100 on the TOEFL iBT, or below 7.5 on the IELTS, you must sit for the ESLPE upon arrival at UCLA and immediately enroll in any assigned English as a Second Language courses.

Test of Oral Proficiency (TOP)

Eligibility for teaching assistantships at UCLA, for admitted applicants whose first language is not English, depends upon passing, upon arrival at UCLA, the Test of Oral Proficiency ( TOP ). TOP is UCLA’s own examination designed specifically for screening the spoken English skills of international students before their appointment as teaching assistants.

A clear pass of 7.1 or higher is needed on the TOP .

A provisional pass of 6.4 to 7 permits those who are concurrently enrolled in English as a Second Language 38A, 38B, and 38C, or 39A, 39B, and 39C to accept a teaching assistantship; eligibility for further teaching assistantships is contingent upon passing the course.

Consult with your major department to determine if a higher score is required.

English language requirements

Oxford’s graduate courses are demanding, and you will need to demonstrate that you have a high level of proficiency in English to take up a place here. 

If your first language is English and you have always been a resident and citizen of a majority English-speaking country recognised by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), or you are a current Oxford student applying for readmission, you do not need to demonstrate your level of English.

It is not essential to provide evidence at the time of applying, but you may need to demonstrate that you meet the language requirement for your course in order to take up a place at Oxford. Your course page will show the level of English language proficiency required for the course: ‘Standard’ or ‘Higher’.

English language tests

Your  course page  will show the required language level and the scores you must achieve in one of the English test formats accepted by the University (IELTS, TOEFL and Cambridge English). To meet the requirement, you must achieve at least the minimum score in each component  and overall in a single test.

If you already have language test scores that meet the required level for your course, please include them in your application. You can also upload test scores to your application after you have submitted it, using Graduate Applicant Self Service . 

Visit our  Application Guide  for more information about English language requirements and providing language test scores with your application.

Can I apply for graduate study at Oxford before I've taken a language test?

Yes, you can submit your application without English language test scores. If you don't submit scores, or the scores you submit don't meet the required level for your course, your application will still be assessed by the academic department as normal. 

However, if the department later makes you an offer, you may be required to submit scores that meet your course's requirement in order to take up your place. It can take a long time to secure a language test place, so you should arrange to sit a test as soon as possible. 

English language test waivers

You may be able to request a waiver of the requirement to provide English language test scores as part of your course application.

• at least nine months in duration
• undertaken at a recognised institution where teaching and assessment throughout the course is entirely in English
• has been completed within 2 years of the start date of the course to which you are applying.

You may also apply for a waiver based on substantial professional experience if:

• you have worked for a minimum of two years in a majority English speaking country where the main language for the role was English;
• your role involved daily professional use of each of the four language components (reading, writing, listening and speaking);
• you worked in an appropriately technical context to demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively in an academic environment; and
• your role has ended no more than two years before the start date of the course to which you are applying.

For more information and instructions on how to request a waiver, consult the Application Guide .

English language courses

The Oxford University Language Centre  is the University’s central hub for language learning. The centre offers courses specifically for speakers of English as an additional language to help them improve their academic English in preparation for studying here. 

Oxford online pre-sessional English course

The University offers an online pre-sessional English course which is open to international students preparing for graduate study at Oxford. You may use the English language pre-sessional Course to meet your English language condition provided you have an English language test result within the past two years. This must be no more than 0.5 IELTS points lower than the minimum overall score, and no more than 1 IELTS point lower than the minimum overall score in any of the four components (reading, writing, speaking, listening), as per the Standard or Higher level either of which will be required for your academic course ( further information about equivalencies for other tests  can be found in this Application Guide). Please contact your academic department in the first instance.  Further details about the pre-sessional English course  are available on the Language Centre's website.

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English language proficiency requirement.

What You Need to Know

How to Meet the Requirement

Accepted exams, test score guidelines, how to send your scores to cornell.

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Graduate Field Requirements

• To be successful in Cornell’s rigorous graduate and professional degree programs, students must be highly proficient or fluent in English.
• Students in doctoral degrees or research master’s degree programs (MA, MS, MFA) who are appointed as teaching assistants (TAs) must demonstrate a higher level of English proficiency. Students who have not met the higher threshold will be supported through Cornell’s International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) in the Center for Teaching Innovation.
• Applicants can demonstrate English Language proficiency using IELTS Academic or TOEFL iBT scores or can provide proof of an exemption.
• Some graduate fields and programs have additional language requirements. They may require higher IELTS Academic or TOEFL iBT scores or may request an interview before offering admission.

All applicants must provide proof of English language proficiency.  There are 3 ways this may be done:

• Submit Scores – Provide official IELTS Academic or TOEFL iBT test scores that meet the Graduate School’s minimums.
• Request a Standing Exemption in your application for admission – On the first page of the application form, you will attest that you meet one of the standing exemptions outlined below. Provide documentation if required.
• Request a Special Exemption – In exceptional cases, applicants may ask for a special exemption. Guidelines and the request process are outlined below.

IELTS Academic

Both IELTS and TOEFL provide at-home testing solutions in most countries. Applicants are expected to take an in-person test whenever possible. However, if a safe in-person option is not available for you, you may take an online or at-home version instead. We do not  accept any other English Language Proficiency exams (e.g. Pearson, Duolingo DET, etc.).

Research Degree Applicants (Ph.D., D.M.A., M.A., M.S., M.F.A.)

Professional master’s degree applicants , (m.arch., m.eng., m.f.s., m.h.a., m.i.l.r., m.l.a., m.m.h., m.p.a., m.p.h., m.p.s., m.r.p., m.s.l.s., m.s.b.a.), ielts academic:.

• An overall band score of at least 7.0
• Speaking: 22 or above
• Reading: 20 or above
• Listening: 15 or above
• Writing: 20 or above
• When you register for the exam, you may select up to 5 institutions to which you would like to have your scores sent. Cornell University has multiple IELTS accounts so please be sure to select Cornell University Graduate Admissions when registering for your IELTS test date.
• You may also ask your test center to send additional score reports to institutions not originally listed on your test registration form. Scores must be sent electronically (e-delivery) to the Cornell University Graduate Admissions, Caldwell Hall e-download account. E-delivery may also be referred to as an e-TRF by your test center. Paper TRFs (Test Report Form) are not accepted.
• Your IELTS Academic scores must be valid as of your program’s application deadline (scores are valid for 2 years after your test date).
• Have scores delivered electronically to Cornell University Graduate School, Institution code 2098. Department codes are not needed;  if ETS requires you to select a department code, you may choose code 99 “undecided.”
• Your TOEFL scores must be valid as of your program’s application deadline (scores are valid for 2 years after your test date).
• If you have taken the TOEFL iBT more than once within the last 2 years, have ETS send us your most recent score report. ETS will automatically include your MyBest scores along with the traditional scores from your selected test date. If your most recent scores do not meet the Graduate School’s minimum sub-score requirements, but your MyBest scores do, let the Graduate School and your proposed field of study know that you would like us to consider your MyBest scores. Please note: while the Graduate School accepts MyBest scores, individual graduate fields may not accept them.

Standing Exemptions

For admissions purposes, Cornell University Graduate School does not require IELTS or TOEFL scores from applicants who meet one of the following standing exemptions. However, applicants admitted to research degrees may still need to complete the English Language Assessment before being a TA. If you meet the criteria for one of the following standing exemptions, you will indicate this in your application for admission. There is no need to contact the Graduate Admissions Office in advance.

• Speak English as a first language and are a citizen or permanent resident of a country where English is an official language . Research degree applicants who meet this exemption are automatically approved to serve as a TA without an individual English Language Assessment.
• At the time of enrollment at Cornell, will have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited U.S. college or university located in the U.S. (Please note that you must have been physically present in the U.S. for the majority of your enrollment.) Research degree applicants who meet this exemption will need to complete the English Language Assessment and may be offered an individual support plan. 
• At the time of enrollment at Cornell, will have earned the international equivalent of a U.S. bachelor’s degree from a college or university located in a country where English is an official language , and where English is the language of instruction. The medium of instruction must be indicated on the transcript or easily verified on the institution’s website. (Please note that you must have been physically present in the exempt country for the majority of your enrollment.) Research degree applicants who meet this exemption will need to complete the English Language Assessment and may be offered an individual support plan. 
• At the time of enrollment at Cornell, will have studied and/or worked full-time for at least 2 consecutive years* within the last 10 years in a country where English is an official and widely spoken language . This experience must be noted on a transcript and/or described on a resume or CV. We will accept a combination of study and work—e.g., an applicant who completed a 1-year master’s degree in the U.S. followed by 1 year of OPT. If you are or were a student, the full-time study must have been for at least 2 consecutive academic years (potentially slightly less than 24 months) AND English must have been the language of instruction for your studies. (Please note that you must have been physically present in the exempt country for the majority of your enrollment.) Research degree applicants who meet this exemption will need to complete the English Language Assessment and may be offered an individual support plan. 

Special Exemptions

Applicants who speak English as a first language, but do not otherwise qualify for a standing exemption, may be considered for a special exemption under the following circumstances: 

• Speak English as a first or native language, but citizenship does not meet the Standing Exemption criteria.
• Full-time study or work in a primary English country was for less than 2 years, was not consecutive, or occurred more than 10 years ago.

Contact the Graduate Admissions Office  if you think you qualify for a special exemption. Note: Research degree applicants with special exemptions admitted to research degrees may still need to complete the English Language Assessment prior to being a TA.

Questions about your English language proficiency? Contact the graduate field to which you are applying. Administrators in your proposed field will guide you through the application process and will communicate with other offices at Cornell as needed to gather additional information.

Find the contact information for your field of interest.

If you still have questions after talking to your graduate field, contact the Graduate Admissions Office for more information.

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Department of English

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Graduate students take twelve courses over three years. One of these courses must be the departmental proseminar, usually taken in the student’s first semester; another must be an independent study course, taken in their third year.  Students also take at least one seminar focused on pre-1800 literature and one focused on global or minority literature.

The first and fourth years are typically supported by fellowship. During the second, third, and fifth years, students normally teach to earn their stipends; in the second year by serving as a teaching assistant for a lecture course, and in the third and fifth years by teaching expository writing. On some occasions, graduate students conduct undergraduate courses of their own design. Training and practice in teaching are regarded as an integral part of the graduate program.

Students are also expected to demonstrate proficiency in reading one foreign language (at the level of fluency) or two foreign languages (at the more modest level of competency). The language requirement may be satisfied either by course work (including summer courses offered at Johns Hopkins) or by written examination (for which students are expected to translate a paragraph with the aid of a dictionary).

Older Requirements

*Requirements for students who have entered the program prior to 2022 are available in the 2020-2021 Graduate Handbook .

PhD Program in English Language and Literature

The department enrolls an average of ten PhD students each year. Our small size allows us to offer a generous financial support package. We also offer a large and diverse graduate faculty with competence in a wide range of literary, theoretical and cultural fields. Each student chooses a special committee that works closely along side the student to design a course of study within the very broad framework established by the department. The program is extremely flexible in regard to course selection, the design of examinations and the election of minor subjects of concentration outside the department. English PhD students pursuing interdisciplinary research may include on their special committees faculty members from related fields such as comparative literature, medieval studies, Romance studies, German studies, history, classics, women’s studies, linguistics, theatre and performing arts, government, philosophy, and film and video studies.

The PhD candidate is normally expected to complete six or seven one-semester courses for credit in the first year of residence and a total of six or seven more in the second and third years. The program of any doctoral candidate’s formal and informal study, whatever his or her particular interests, should be comprehensive enough to ensure familiarity with:

• The authors and works that have been the most influential in determining the course of English, American, and related literatures
• The theory and criticism of literature, and the relations between literature and other disciplines
• Concerns and tools of literary and cultural history such as textual criticism, study of genre, source, and influence as well as wider issues of cultural production and historical and social contexts that bear on literature

Areas in which students may have major or minor concentrations include African-American literature, American literature to 1865, American literature after 1865, American studies (a joint program with the field of history), colonial and postcolonial literatures, cultural studies, dramatic literature, English poetry, the English Renaissance to 1660, lesbian, bisexual and gay literary studies, literary criticism and theory, the nineteenth century, Old and Middle English, prose fiction, the Restoration and the eighteenth century, the twentieth century, and women's literature.

By the time a doctoral candidate enters the fourth semester of graduate study, the special committee must decide whether he or she is qualified to proceed toward the PhD. Students are required to pass their Advancement to Candidacy Examination before their fourth year of study, prior to the dissertation.

PhD Program specifics can be viewed here: PhD Timeline PhD Procedural Guide

Special Committee

Every graduate student selects a special committee of faculty advisors who work intensively with the student in selecting courses and preparing and revising the dissertation. The committee is comprised of at least three Cornell faculty members: a chair, and typically two minor members usually from the English department, but very often representing an interdisciplinary field. The university system of special committees allows students to design their own courses of study within a broad framework established by the department, and it encourages a close working relationship between professors and students, promoting freedom and flexibility in the pursuit of the graduate degree. The special committee for each student guides and supervises all academic work and assesses progress in a series of meetings with the students.

At Cornell, teaching is considered an integral part of training in academia. The field requires a carefully supervised teaching experience of at least one year for every doctoral candidate as part of the program requirements. The Department of English, in conjunction with the  John S. Knight Institute for Writing  in the Disciplines, offers excellent training for beginning teachers and varied and interesting teaching in the university-wide First-Year Writing Program. The courses are writing-intensive and may fall under such general rubrics as “Portraits of the Self,” “American Literature and Culture,” “Shakespeare,” and “Cultural Studies,” among others. A graduate student may also serve as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate lecture course taught by a member of the Department of English faculty.

Language Requirements

Each student and special committee will decide what work in foreign language is most appropriate for a student’s graduate program and scholarly interests. Some students’ doctoral programs require extensive knowledge of a single foreign language and literature; others require reading ability in two or more foreign languages. A student may be asked to demonstrate competence in foreign languages by presenting the undergraduate record, taking additional courses in foreign languages and literature, or translating and discussing documents related to the student’s work. Students are also normally expected to provide evidence of having studied the English language through courses in Old English, the history of the English language, grammatical analysis or the application of linguistic study to metrics or to literary criticism. Several departments at Cornell offer pertinent courses in such subjects as descriptive linguistics, psycholinguistics and the philosophy of language.

All PhD degree candidates are guaranteed five years of funding (including a stipend , a full tuition fellowship and student health insurance):

• A first-year non-teaching fellowship
• Two years of teaching assistantships
• A fourth-year non-teaching fellowship for the dissertation writing year
• A fifth-year teaching assistantship
• Summer support for four years, including a first-year summer teaching assistantship, linked to a teachers’ training program at the Knight Institute. Summer residency in Ithaca is required.

Students have also successfully competed for Buttrick-Crippen Fellowship, Society for the Humanities Fellowships, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Shin Yong-Jin Graduate Fellowships, Provost’s Diversity Fellowships, fellowships in recognition of excellence in teaching, and grants from the Graduate School to help with the cost of travel to scholarly conferences and research collections.

Admission & Application Procedures

The application for Fall 2024 admission will open on September 15, 2023 and close at 11:59pm EST on December 1, 2023.

Our application process reflects the field’s commitment to considering the whole person and their potential to contribute to our scholarly community.  Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of academic preparation (e.g., performance in relevant courses, completion of substantive, independent research project). An applicant’s critical and creative potential will be considered: applicants should demonstrate interest in extensive research and writing and include a writing sample that reveals a capacity to argue persuasively, demonstrate the ability to synthesize a broad range of materials, as well as offer fresh insights into a problem or text. The committee will also consider whether an applicant demonstrates a commitment to inclusion, equity, and diversity and offers a substantive explanation for why study at Cornell is especially compelling (e.g., a discussion of faculty research and foci). Admissions committees will consider the entire application carefully, including statements and critical writing, as well as transcripts, letters of recommendation, and a resume/cv (if provided). Please view the requirements and procedures listed below, if you are interested in being considered for our PhD in English Language and Literature program.

Eligibility: Applicants must currently have, or expect to have, at least a BA or BS (or the equivalent) in any field before matriculation. International students, please verify degree equivalency here . Applicants are not required to meet a specified GPA minimum.

To Apply: All applications and supplemental materials must be submitted online through the Graduate School application system . While completing your application, you may save and edit your data. Once you click submit, your application will be closed for changes. Please proofread your materials carefully. Once you pay and click submit, you will not be able to make any changes or revisions.

Deadline: December 1st, 11:59pm EST.  This deadline is firm. No applications, additional materials, or revisions will be accepted after the deadline.

PhD Program Application Requirements Checklist

• Academic Statement of Purpose Please describe (within 1000 words) in detail the substantive research questions you are interested in pursuing during your graduate studies and why they are significant. Additionally, make sure to include information about any training or research experience that you believe has prepared you for our program. You should also identify specific faculty members whose research interests align with your own specific questions.  Note that the identification of faculty is important; you would be well advised to read selected faculty’s recent scholarship so that you can explain why you wish to study with them. Do not rely on the courses they teach.  Please refrain from contacting individual faculty prior to receiving an offer of admission.
• Personal Statement Please describe (within 1000 words) how your personal background and experiences influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree and the research you wish to conduct.  Explain, for example the meaning and purpose of the PhD in the context of your personal history and future aspirations.  Please note that we will pay additional attention to candidates who identify substantial reasons to obtain a PhD beyond the pursuit of an academic position. Additionally, provide insight into your potential to contribute to a community of inclusion, belonging, and respect where scholars representing diverse backgrounds, perspectives, abilities, and experiences can learn (productively and positively) together.
• Critical Writing Sample Your academic writing sample must be between 3,000 and 7,500 words (12-30 pages), typed and double-spaced. We accept excerpts from longer works, or a combination of shorter works.
• Three Letters of Recommendation We require 3 letters of recommendation.  At the time of application, you will be allowed to enter up to 4 recommenders in the system.  Your application will be considered “Complete” when we have received at least 3 letters of recommendation.   Letters of recommendation are due December 1 . Please select three people who best know you and your work. Submitting additional letters will not enhance your application. In the recommendation section of the application, you must include the email address of each recommender. After you save the information (and before you pay/submit), the application system will automatically generate a recommendation request email to your recommender with instructions for submitting the letter electronically. If your letters are stored with a credential service such as Interfolio, please use their Online Application Delivery feature and input the email address assigned to your stored document, rather than that of your recommender’s. The electronic files will be attached to your application when they are received and will not require the letter of recommendation cover page.
• Transcripts Scan transcripts from each institution you have attended, or are currently attending, and upload into the academic information section of the application. Be sure to remove your social security number from all documents prior to scanning. Please do not send paper copies of your transcripts. If you are subsequently admitted and accept, the Graduate School will require an official paper transcript from your degree-awarding institution prior to matriculation.
• English Language Proficiency Requirement All applicants must provide proof of English language proficiency. For more information, please view the  Graduate School’s English Language Requirement .
• GRE General Test and GRE Subject Test are NO LONGER REQUIRED, effective starting with the 2019 application In March 2019, the faculty of English voted overwhelmingly to eliminate all GRE requirements (both general and subject test) for application to the PhD program in English. GRE scores are not good predictors of success or failure in a PhD program in English, and the uncertain predictive value of the GRE exam is far outweighed by the toll it takes on student diversity. For many applicants the cost of preparing for and taking the exam is prohibitively expensive, and the exam is not globally accessible. Requiring the exam narrows our applicant pool at precisely the moment we should be creating bigger pipelines into higher education. We need the strength of a diverse community in order to pursue the English Department’s larger mission: to direct the force of language toward large and small acts of learning, alliance, imagination, and justice.

General Information for All Applicants

Application Fee: Visit the Graduate School for information regarding application fees, payment options, and fee waivers .

Document Identification: Please do not put your social security number on any documents.

Status Inquiries:  Once you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email. You will also be able to check the completion status of your application in your account. If vital sections of your application are missing, we will notify you via email after the Dec. 1 deadline and allow you ample time to provide the missing materials. Please do not inquire about the status of your application.

Credential/Application Assessments:  The Admission Review Committee members are unable to review application materials or applicant credentials prior to official application submission. Once the committee has reviewed applications and made admissions decisions, they will not discuss the results or make any recommendations for improving the strength of an applicant’s credentials. Applicants looking for feedback are advised to consult with their undergraduate advisor or someone else who knows them and their work.

Review Process:  Application review begins after the submission deadline. Notification of admissions decisions will be made by email by the end of February.

Connecting with Faculty and/or Students: Unfortunately, due to the volume of inquiries we receive, faculty and current students are not available to correspond with potential applicants prior to an offer of admission. Applicants who are offered admission will have the opportunity to meet faculty and students to have their questions answered prior to accepting. Staff and faculty are also not able to pre-assess potential applicant’s work outside of the formal application process. Please email [email protected] instead, if you have questions.

Visiting: The department does not offer pre-admission visits or interviews. Admitted applicants will be invited to visit the department, attend graduate seminars and meet with faculty and students before making the decision to enroll.

Transfer Credits:  Students matriculating with an MA degree may, at the discretion of the Director of Graduate Studies, receive credit for up to two courses once they begin our program.

For Further Information

Contact [email protected]

Ph.D. Program

The Stanford English department has a long tradition of training the next generation of scholars to become leaders in academia and related fields. Our Ph.D. program encourages the production of ambitious, groundbreaking dissertation work across the diverse field interests of our prestigious faculty.

Fusing deep attention to literary history with newer approaches to media, technology, and performance, our department carefully mentors students in both scholarship and pedagogy through close interaction with faculty. Our location on the edge of the Pacific and at the heart of Silicon Valley encourages expansive, entrepreneurial thinking about the interpenetration of arts and sciences.

Program Overview

The English Department seeks to teach and promote an understanding of both the significance and the history of British and American literature (broadly defined) and to foster an appreciation of the richness and variety of texts in the language. It offers rigorous training in interpretive thinking and precise expression. Our English graduate program features the study of what imaginative language, rhetoric, and narrative art has done, can do, and will do in life, and it focuses on the roles creative writing and representations play in almost every aspect of modern experience. Completing the Ph.D. program prepares a student for full participation as a scholar and literary critic in the profession.

Financial Support

We offer an identical five-year funding package to all admitted students with competitive funding available for a sixth year. Funding covers applicable tuition costs, Stanford Cardinal Care health insurance, and living expenses in the form of direct stipend, teaching assistantships or pre-doctoral research assistantships. The department, in conjunction with the School of Humanities and Sciences, is also committed to supporting students' involvement in professional activities and funds many of the expenses for research travel, summer language study, and participation in academic conferences. Student housing is not included in the funding package.

In addition to our standard doctoral funding package, the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE) provides competitive funding to support individual doctoral students, student groups, and department-based projects. VPGE funding opportunities promote innovation, diversity, and excellence in graduate education. Explore their doctoral  fellowship  and other student  funding  opportunities.

The  Knight-Hennessy Scholars  program cultivates and supports a highly-engaged, multidisciplinary and multicultural community of graduate students from across Stanford University, and delivers a diverse collection of educational experiences, preparing graduates to address complex challenges facing the world. Knight-Hennessy Scholars participate in an experiential leadership development program known as the King Global Leadership Program and receive funding for up to three years of graduate study at Stanford. Two applications must be submitted separately; one to Knight-Hennessy and one to the Stanford English graduate degree program by its deadline. Please refer to the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program page to learn more and apply.

Teaching Requirements

One pedagogical seminar and four quarters of supervised teaching. Typically a student will teach three times as a teaching assistant in a literature course. For the fourth course, students will have the option of applying to design and teach a Writing Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) for undergraduate English majors or teaching a fourth quarter as a T.A..

• 1st year: One quarter as T.A. (leading 1-2 discussion sections of undergraduate literature)
• 2nd year: One quarter as T.A. (leading 1-2 discussion sections of undergraduate literature)
• 3rd/4th/5th years: Two quarters of teaching, including the possibility of TA'ing or teaching a WISE course.

Language requirements

All candidates for the Ph.D. degree must demonstrate a reading knowledge of two foreign languages. One language requirement must be completed during the first year of study. The second language must be completed before the oral examination in the third year.

Candidates in the earlier periods must offer Latin and one of the following languages: French, German, Greek, Italian or Spanish. Candidates in the later period (that is, after the Renaissance) must demonstrate a reading knowledge of two languages for which  Stanford’s Language Center  regularly offers a reading course, administers a competency exam, or facilitates the administration of an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Reading Proficiency Test (ACTFL RPT). In all cases, the choice of languages offered must be relevant to the student’s field of study and must have the approval of the candidate's adviser. Any substitution of a language other than one for which Stanford offers a competency exam must also be approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Other requirements

All candidates for the Ph.D. must satisfactorily complete the following:

• 135 units, at least 70 of which (normally 14 courses) must be graded course work
• Qualifying examination, based on a reading guide of approximately 70-90 works, to be taken orally at the end of the summer after the first year of graduate work.
• University oral examination covering the field of concentration taken no later than the winter quarter of the third year of study.
• Submission of the dissertation prospectus
• First chapter review with the dissertation advisor and the members of the dissertation reading committee.
• Dissertation, which should be an original work of literary criticism demonstrating the student's ability to participate fully as a scholar and literary critic in the profession.
• Closing colloquium designed to look forward toward the next steps; identify the major accomplishments of the dissertation and the major questions/issues/problems that remain; consider possibilities for revision, book or article publication, etc.

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PhD and MA Graduate Admissions

Our application deadline is December 15th at 11:59 pm. Due to our application portal's technical specifications, the system may allow submission of applications after that deadline. No applications submitted after the December 15th deadline will be reviewed.

Application Procedures

Applicants to all graduate degree programs should apply online through  ApplyWeb . We do not accept paper applications.

For both the terminal M.A. and Ph.D. programs,  the application portal opens on  October 2nd  and closes on  December 15th  of each year. There is a short grace period after December 15th in which we will still accept letters of recommendation and official test scores. The Graduate Coordinator will follow up with you after December 15th if you are missing any of these elements and will provide a need-by date. Please note that the grace period is meant to allow recommenders to be a little late without negatively affecting your application, and should not be considered an alternate due date. Applicants should provide the December 15th due date to their recommenders. Applicants are ultimately responsible for ensuring that we receive their letters of recommendation.

Applications for submatriculation  are accepted until February 10th  of each year.   Students interested in submatriculating should be in touch with the Undergraduate Chair, the Graduate Chair, and their College contact (assigned and listed in Path@Penn ) before or during the application process. Each of these contacts provide important information about the submatriculation process.

We only accept full-time students for the M.A. and Ph.D. program , and do not offer part-time options for either program. All applicants are applying to begin in the fall semester of the following year. We do not accept applications for spring admission.

The application fee is $90 , payable via credit or debit card at the time of submission. 

NOTE: Application fee waivers are managed entirely by the Graduate Division of the School of Arts and Sciences, and individual departments do not have the power to grant them. To apply for a fee waiver, applicants should send a brief letter to Patricia Rea, Associate Director for Admissions, at  [email protected] , stating the reason for the request. This letter should be sent no later than  December 1st . Please be advised that the applicant must demonstrate a clear and compelling case of financial hardship.

Technical isues with ApplyWeb should be addressed to Technical Support ( [email protected] ).

Elements of the Application

In addition to your application form, which you will complete via ApplyWeb, we ask that you attach the following supporting documents to your application.

A personal statement.*  In the personal statement, all M.A. and Ph.D. applications within the Graduate Division of Arts & Sciences should address the following: Please describe how your background and academic experiences have influenced your decision to pursue a graduate degree and led you to apply to Penn. Your essay should detail your specific research interests and intellectual goals within your chosen field. Please provide information about your educational trajectory, intellectual curiosity and academic ambitions. If you have overcome adversity and/or experienced limited access to resources or opportunities in your field of study, please feel free to share how that has affected the course of your education. We are interested in your lived experiences and how your particular perspective might contribute to the inclusive and dynamic learning community that Penn values and strives to create. In the English Graduate Group, we ask that you discuss in this same personal statement your particular interest in our program, including why it is a good fit for your goals in graduate school. Your personal statement should not exceed 1200 words.

A critical writing sample.*  This should be approximately 20 double-spaced pages long and should reflect your writing abilities and most up-to-date critical thinking.  The writing sample must match one of your field interests or concentrations.  We strongly prefer a single, 20-page paper over two shorter papers that add up to 20 pages.

Three letters of recommendation.  These should be written by professors who know your work and can attest to your academic ability. Personal and other non-academic recommendation letters are strongly discouraged. Applicants should use the ApplyWeb system to submit letters. Applicants will submit the names, titles, and contact information of their recommenders, who will receive an emailed invitation to submit a letter on the applicant's behalf. If you or your recommenders have issues with this system, please email Meghan Hall ( [email protected] ) for troubleshooting.  Please do not submit more than four recommendation letters. 

Electronic versions of your academic transcripts.  These do not have to be official transcripts, but can either be a pdf downloaded from your student portal or a scanned copy of a paper transcript.  If accepted, you will need to provide a final, official paper copy of your transcript before you matriculate.

• Proof of English Proficiency.  Applicants with citizenship or permanent resident status in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, or New Zealand are not required to provide this, and their applications will automatically waive the requirement. Citizens of other countries may satisfy this requirement by either  1 ) submitting proof of having graduated from an institution where English was the primary language of instruction to Meghan Hall, Graduate Coordinator (in most cases, your transcripts will suffice), or  2 ) submitting TOEFL or IELTS scores . Our TOEFL code is 2986.  IELTS scores must be sent via mail to University of Pennsylvania, Department of English, 3340 Walnut Street, Rm 127, Philadelphia, PA 19104, Attn: Meghan Hall, Graduate Coordinator. The University of Pennsylvania only accepts hard copies of IELTS scores. Questions about individual cases should be directed to Meghan Hall ( [email protected] ).

*  For both your  personal statement  and  critical writing sample , please include  1 primary field of interest  and up to  2 additional fields of interest  at the top of the first page, or in the page's header. Your primary field of interest should match your selection of concentration on the ApplyWeb application form. Please choose from the following list:

• Medieval Literature
• Early Modern/Renaissance Literature
• Restoration and Eighteenth-Century British Literature  (includes Restoration, Eighteenth Century, Early Romanticism, British Empire Studies)
• Nineteenth-Century British Literature  (includes Later Romanticism, Victorianism, British Empire Studies)
• Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century British Literature  (includes British Modernism, Postwar, Contemporary, British Empire Studies)
• American Literature through the Nineteenth Century
• Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century American Literature  (includes American Modernism, Postwar, Contemporary)
• American Studies/Ethnic Studies  (Asian American, Latino/a, Native American, Critical Race Studies, Transnational Americas)
• African American and Afro-diaspora Literature
• Contemporary Poetry & Poetics
• Postcolonial Studies  (Global South: South Asia, Africa, Caribbean, Latin America, East Asia)
• Film, Television, and New Media
• Gender & Sexuality Studies
• Material Texts and Digital Humanities

Example: a student interested in the 18th-century British Novel, colonial discourse, and feminism would include at the top of their personal statement, “Primary: 18th-Century British Literature, Additional: British Empire Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies”

Example: a student interested in studying Latino/a literature, Latin American Literature, and Film would include at the top of their personal statement, "Primary: American/Ethnic Studies; Additional: Postcolonial-Latin America and Film, Television, and New Media." 

For International Applicants & Admittees

NOTE TO APPLICANTS FROM THE UK: we encourage UK applicants to apply for a Thouron Fellowship. The Thouron is a 1-2 year fellowship that pays for a Masters degree. Fellows who are admitted to our Ph.D. program may then continue with fellowship support from Penn. Note that the Thouron deadline is in November. Information and application materials are available on the Thouron.org website .

International Students admitted into the program should apply for their Social Security number as soon as possible so that they don't experience a delay in receiving their stipend.

Questions about the admission process? See our  Frequently Asked Questions  or contact Meghan Hall, Graduate Coordinator ( [email protected] ).

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International applicants whose native language is not English are required to provide proof of English proficiency for admission to degree, certificate, non-degree, and teacher license graduate programs in  one  of the following ways:

The Graduate School accepts the following TOEFL English proficiency test scores: TOEFL iBT (Internet-based Test), TOEFL iBT Home Edition, TOEFL iBT Paper Edition, and TOEFL Essentials † . To learn more about these test options visit www.toefl.org .

Minimum TOEFL Scores Required by the Graduate School for Admission

Note: Some graduate programs require higher minimum scores than those listed above. Please review the English proficiency requirements for your specific program of interest here .

To be valid for admission, English proficiency test scores (TOEFL and IELTS) must be no more than two years old at the time the recommendation for admission is received at the Graduate School.

Purdue University must receive official TOEFL scores directly from Educational Testing Service (ETS). For more information about transmitting test scores, visit  www.toefl.org .

Your application must be submitted and paid for ETS computer-based official scores to match to your application. Score reports are sent to Purdue University electronically, approximately 10 to 15 days after your test date. Once ETS has sent your score report, it may take an additional 2 to 3 weeks or longer for your application checklist to update and show received.

Purdue Institution Codes

• Purdue University West Lafayette – 1631
• Purdue University Northwest – 1638
• Purdue University Fort Wayne – 1336
• Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis – 1325

† Essentials Test: The TOEFL Essentials requirements of the Purdue Graduate School are not accepted by all graduate programs. Please review the English proficiency requirements for your specific program of interest here .

‡ iBT (Test Center and Home Edition): In addition to required iBT minimum scores for writing, speaking, listening, and reading, the Graduate School also requires a minimum overall iBT score that is higher than the minimums for the four area tests combined. Applicants must meet or exceed each of the five scores for admission to the Graduate School.

The Graduate School accepts IELTS (Academic Module) and IELTS Indicator* English proficiency test scores. For more information about these testing options, visit  www.IELTS.org or https://www.ieltsindicator.com/ .

Minimum IELTS Scores Required by the Graduate School for Admission

Official IELTS and IELTS Indicator test scores can be uploaded to your applicant status portal after application submission under IELTS Score Report, sent electronically to the Purdue University Office of International Admissions, or the hard copy score report can be mailed directly to the Office of Graduate Admissions.

*IELTS Indicator Test: Effective December 31, 2021, the IELTS indicator is no longer offered. Scores dated up to two years prior to the date of recommendation for admission to the Purdue Graduate School will be valid through December 31, 2023.

The Graduate School accepts the Duolingo English test. To learn more about this test option visit https://englishtest.duolingo.com/applicants.  

Minimum Duolingo English Test Score Required by the Graduate School for Admission is a total score of 115 and 115 on each subscore.

To be valid for admission, English proficiency test scores (TOEFL, IELTS, and Duolingo English Test) must be no more than two years old at the time the recommendation for admission is received at the Graduate School.

Please request to have your results submitted to:  Purdue University Graduate School .

The Graduate School accepts results showing that a student has satisfied the English proficiency exit requirements of one of the intensive English language programs listed below.

Intensive English Language Programs and Exit Requirements A ccepted by the Graduate School for Admission

Successful completion of the intensive English language program must be certified, in writing, by the intensive English program faculty to the Office of Graduate Admissions at West Lafayette or the equivalent office at the regional campuses before applicants using this method of establishing English proficiency may be admitted to the Graduate School.

The certificate of completion can be uploaded to the online application status portal (after submission) under Miscellaneous Supporting Documents, sent electronically to the Office of International Education, or the hard copy certificate can be mailed directly to the Purdue Fort Wayne Office of Graduate Studies.

The Graduate School will routinely waive the English Proficiency testing requirements for applicants who have received a baccalaureate degree or graduate or professional degree, within the last 36 months  prior to the time of recommendation for admission , from a school where English is the primary language of instruction in a country/location where English is the native language. Note: Some graduate programs may still require a test of English proficiency for admission; please confirm the acceptance of this waiver with your department.

If you are admitted under this waiver and are still finishing your degree, you must satisfactorily complete your degree and submit a final official transcript showing that this degree has been awarded BEFORE the Office of International Students and Scholars (ISS) can produce your US immigration document (I-20 or DS-2019) or before you can enroll in courses at Purdue University.

Official English-speaking countries/locations, in addition to the U.S., include:

• Antigua and Barbuda
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Christmas Island
• Cook Islands
• Isle of Man
• New Zealand
• Norfolk Island
• Papua New Guinea
• Philippines
• Pitcairn Islands
• Republic of Ireland
• Sierra Leone
• South Sudan
• Kitts and Nevis
• Vincent and Grenadines
• South Africa
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• United Kingdom

Routine waivers of English proficiency requirements are granted to current Purdue University students seeking a graduate degree, certificate, non-degree, or teacher license within three consecutive sessions of their last Purdue University registration. In order to obtain the English Proficiency waiver, the student must have:

• Previously satisfied Purdue English proficiency requirements (via one of the options listed above); and
• A current recommendation for admission to a Purdue graduate degree-seeking, non-degree, teacher’s license, or graduate certificate program.
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Requirements, ph.d. requirements.

In order to fulfill the basic requirements for the program, a student must:

1. Complete twelve courses—six courses with at least one grade of Honors and a maximum of one grade of Pass by July 15 following the first year; at least twelve courses with grades of Honors in at least four of these courses and not more than one Pass by July 15 following the second year. One of these twelve courses must be The Teaching of English (ENGL 990). Courses selected must include one course in at least three out of four designated historical periods: medieval, early-modern, eighteenth- and/or nineteenth-century, twentieth- and/or twenty-first-century. Students are also encouraged to take at least one seminar that adds geographic, linguistic, cultural, and/or methodological breadth to their course of study. Two courses out of twelve may be taken outside of the department. 

2.  Satisfy the language requirement by the end of the second year. Two languages appropriate to the student’s field of specialization, each to be demonstrated by (a) passing a translation exam administered by a Yale language department, at the conclusion of a GSAS Summer Language for Reading course, or (for languages not tested elsewhere at Yale) by the English department; (b) passing an advanced literature course at Yale (graduate or upper-level undergraduate, with director of graduate studies [DGS] approval); or (c) passing both ENGL 500 and ENGL 501 .

3. Pass the oral examination before or as early as possible in the fifth term of residence. The exam consists of questions on four topics, developed by the student in consultation with examiners and subject to approval by the DGS. (At least two topics will comprise works chosen from distinct, broadly defined periods of literary history. The other two topics may be organized around a genre, a mode, a theme, or a field of theory.)

4. Submit a dissertation prospectus, normally by January 15 of the third year.

5. Teach a minimum of two terms, since the English department considers teaching an integral part of graduate education. In practice, most students teach between four and six terms.

6. Submit a dissertation.

Upon completion of all predissertation requirements, including the prospectus, students are admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. Admission to candidacy must take place by the end of the third year of study.

M.Phil. Requirements

Students who complete their doctoral coursework and oral examinations may opt in Year Three to pursue an M.Phil degree instead of the Ph.D. In place of the dissertation prospectus, students submit a proposal for a semester-long capstone research project of roughly fifty pages. Proposals are due at the end of the first or second semester of Year Three. Once proposals are approved, students are eligible for one semester of research fellowship, to be taken no later than the seventh semester, at the end of which they will submit their capstone projects and graduate from the program.

M.A. Requirements

M.A. (en route to the Ph.D.) Students enrolled in the Ph.D. program may receive the M.A. upon completion of seven courses with at least one grade of Honors and a maximum of one grade of Pass, and the passing of one foreign language , as described under  Ph.D. Requirements , above .

Terminal Master’s Degree Program Students enrolled in the master’s degree program must complete either seven term courses or six term courses and a special project within the English department (one or two of these courses may be taken in other departments with approval of the DGS). There must be at least one grade of Honors, and there may not be more than one grade of Pass. Students must also demonstrate proficiency in one foreign language, as described under Ph.D. Requirements , above. Full-time students normally complete the program in one year.

Directed Reading Proposal Form (pdf)

Dissertation Chapter Conference Printable Form  (pdf)

Dissertation Chapter Conference Webform

Graduate School

Ph.d. requirements.

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Brown University awards more than 200 doctor of philosophy degrees annually.

The Brown Ph.D. is primarily a research degree. Teaching is an important part of many doctoral programs, and many departments require candidates for the Ph.D. to have teaching experience.

Brown University offers substantial financial support to doctoral students. All incoming doctoral students are guaranteed five years of support, which includes a stipend, full tuition remission, health-services fee, and a health-insurance subsidy. Doctoral students in the Humanities and Social Sciences are guaranteed six years of support. All promises of student support are subject to students making satisfactory academic progress, as determined by their programs of study. Please see related links for additional details regarding the University's commitment to doctoral education.

Ph.D. Funding

Funding guarantee, four general requirements for the doctor of philosophy.

The candidate must be formally admitted to his or her degree program.

The normal residency requirement is the equivalent of three Academic Years of full-time study beyond the bachelor's degree. Students who enter a PhD program at Brown already holding a master’s degree in a related field have a residency requirement equivalent to two Academic Years of full-time study upon entering the PhD program at Brown. Use of a previously earned master’s degree to reduce PhD residency requirements is contingent upon approval of the program Director of Graduate Study. Graduate work done at other institutions and not used in fulfillment of the requirements for any doctoral degree elsewhere may, on the approval of the program Director of Graduate Study, be counted in fulfillment of up to, but not exceeding, one year of the residency requirement. A student who desires credit for work done elsewhere should file a timely application with the program Director of Graduate Study; transfer credit forms are available through the  Office of the Registrar .

A student is advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. when he or she has completed satisfactorily all the requirements, departmental and general, requisite to beginning work on the dissertation. Candidacy is determined by the department or program of study and certified by the Registrar. Most departments require a preliminary examination before advancing any student to candidacy. Most departments also require a final examination or defense. The examination is conducted by professors in the department and by such other members of the faculty as may be appointed.

The candidate must present a dissertation on a topic related to his or her area of specialization that presents the results of original research and gives evidence of excellent scholarship. The dissertation must be approved by the professor or committee under whose direction it is written and by the Graduate Council. All requirements for the Ph.D. must be completed within five years after advancement to candidacy.

Faculty Member Leaves Brown

If a faculty member working with a doctoral student leaves Brown for any reason before that student has completed his or her degree requirements, it may not always be possible for that faculty member to continue working with the student as an advisor. In such cases, departments will work with students to help them locate a new advisor.

Additional Requirements

Individual departments and programs may have additional requirements regarding the number of courses to be taken, proficiency in foreign languages, special examinations, and theses. The department should be consulted for specific information.

English Language Proficiency Requirements

You will be required to submit TOEFL, IELTS or PTE scores if you do not hold a degree from a U.S. institution or from one of the English speaking countries (below).  If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident with international credentials, you will still be required to submit English test scores if you do not hold a degree from one of the countries on the list at the bottom of this page.

Options for providing evidence of English proficiency include:

Test of English as a Foreign Language  (TOEFL iBT) Score

• For the University of Maryland to receive your TOEFL score, please use the reporting code 5814.

Pearson  (PTE Academic) Score

• PTE test takers can send their score reports to the University of Maryland through their Pearson Account.

International English Language Testing System  (IELTS Academic) Score

• The University of Maryland downloads IELTS scores that have been transmitted to our e-download account.  IELTS test takers should contact their IELTS test center directly to request electronic test scores be sent to the following IELTS e-download account:

University of Maryland College Park

The Graduate School

2123 Lee Building

College Park

Maryland, 20742

Please note: The Graduate School will not accept paper IELTS test report forms.

Currently, the Graduate School is currently accepting current/valid scores from TOEFL iBT Home Edition, the IELTS Academic Online, the IELTS Indicator (Academic), and the PTE Academic Online. We will be accepting these scores through Fall 2024.

If your TOEFL/IELTS/PTE score falls within the range for conditional enrollment,   the Graduate School may admit you with an  English language condition . If so, you will be notified of this requirement in your official admission letter issued by the Graduate School.

New iBT TOEFL requirements will take effect starting with Fall 2020 admissions (see chart below). No change will be made to the IELTS and PTE requirements. Beginning in August 2019, we will accept iBT TOEFL Superscores from ETS for purposes of meeting iBT TOEFL subscore requirements. If more than one valid IELTS or PTE score is submitted we will also consider the highest sectional scores from across all exams when determining whether requirements for full enrollment have been met. Please note that superscoring can only be done with the same types of test. For example, we will not superscore between an IELTS and a TOEFL exam. 

iBT TOEFL Requirements

Please note that if the scores fall in the range of needing one of the English courses, one of the following will apply:

Intensive English:

• Graduate students whose English test scores are in the range of Intensive English must enroll in and successfully complete the Intensive language course at the Maryland English Institute. This is usually a semester-long course.*  
• While enrolled in Intensive English, students are not permitted to undertake academic coursework.  
• *Students whose total TOEFL score is in the low 80s, or who have an IELTS score below 6.0 or a PTE score below 56, run a higher than normal risk of needing to spend more than one semester in Intensive English. There are five semester-long levels of Intensive English and the students with Intensive English placement are given a test at the beginning of the semester to determine their level. Students with these lower scores are at a higher risk of not placing into the highest level of Intensive English and thus needing more than one semester in the program, which would postpone any academic coursework for at least one academic year. 

English Bridge Program:

• Graduate students whose English test scores are in the range of the English Bridge Program must enroll in and successfully complete the Semi-Intensive language course at the Maryland English Institute during their first semester.
• They can take up to two academic courses in addition to this English study. 

Advanced English Writing Class:

• Graduate students whose TOEFL or IELTS meets the sectional score requirements for full admission, with the exception of the writing score, will be admitted with the condition that they successfully complete the Advanced English Writing Class at the Maryland English Institute in their second semester of study.

Exempt from Submitting TOEFL, IELTS or PTE Scores:

• Students who have received a degree from a regionally accredited institution in the U.S. (with the exception of Puerto Rico) or a nationally recognized university in one of the countries on the subsequent list do not need to submit TOEFL, IELTS or PTE scores.  This exemption also applies to students who are currently studying for a degree at an institution in the U.S. or one of the countries on the list, but will receive their degree before enrolling at the University of Maryland.
• Note  that you must have studied in the country and not in an online program nor at a foreign branch campus to be granted the exemption.  Students who have done a dual degree Bachelor’s program and earned a degree from an institution in a country on the list and a degree from a country not on the list, must have spent at least 2 years studying in the country on the waiver list to be eligible for an exemption from submitting an English score.  
• Students who have transferred into a Bachelor's program at an institution in a country on the list must have spent at least 2 years studying in the country on the waiver list to be eligible for an exemption from submitting an English score.

Please be advised:

• The School of Music will only allow an applicant to the M.M. or D.M.A. to be exempt from submitting a TOEFL, IELTS or PTE score if they have earned an undergraduate degree from an institution in the United States or another country on the waiver list.  Any applicants required to submit an English score must have a TOEFL score of at least 88 to be scheduled for an audition.  However, an English score sufficient for full admission must be received in order for admission to be processed.  Those applying to the M.M. are only required to score a 20 on the writing section of the TOEFL to qualify for full admission.
• The same TOEFL, IELTS and PTE requirements apply for applicants to online and hybrid programs (programs which are partially online and partially on campus), however, the scores must meet the requirements for full admission.  We can’t admit students to online and hybrid programs whose scores fall in the range of needing English study as they will not be on campus to attend the necessary English course.
• The same TOEFL, IELTS and PTE requirements apply for applicants to programs on the 12-week term calendar, however, the scores must meet the requirements for full admission.  English courses take place on the semester-based calendar, and students cannot be enrolled in courses on the semester-based calendar and the 12-week term calendar simultaneously.

NOTE:    These are the general TOEFL, IELTS or PTE requirements that have been established by the Graduate School.  Individual programs reserve the right to hold their applicants to more stringent requirements, including only considering applicants whose TOEFL, IELTS or PTE scores meet the requirements for full admission.  We recommend that you check with the program that you are applying to in order to make sure that they do not have additional requirements above and beyond what is listed here.

Exemption from the TOEFL/IELTS/PTE (English-Speaking Countries)

Canada (English-speaking, i.e. not Quebec)

Cayman Islands

Grand Turks and Caicos Islands

New Zealand

Sierra Leone

South Africa (English-speaking, i.e. not Afrikaans)

St. Vincent

Eswatini (formerly Swaziland)

The British Virgin Islands- St. Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla

Trinidad and Tobago

U.S. Virgin Islands- St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John

United Kingdom

Note: Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but the TOEFL/IELTS/PTE is required.

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PhD in English Language and Literature

• Admissions FAQ

The online application portal for 2024 applications will be available tentatively in September 2024.

This is a strict deadline..

All applications and supplemental materials (including at least two letters of recommendation) are due by 11:59pm, EST, on December 10, 2024 to meet our deadline. 

The fee for United States citizens and those with permanent resident visa status is $75. The fee for non-U.S. citizens is $90. The application fee for current Rackham students, regardless of citizenship, is $10. This fee is non-refundable and subject to change.

Make sure you have every document uploaded before you submit your application (excluding letters of recommendation), once you click on the submit button, you will not be able to go back into your application to make any changes. 

Admission decisions for Fall 2024 will be made and applicants will be notified in early March 2024.

Applicants with Master's degrees are given equal consideration for admission, but are not guaranteed advanced standing in the program. We do not accept Non-Candidate for Degree status applicants to our program. We do not offer online courses, our program is a full-time residency program.

Submitting your application

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING FOR MORE DETAILS. 

In some sections what we require differs from what is stated on the generic application form. 

Transcripts

Transcripts:.

• All applicants must upload a scanned copy, front and back, of their official transcript/academic record issued by the Registrar or Records Office to the applicant, to ApplyWeb for each bachelor’s, master’s, professional, or doctoral degree earned or in progress. The scanned copy of the official transcript is used for initial review by the graduate program faculty.
• A downloaded transcript from your school portal or system is an unofficial transcript and not acceptable for review.
• If you are attending or have graduated from a Non-U.S. institution, review the Required Academic Credentials from Non-U.S. Institutions for requirements by country.
• If you have community or junior college, non-degree, or study abroad coursework, indicate this information on page ten of the application under the “Additional Information” section. Do not submit any transcripts from a community or junior college, non-degree, or study abroad coursework to Rackham unless you attended a Non-U.S. institution. 

Applicants that are attending/graduated from a NON-U.S. Institution

• Review  Required Academic Credentials from Non-U.S. Institutions  for transcript/academic record requirements by country or region. Submitting transcript/academic records is a two-step process:

1: Uploading transcripts through the ApplyWeb application account:

Upload an electronic version of your official transcript/academic record for each Bachelor's, Master's, Professional, or Doctoral degree earned, or in progress, through your application account.

2: Sending official transcripts to the Rackham Graduate School:

Submit an official transcript/academic record for each institution attended at the time of application. See our detailed instructions on how to submit transcripts/academic records to the Rackham Graduate School: https://rackham.umich.edu/admissions/applying/transcripts/

Test Scores

Submit the following electronically through the online application.

GRE Test Scores - NOT required

• The General GRE Test is NOT required. The application will still ask for this information, but it does not need to be sent in.

• The GRE Subject test is NOT required.

English Proficiency Tests Accepted:

Ecpe , ielts , met , toefl, for a complete description of english proficiency tests accepted please visit rackham english proficiency requirements website page., test of english as a foreign language (toefl).

• Applicants whose native language is not English are required to take the TOEFL.

• The minumum TOEFL score accepted is 620 on paper, 260 on the computer, or 106 internet.

• The test date must be within 2 years of the application deadline.

• Photocopies and/or faxed scores will not be accepted.

• For a complete description of English proficiency tests accepted please visit Rackham English Proficiency Requirements website page.

• Be sure to include our Institution code of 1839 when sending your TOEFL scores.

• The department code is not required.

• Exceptions are made if your degree was earned from:

an institution where the language of instruction is English, exclusively. This exception does not apply if some classes completed were taught in a language other than English. Vertification from the school may be required.

a country where the official language is English (Australia, England, New Zealand).

Three Letters of Recommendation

Please register your recommenders on the "Letters of Recommendation" application page and submit recommendation request before you submit your final application. This will ensure that all materials are submitted by the Decemer 10 deadline. You do not need to wait to submit this request until you submit your final application.

All application materials, including the recommendation letters are due by the December 10 deadline. 

We do not accept hard copies, faxed, e-mailed, or recommendation letters submitted through Interfolio.

You can submit your application prior to the submission of all three letters of recommendation.

Additional Required Application Materials

Submit the following as PDFs through the online application.

Academic Statement of Purpose

A clearly labeled academic and intellectual Statement of Purpose: up to three pages, double spaced, statement about your academic and research background, your career goals, and how Michigan's graduate program will help you meet your career and educational objectives. Disregard the 500 word limit as stated on the application.

Personal Statement

A clearly labeled biographical Personal Statement: up to two pages, double spaced, statement about how your personal background and life experiences, including social, cultural, familial, educational, or other opportunities or challenges, motivated your decision to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Michigan. This is not an Academic Statement of Purpose, but a discussion of the personal journey that has led to your decision to seek a graduate degree. Disregard the 500 word limit as stated on the application.

Curriculum Vitae / Resume

No page limit.

Writing Sample

A writing sample of around 25 pages, double spaced, of critical or scholarly writing, excluding notes and bibliography. Notes and bibliography have no page limit.

Please select a sub-plan. You may refer to the list below for examples of sub-plans, though a sub-plan need not be listed here to be valid on the application.

Admissions Conduct Code

The Admissions Conduct Code questions are part of the online application process. You will be prompted to provide the necessary information and your response will be submitted electronically. There is no need to follow-up with paper copies.

International Students: Medical Screening

Immunizations for International StudentsThe University of Michigan does not require immunizations. However, it is recommended that students come to school fully immunized to protect their health. Immunizations are one of the most effective public health measures in preventing communicable diseases.  Immunization recommendations can be found on the University Health Services website .

• All credentials submitted for admission consideration become the property of the University of Michigan and will not be returned in original or copy form.

• Make sure you receive an electronic confirmation of your submitted application.

If you have additional questions please email [email protected]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

• Graduate Admissions
• PhD application

The Doctoral Program in English Literature

Applying to the doctoral program.

Look for Program Code E25PH when searching for the PhD program in the online application system

Application information FOR

Matriculation in fall 2025, application deadline: tba, all application materials are due by 11:59 pm (cst) on the day of the deadline.

When reviewing applications, we look for evidence of keen intellectual ability, skill in literary analysis, scholarly potential, and a strong sense of academic purpose. We do not emphasize any single factor, but pay close attention to written work and to applicants' competency in one or more foreign languages. We typically expect to receive between 200 and 300 applications for admission to the doctoral program, with a target class size of between 6 and 8 students.

Notification of the admissions committee's decisions will most likely occur in early February. Once our offers of admissions have been made, we will invite those prospective students to campus for a Visiting Weekend around the beginning of March. This is a chance for you to meet with faculty and current graduate students, discuss future projects, and hear about current doctoral work, tour the department and the campus, sit in on graduate seminars, and to look at some of the many advantages that Evanston and Chicago have to offer.

All supplemental application materials must be submitted through The Graduate School's application system. Please do  not  send, or have sent, paper copies of any documents. If you or your recommenders are having difficulty submitting any component of the application online, and the application system's online help is unable to resolve your problem, please contact the  Graduate Program Coordinator .  Never have any application materials sent directly to The Graduate School or their Office of Admission.

In all cases , our department's specifics regarding supplemental application materials supersede those listed on The Graduate School's website, as well as any listed in the application itself.  

Supplemental Application Materials

The English Department requires that the following documents be submitted as part of the online application for the PhD program (program code E25PH).  

• We cannot accept printouts of unofficial grade reports,
• Transcripts for non-degree courses are  not  needed,
• Transfer credits and courses taken as part of a study-abroad program will usually be included in your degree-awarding institution's transcript. There's no need to submit separate transcripts from those other institutions;
• Two letters of recommendation , though we strongly advise you to ask for three;
• An academic statement (1000 word max) answering the following questions: what are your academic interests, why do you wish to pursue graduate studies in our department, how has your academic and professional background prepared you for graduate study, and how will our program help you achieve your intellectual and professional goals? Please include mention of any research, training, or educational experiences you have that would be relevant to our program;
• A personal statement (500 word max)  addressing how , as a student in our graduate program, you could contribute to an intellectual community that prioritizes equity, inclusion, belonging, and cultural humility.  Your answer may draw upon past or present experiences, whether in academic work, extracurricular or community activities, or everyday life;
• It is not required, but feel free to submit an additional statement (250 word max) addressing concerns you may have with your application. If you feel that your academic credentials do not demonstrate your true capabilities, or if there are gaps in your academic career that you think it would  like to explain, this is the section in which to share that information;
• Please do not submit creative writing samples of any kind;
• Standard margins, Times New Roman 12 pt, double spaced;
• You may submit more than one sample, so long as the total page count does not exceed 25
• To be considered official, the exam must have been taken no more than two years prior to the intended September of entry ,
• Because of the level of English fluency required of students in our program, we will only consider applications with a TOEFL score of at least 100, or IELTS score of at least 7,
• Rules governing exemptions from this requirement can be found in our  FAQ ;
• Additional details from Northwestern's Graduate School about the application (including further details on the TOEFL/IELTS requirement, transcript submission, application fees, etc...) can be found on The Graduate School's website .

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MA/PhD Program in English Requirements

All students pursuing their PhD in English must complete the following major components of our MA/PhD program:

• Graduate coursework, including language requirement
• Advising meeting, portfolio project and preliminary program of study
• Final program of study 

Candidacy exam

• Dissertation prospectus
• Dissertation
• Final oral exam (dissertation defense)

The accordions below provide information about how students may fulfill each of these components. For an overview of the program, please see the representative timelines below that show roughly when in a graduate student’s career they can expect to pass each milestone.  

Program requirements

Each student must take a minimum total of 36 credit hours to earn an MA in English on the way to the PhD. Students who enter the program with a BA typically earn the MA at the end of their second year. Specific course requirements include the following:

• English 6700.01: Introduction to Graduate Study in English (three credits)
• A course in critical theory (three credits)
• Two courses to fulfill the breadth requirement (six credits)
• English 6781: Introduction to the Teaching of First-Year English (three credits)
• English 8903: Teaching College English (three credits, repeatable)
• English 6998: Research in English: Portfolio Preparation (variable credit hours)
• English 8193: Graduate Workshop (one credit)

Critical theory requirement

Students must take at least one course in critical theory (three credits); this course must be taken for a letter grade. The critical theory requirement can be fulfilled through English 6760, 6761, 6776.01, 6776.02, 6790, 6791, 7861, 7876, 7890, 7891, or 8888. Additional courses in English or other departments can be petitioned to count.

Breadth requirement

Each student must complete two courses to add breadth to the student’s program (six credits total). These courses must be taken for a letter grade and conform to the following guidelines:

• Students concentrating on literature or theory after 1800: Two courses in pre-1800 literature, rhetoric, folklore, etc.
• Students concentrating on literature or theory before 1800: Two courses in post-1800 literature, rhetoric, folklore, film, etc.
• Students concentrating in non-literary fields: Two courses to add breadth as determined in consultation with the faculty advisor and the director of Graduate Studies

Graduate workshop requirement

In addition to their regular coursework, MA/PhD students must complete two graduate workshops by the end of their fourth year in the program (preferably before candidacy).

The graduate workshops provide opportunities to enrich the department's formal graduate curriculum by regularly bringing in scholars from other institutions to discuss their recently-published and current work with students and faculty. Typically, the department is able to offer three to five workshops per academic year, which rotate among fields. Each workshop is organized by a faculty coordinator, and students enroll by signing up with the Graduate Studies office.  

The visiting speaker participates in two events: a public lecture or other kind of formal presentation, open to all members of the department and university community; and a closed session with graduate students who have enrolled in the workshop. For the smaller workshop, the visiting speaker assigns a text or group of texts for discussion (their own work or some other work relevant to the speaker's current interests). Students read the assigned texts on their own and submit short position papers to the faculty coordinator. The completion of these short essays, in combination with student participation, determine whether a student receives a grade of "S" (satisfactory) or "U" (unsatisfactory) for the workshop.

S/U grading guidelines

Individual faculty set the specific guidelines for S/U versions of graduate courses. The typical expectation for a grade of "S" (satisfactory), however, is that students complete readings, contribute meaningfully to class discussion and satisfactorily complete readings-related assignments that enrich discussion (e.g., writing brief reading responses, posting comments to Carmen discussions and/or leading in-class discussions on readings). Students taking a graduate course for S/U credit will typically not be expected to write longer papers or to complete and present on independent research projects.

Independent study

Graduate Independent Study courses require the approval of the director of Graduate Studies. Students interested in pursuing an independent study should consult with the appropriate faculty member at least a semester in advance. The faculty member should then prepare a one-page request that briefly outlines 1) the rationale for the independent study (e.g., why the student is unable to pursue similar work in regularly-scheduled courses) and 2) the syllabus for the independent study (e.g., list of readings, schedule of meetings, specific assignments or projects to be completed).

Students who enter with an MA from another program or another institution will typically transfer 30 hours, which means they will typically need to earn a minimum of an additional 56 credit hours for the PhD. Specific course requirements include the following:

• English 6700: Introduction to Graduate Study in English (three credits)     
• Critical theory requirement (three credits)
• Breadth requirement #1 (three credits)
• Breadth requirement #2 (three credits)
• English 8996: Research in English: Candidacy Exam (variable credit hours)
• English 8999: Research in English: Dissertation (variable credit hours)

Students must take at least one course in Critical Theory (three credits); this course be taken for a letter grade. Students may fulfill this requirement through coursework completed at their MA institution. The critical theory requirement can be fulfilled through English 6760, 6761, 6776.01, 6776.02, 6790, 6791, 7861, 7876, 7890, 7891, or 8888. Additional courses in English or other departments can be petitioned to count.

Each student must complete two courses to add breadth to the student’s program (six credits total). These courses must be taken for a letter grade and conform to the following guidelines:

• Students concentrating on literature or theory after 1800: Two courses in pre-1800 literature, rhetoric, folklore, etc.

Students may fulfill this requirement through coursework completed at their MA institution.

The graduate workshops provide opportunities to enrich the department's formal graduate curriculum by regularly bringing in scholars from other institutions to discuss their recently-published and current work with students and faculty. Typically, the department is able to offer three to five workshops per academic year, which rotate among fields. Each workshop is organized by a faculty coordinator, and students enroll by signing up with the graduate studies office.  

Independent Study

Graduate Independent Study courses require the approval of the director of Graduate Studies. Students interested in pursuing an independent study should consult with the appropriate faculty member at least a semester in advance. The faculty member should then prepare a one-page request that briefly outlines 1) the rationale for the independent study (e.g., why the student is unable to pursue similar work in regularly scheduled courses) and 2) the syllabus for the independent study (e.g., list of readings, schedule of meetings, specific assignments or projects to be completed).

Language Proficiency Coordinator: Galey Modan ( [email protected] )

The graduate program in the Department of English requires that students demonstrate current proficiency in a natural language other than English. (Natural languages are all languages, including ASL, that have evolved naturally among humans through use and repetition; natural languages do not include constructed languages such as Klingon or computer programming languages.) There are multiple reasons that language proficiency is required. These include the following: 


• Extensive and technical familiarity with a language other than English constitutes a powerful way for graduate students to gain an understanding of the distinctive characteristics of English language structure. 
• Proficiency in a language other than English allows students access to primary and secondary texts composed in that language. Graduate students in all areas of English studies with even a modest level of proficiency benefit from this access.
• To fulfill our department’s commitment to diversity, it is vital for students to gain proficiency in languages other than English. To gain a basic understanding of multilingual and non-English-speaking communities requires a familiarity with the languages of those communities.
• As English itself is an increasingly culturally- and geographically-differentiated language, deep familiarity with the languages that English comes into contact with is vital to an understanding of English’s global manifestations.

Doctoral research in some specialties (such as Medieval, Renaissance or U.S. ethnic literatures) may require proficiency in additional languages beyond the one that satisfies the departmental requirement. Students therefore must discuss the language requirement with faculty in their chosen area of specialization as soon as possible.

There is no set list of languages approved for PhD candidates in English. The expectation is that students will choose a language pertinent to their research interests.

Native speakers of languages other than English may use their native languages to fulfill the departmental requirement, unless their area of study requires knowledge of other particular language(s).

For doctoral students, the language requirement(s) should be met by the end of the first year of enrollment beyond the MA and must be met before any part of the candidacy examination may be scheduled.


Students can fulfill the language proficiency requirement in any of the following six ways: 

Method #1: Multimedia computer-adaptive placement test

Students wishing to fulfill the requirement with Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Hebrew, Italian or Swahili may take a multimedia computer-adaptive placement test administered by the  Center for Languages, Literatures, and Cultures . These exams test both comprehension and production. To fulfill the language requirement through a placement test, students must do one of the following:

• If the student and their advisor decide that both comprehension and production are necessary for their further research, the student must achieve a score sufficient for placement into a 2000-level language class on both sections.

• If the student and their advisor decide that comprehension alone is suitable, the student must achieve a score sufficient for placement into a 2000-level language class on the comprehension portion of the exam. Please note: Students will need to be in contact with the language proficiency coordinator prior to taking the exam if just a “comprehension” score is necessary, as the exams do not automatically produce a score solely for comprehension. The coordinator will need to confirm with the Center for Languages, Literature and Cultures that the exam is set up correctly for the student. This option involves more paperwork to set up, so the comprehension and production option above is preferred.

Method #2: Department-administered placement test

If the requirement is to be met with a language not listed above, students may take a placement test administered by an Ohio State department that teaches the language in question. As with the CLLC option, students must place into a 2000-level class. This is the method of choice for ASL and other signed languages. If the language in question is not taught at Ohio State, the student will meet with the language proficiency coordinator to set up a testing process. (Note: if the language is one tested through the CLLC, that option must be chosen.)

Method #3: Year of university-level language classes

Students may take a year's worth of university-level language classes and get at least a grade of 'B' in both semesters. Students must consult the appropriate language department for course offerings. Since sequences often begin only in the autumn semester, students should be sure to check well ahead of time when the courses will be offered. 

Method #4: Graduate reading course

Students may complete a graduate reading course offered by an Ohio State language program with a grade of 'B' or higher (see below for more information on departments offering reading courses).

Method #5: Translation test

In consultation with the student’s advisor and the language proficiency coordinator, students may take a translation test (typically a translation with the aid of a dictionary) administered by an Ohio State language program, qualified faculty member of the English department or qualified faculty member at another university, as approved by the language proficiency coordinator. Students intending to take a translation exam administered by another department should note that each language department has its own set of deadlines that must be met in order to enroll for the exam. Students should contact the relevant language department during the semester before they intend to take the exam in order to ensure that they do not miss the exam registration date. 


Method #6: Oral proficiency test

Students may take an   oral proficiency test. Students can show proficiency based on the following the criteria:

• Comprehension: The examinee understands the content of an oral text such as a radio or broadcast news story. The content may be on current events or on a topic relevant to a student’s research. The examinee must show ability to 1) summarize a given text in a cohesive and coherent manner without prompting, 2) produce a statement summarizing their own view, and 3) answer follow-up questions in a cohesive and coherent manner. 

• Production: The examinee shows ability to describe the text in a comprehensible way, producing extended, connected discourse in all major time frames (past, present, and future). The reference point for ‘comprehension’ is a speaker who does not speak other languages that the examinee is proficient in. Vocabulary may be primarily generic in nature. However, if the examinee must use the language under examination for their scholarly work, they must also show command of relevant vocabulary when dealing with topics of interest. This will be decided in consultation with the student's advisor. Circumlocution and rephrasing are to be expected. Speech must be clear and not lead to confusion. Pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and discourse structure should not be so faulty as to prevent comprehension by a speaker not proficient in the other languages in which the examinee is proficient. Discourse may reflect the information structure of the examinee’s own language/s, rather than that of the target language.

In cases where an examiner cannot be located, students can take the Oral Proficiency Interview, as administered by Ohio State Testing Center and described  here .   The department may pay the fees associated with the OPI upon approval. 

Reading courses and exam information for common language choices

Below you will find information about German, French, Spanish and Italian reading proficiency classes and testing procedures. In the past, these have been the most common choices made by students, and these departments have the most structured systems for assessing proficiency. If another language is more appropriate for your research, see above for assessment procedures.

• German:  Courses that satisfy graduate reading proficiency include German 6102 and German 6202. Contact Natascha Miller ( [email protected] ) with questions about coursework prerequisites. If you choose to take the reading exam to demonstrate proficiency, you must schedule it in cooperation with your advisor and the English department’s language proficiency coordinator. Your advisor should select a passage for you to translate and submit it, along with a completed exam scheduling form, as directed on the  exam website . Information about testing dates is usually updated the third or fourth week of the semester; visit the  exam website  to view testing dates and download the exam scheduling form.
• French:  Courses that satisfy graduate reading proficiency include French 6571 and French 6572. Contact Joan Obert ( [email protected] ) with questions about coursework prerequisites. If you choose to take the reading exam to demonstrate proficiency, you must schedule it in cooperation with your advisor and the English department’s language proficiency coordinator. The Department of French and Italian provides a detailed overview of the test, as well as information on exam preparation, evaluation, dates and registration on their  website .
• Spanish:  The Department of Spanish and Portuguese does not offer courses to demonstrate reading proficiency in Spanish. If you would like to take a translation test, you must schedule the reading exam in cooperation with your advisor and the English department’s language proficiency coordinator. The Department of Spanish and Portuguese provides a detailed overview of the test, as well as information on exam preparation, dates and registration on their  website . 
• Italian : The Department of French and Italian does not offer courses to demonstrate reading proficiency in Italian. If you choose to take the reading exam to demonstrate proficiency, you must schedule the reading exam in cooperation with your advisor. The Department of French and Italian provides an overview of the test on their  website . Contact Joan Obert ( [email protected] ) to schedule the exam and to request more detailed information on testing dates and procedures.

English 8903 is a teaching internship with a faculty member, which students must complete before they can be assigned to teach any of the 2000-level literature, language or folklore courses. English 7881.02: Teaching Basic Writing, 7881.03: Teaching of College Composition in English as a Second Language and 7881.04: Teaching Business and Professional Communication may be substituted for English 8903 by students whose teaching interests include basic writing, ESL and/or business and professional writing. However, English 8903 will be a prerequisite for teaching the relevant 2000-level courses (just as the English 7881 series is now a prerequisite for teaching the specialized writing courses).

English 8903 carries one to three credit hours. The course may be repeated. In order to coordinate their teaching interests with scheduled courses, students planning on taking English 8903 should also consult the undergraduate course offerings and faculty teaching them.

Faculty and students will have considerable flexibility in constructing the day-to-day details of the apprenticeship, but a typical pattern would look something like this:

• Student and professor agree to do English 8903 in an upcoming semester.
• When the book order requests are distributed, the professor and student meet to discuss which books they will use and why. 
• At some point before the course starts, the professor and student meet to discuss the course syllabus. They consider such matters as the objectives of the course and how best to design the schedule of readings, the students' writing assignments and the classroom atmosphere so that those objectives can be met.
• Before each class, the professor and student meet to talk about the session's goals and the pedagogical means they will use to meet them. In addition, they consider how the goals of the upcoming session fit in with the overall goals of the course. (For all class sessions but the first, this meeting might occur an hour or so before walking into the session.)
• Before each writing assignment (including exams), professor and student discuss what they want to achieve and how they might design the assignment to reach those goals.
• The professor must take responsibility for all grades assigned in the course, but the student may assist in grading by reading, commenting and assigning possible grades to a subset of the papers or exams. Since the student is an apprentice and not a TA, however, the point of this work is not to lighten the faculty member's load but rather to provide the occasion for discussion of criteria for different grades, how to address students in commentary and so on. In all cases, the professor must read the papers marked by the apprentice and assign the final grades.
• The student takes primary responsibility for some teaching, in the range of four to six hours of instruction over the course of the semester.
• After the course is over, the professor and student read the student evaluations and discuss them as well as their own assessments of what worked and what didn't.
• The course is graded S/U. The faculty member should also be prepared to write a letter of recommendation for the student's dossier.
• The student writes a report on the apprentice experience, reflecting on how their thinking about pedagogy has been influenced by English 8903.

In general, the idea of the internship is to give the student the opportunity to work closely with a faculty member on everything from the design of a course to its day-to-day operations, from its goals and purposes to its grading and evaluation.

Students may work with a professor in any undergraduate course. No more than two students may sign up for English 8903 with the same professor and the same course in any one semester. Students must take English 8903 before they are assigned their own sections of 2000-level courses, but they need to take English 8903 only once as a general preparation for that teaching. In other words, students do not have to take a new English 8903 for every new 2000-level course they teach.

Of course, students will generally gravitate toward courses in their areas and in the areas where they would most like to teach. Below are the usual links between English 8903 experiences and the assignment of undergraduate courses, but graduate students should have considerable leeway in choosing their apprenticeships and those assigning graduate students to 2000-level courses should have some flexibility in making those assignments. For example, English 4520.01 will count for 2200 and 2201; English 4560 for 2260; English 4561 for 2261; English 4550 and English 4551 for 2290.

When students are assigned their own 2000-level class, they will consult with a faculty mentor (ideally the person whose class they observed, but possibly the course director or their advisor) on the preparation of the syllabus and other issues relating to the class. The faculty member will observe the class at least once and write a report for the course director.

The advising meeting is a critical step in the process toward the PhD and, for students who enter the program with a BA, it is the formal mechanism for awarding the MA. Typically, the advising meeting will take place at the end of the spring semester of the second year for all students who enter with a BA and at the end of the spring semester of the first year for all students who enter with an MA. 

The advising meeting will include a faculty committee composed of the student's selected advisor, who serves as chair; a second faculty member chosen from a list of three submitted by the student; and a third member selected by the director of Graduate Studies or their designee. The advising meeting will last for at least one hour but for no longer than two hours. During the meeting, the student and faculty committee will consider the student's plans for completing the PhD as reflected in the Preliminary Program of Study. Students will also answer and ask questions about items included in the portfolio project.

After the advising meeting, the chair of the faculty committee will write a brief report of the meeting for the student's file. In addition to a short summary of the conversation, for students who enter with a BA, this report will include the committee's recommendation to award the MA degree based on satisfactory completion of all MA requirements. For all students, the report should also include recommendations about the composition of the student's committee for the candidacy exam and dissertation.

By week seven of the spring semester, the student will prepare a portfolio that includes:

• A Preliminary Program of Study, signed by the student’s advisor.
• A short statement about the student’s pursuit of interests outside the regular curriculum and the major field (e.g., attendance at workshops, lectures, readings and other such activities).
• A research project, which can be a traditional academic essay, a new media composition and so forth, as determined in consultation with the student's faculty advisor.

Typically, the research project will have begun in a course and been subsequently revised with a broader academic audience in mind and with a clear articulation of how its argument and methodologies fit within ongoing conversations in the relevant field or fields. The student should be working toward potential publication of the project, and/or toward its integration into her or his dissertation.

Students who enter the program with an MA may use a project begun in a course in their MA program.

The Preliminary Program of Study consists of three components:

• A description and short rationale for the student’s intended major field and minor field or fields for the candidacy exam. (See description of Final Program of Study for explanation of field areas.)
• A summer reading list of about 15 works related to one or both of these areas.
• A brief discussion of teaching and other GA work, completed and planned.

The Preliminary Program of Study should be designed in consultation with the student's faculty advisor and must be signed by the advisor in preparation for the advising meeting.

A copy of the Final Program of Study and letter of endorsement from the advisor should be submitted electronically to the graduate program coordinator ( [email protected] ) by 4 p.m. on the due date.  The Final Program of Study has two main purposes: to establish parameters for the candidacy examination and to present a detailed map of the student's path toward earning the PhD. The Final Program of Study must be completed, approved by the student's candidacy examination committee and then approved by the Graduate Studies Program and Policy Committee before the student may schedule their exam. It is important to keep in mind that the POS has multiple audiences: the student's exam chair and exam committee, but also the Graduate Studies Program and Policy Committee, which is made up of faculty who represent the various areas of specialization in the department as a whole. The POS needs to be written so that it is accessible to non-specialists in the student's specific area.  

Program of Study Components

• A list of the chair and other faculty members of the student's candidacy examination committee. The Graduate School requires four members, and the chair must hold "P" status (typically, this means a tenured associate or full professor). This committee is formed specifically to administer the candidacy exam and is not the same as the dissertation committee.
• The major field should be broadly rather than narrowly defined. Typically, the major field will be an academic job category.
• The reading list for the major field should consist of between 75 and 85 works (primary and secondary) and should both provide coverage of the broad field and locate the student’s specific interests within it.
• The reading list should not include works of criticism authored by any member of the student's exam committee as it is difficult for students to be examined impartially about material written by an examiner.
• The minor field can be primarily a supplement to the major field (e.g., a second academic job category), or
• The minor field can partially overlap with the major field, or
• The minor field can be a body of theory that is broader than but relevant to the student’s location within the major field.
• The reading list for the minor field should consist of between 40 and 45 works (primary and secondary). For two minor fields, the lists should consist of between 22 and 25 works for each.
• The draft of the dissertation prospectus should be submitted to the committee one week before the student begins the written portion of the candidacy exam.
• A concise list of completed coursework for the MA/PhD , organized by date of completion, including grades received. Please provide a one-sentence description for independent study projects.
• A concise statement of the student's teaching experience thus far , plans for taking English 8903 and plans for future teaching in the department.
• A concise timeline for the student's progress toward graduation . The timeline should be organized by year and semester, and it should indicate the projected dates for the completion of all PhD requirements, including coursework, language requirement, English 8903(s), graduate workshops, candidacy exam, dissertation prospectus, dissertation research and writing, and the job application process.
• Reading lists for the major and minor fields.

Letter of endorsement

The Final Program of Study must be submitted to the Graduate Studies Program and Policy Committee with a letter of endorsement from the student's chair for the candidacy exam committee. The letter of endorsement should confirm that the student has worked with the entire committee and that the entire committee has approved the POS; briefly contextualize the membership of the committee, with more context if the committee includes faculty from outside the department; and articulate the chair's confidence in the student's rationales for the major and minor fields.

The candidacy examination must be taken no later than two semesters after the completion of required coursework. Students must register for English 8996 with the chair of the exam committee while preparing for the candidacy exam.

The candidacy exam consists of a take-home written portion and a two-hour oral portion. The Application for Candidacy must be filed with the Graduate School at least two weeks before the oral examination. The application can be filled out on the Graduate School's forms webpage . The written portion is a three-day take-home exam, with an upper limit of no more than 5,000 words total. Failure to adhere to the word limit constitutes failure of the entire candidacy examination. No notes of any kind are permitted (i.e., no footnotes or endnotes), but in their answers to the exam questions, students should cite relevant primary and secondary works from their reading lists and use parenthetical citations.

• Written exam: The written portion of the candidacy exam should address two questions, one of which is dedicated to the student's major field and one of which is dedicated to the student's minor field or fields. The questions are written by the student's exam chair in consultation with the other members of their committee. The questions are given to the student only at the time the written exam is administered. The written exam must be taken over a seventy-two hour period; it can be sent via email or picked up by 4 p.m. on the first day and turned in to the committee and the English Graduate Studies office via email by 4 p.m. on the last day of that period. Students may opt to start the exam on a Monday, Tuesday or Friday so that it is due in the English Graduate Studies office, respectively, the following Thursday, Friday or Monday.
• Oral exam: The oral portion of the exam must follow no sooner than one week but within two weeks (i.e., 7-14 days) after the written portion is completed and turned in. The written exam should be regarded as the beginning of a discussion that will be continued during the oral exam. Prior to the oral, the student should meet with the candidacy exam chair to clarify expectations for the oral exam; at this meeting, it is expected that the chair will ask a few sample questions to assist the student with their preparations. The oral exam lasts two hours, and it covers both the candidate's major field and minor field or fields. The chair of the committee should ensure that at least 60 minutes are devoted to the major field. The final 30 minutes of the exam can include a discussion of the draft dissertation prospectus.

Candidacy Examination Committee

The Candidacy Examination Committee consists of four faculty members, chaired by a member of the graduate faculty who holds "P" status (typically, a tenured associate or full professor). The student selects the members of her or his committee in consultation with the chair. The committee must include faculty representation for both the major field and the minor field or fields. Typically, this will mean two faculty members representing the major field and two faculty members representing the minor field, or two faculty members representing the major field and one faculty member representing the first minor field and one faculty member representing the second minor field. Only in unusual circumstances should a faculty member represent both the major and a minor field for the purposes of the candidacy exam. The committee meets with the student prior to the exam to discuss the reading lists for the major and minor fields.

Students are responsible for distributing the following materials to all members of the Committee at least one week before the written exam:

• The draft Dissertation Prospectus.

Students are responsible for distributing the following materials to all members of the Committee at least one week before the oral exam :

• The Final Program of Study
• The written exam
• The student's Major Field and Minor Field or Fields reading lists (if updated from the POS)
• The official description of the Candidacy Exam; please refer faculty to the information on this page (optional).

Candidacy exam assessment

Failure of the candidacy examination occurs if the committee considers either of the following to be the case:

• The written and/or oral portions of the exam indicated that the candidate is not ready to proceed to a dissertation, owing to insufficient knowledge of the field, 
• The candidate is insufficiently focused on a dissertation project, which makes it unlikely that they will be able to submit an approved prospectus within two months. In case of failure, the committee can specify the nature of a repeat examination, but it, too, must contain a written and an oral portion. A second failure means dismissal from the PhD program (see Graduate School Handbook).

A successful pass must be a unanimous decision of the committee. The chair of the committee is required to submit a written report on the candidacy examination to the director of Graduate Studies. Failure, in whole or in part, may occur if any one member of the committee is not satisfied with the results. In the case of failure, each individual faculty member of the committee may specify areas or material on which a re-examination must take place and so instruct the student. The chair of the committee will then submit a written account of what will be required of the student to repeat the exam. The Graduate School will assign an outside representative for all second examinations.

Time limits for candidacy

If a candidate fails to complete the dissertation and final oral examination within five years after the candidacy examination, admission to candidacy is canceled. To be re-admitted to candidacy, the student must take a supplemental candidacy examination. The examination committee is comprised of the advisor and at least three other authorized graduate faculty members, and the examination must include a written and an oral portion that last approximately two hours. A graduate faculty representative is appointed if a prior unsatisfactory examination result is on record. All other rules pertaining to candidacy examination must be followed.  The supplemental examination will typically be tied to the student's dissertation and may consist of the presentation and oral defense of a chapter or a substantial part of a chapter. In short, the purpose of requiring the supplemental examination is not to punish the student but to help move them along to completion of the PhD and to ensure that they have kept up with the current scholarship in the field. On passing the supplemental examination, the student is readmitted to candidacy and must complete the dissertation and final oral examination within two years.

Dissertation prospectus process

There are three steps in the dissertation prospectus process:

• The student presents a draft of the dissertation prospectus to their candidacy exam committee at least one week prior to the written portion of the exam.
• The student then presents a revised dissertation prospectus to their dissertation committee in a prospectus conference, typically no more than six weeks after the completion of the candidacy exam.
• The student presents a final version of the dissertation prospectus, approved by their dissertation chair, to the director of Graduate Studies, typically no more than two weeks after the prospectus conference. The approved final version of the prospectus should be submitted together with a  Prospectus Approval Form .

Dissertation prospectus content

The Dissertation Prospectus should:

• State the problem that the candidate proposes to solve;
• Explain the significance of the project and its relation to current scholarship in the field;
• Describe the candidate's current knowledge of the subject;
• Indicate the direction the candidate's investigation will take;
• Reflect the candidate's familiarity with relevant bibliographical materials and critical methods.

Students and faculty should keep in mind that the prospectus is a preliminary project, not a mini-dissertation. It is meant to help students move on to the dissertation writing stage of their programs. Typically, the prospectus should be no longer than eight to twelve double-spaced pages, plus a working bibliography.

Dissertation committee

The dissertation committee consists of three faculty members, chaired by a faculty member who holds "P" status (typically, a tenured associate or full professor). This committee is constituted separately from the candidacy exam committee and can include faculty members who did not serve on the examination committee.

Prospectus conference

The prospectus conference is a meeting of the student and all members of their dissertation committee to discuss the revised prospectus and the student's plans for researching and writing the dissertation. The prospectus conference also provides an opportunity for the student and the committee to set guidelines for their working relationship.

Because graduate students pursue a wide range of research and writing projects in the Department of English, there are no department-wide guidelines for the dissertation. Students should work with their advisors and committees to determine the relevant parameters for projects in their specific fields and areas of interest.

Finalizing the dissertation manuscript

All doctoral candidates must submit the final draft of the dissertation electronically; students are no longer required to submit a final paper copy to the Graduate School. However, hard copies of the dissertation are still required for distribution to the student's committee and to the outside representative. For more details about the electronic submission process, including how to delay internet dissemination of the dissertation (strongly recommended) and how to format the dissertation, visit the Graduate School website.

Final approval

Final approval of the dissertation cannot occur until the final oral examination has been passed. Each dissertation committee member must sign the Final Approval Form. This form must be submitted no later than one week before commencement.

Students should be aware that the deadlines imposed by the Graduate School do not always allow enough time for their committees to evaluate their work.  Most committees will need to have a complete draft of the dissertation at least two or more months before all formal requirements are met, so that sufficient time for revision will be assured. A student who does not present a draft of the dissertation until the semester of anticipated graduation may encounter obstacles and delays. No faculty member is obliged to sign the Draft Approval Form until they are satisfied that the work is ready for scrutiny at the final oral examination.

This two-hour examination is held after the dissertation committee has approved the dissertation by signing the Draft Approval Form, available from the Graduate School. The Draft Approval Form must be submitted to the Graduate School no later than two weeks before the date of the final oral examination. At the time the student submits the Draft Approval Form, they must also present a hard copy of the approved dissertation draft to both the Graduate School (for the purposes of format check) and the dissertation committee members.

The oral examinatio n  deals intensively with the candidate's field of specialization and need not be confined exclusively to the dissertation defense. A successful examination is one that is awarded a "pass" by the entire examining committee, including the outside representative, who is appointed by the Graduate School. This representative must receive a hard copy of the approved dissertation draft at least one week in advance of the examination.

If a candidate fails to complete the dissertation and final oral examination within five years after the candidacy examination, admission to candidacy is canceled. To be re-admitted to candidacy the student must take a supplementary candidacy examination. This supplementary examination will typically be tied to the student's dissertation and may consist of the presentation and oral defense of a chapter or a substantial part of a chapter. In short, the purpose of requiring the supplemental candidacy examination is not to punish the student but to help move them along to completion of the PhD and to ensure that they have kept up with the current scholarship in the field. On passing the supplementary candidacy examination, the student is re-admitted to candidacy and must complete the dissertation and final oral examination within two years.

Imperial College London Imperial College London

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English language requirements

Explore our English language requirements for entry to undergraduate or postgraduate study.

Our English language requirements

To study with us, all home, EU and overseas applicants must demonstrate they meet the required English language competency level for their chosen course.

We have two English language attainment levels:

See our course pages to find out whether you will need to meet the standard or higher level for your chosen course.

Find your course

The requirements for meeting the standard or higher level are explained below – see 'Tests we accept' and 'English language qualifications we accept'.

How to meet our English language requirement

There are a number of different ways to demonstrate that you meet the relevant English language proficiency for your course.

You only need to do one of the following:

• Achieve the minimum score in one of the tests or qualifications we accept – see below
• Show that you are exempt from our English language requirements – see English language exemption for details
• Pass the Imperial College London  Pre-Sessional English Programme * 

*Applicable for postgraduate students only

The Business School no longer offers its own pre-sessional courses, or recognises other pre-sessional courses, as a means of meeting the English language requirement. If you have any questions about this, please contact the Business School directly.

The Department of Mathematics and Centre of Environmental Policy do not accept award of a joint degree with exempted countries as a means of meeting the College’s English language requirement.

Upgrade your academic language skills

If you have already met the English language requirement, but want to improve your academic language skills, find out more about the Imperial College London  3-week Pre-sessional and Orientation course. 

Imperial College London Doctoral Academic Communication Requirement

After meeting the relevant English language requirement for entry to a doctoral programme at Imperial, all doctoral students must also fulfil the Imperial College London Doctoral Academic Communication Requirement (DACR).

Find out more about  Imperial College London Doctoral Academic Communication Requirement (DACR) .

Student visa – proving your English language proficiency

 If you need a student visa to study with us, you will need to prove your English language proficiency.

You can prove your knowledge of English by demonstrating to us that you have:

• completed one of our accepted English language tests (see below); and
• achieved the relevant standard for your course.

We will confirm this in your Confirmation for Acceptance of Studies (CAS) – this is an electronic document that generates a reference number you need to be able to apply for your student visa. This number confirms to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) that we wish to sponsor your study in the UK.

Accepted English language tests and qualifications

Here are all of the English language tests and qualifications that we accept for entry to undergraduate and postgraduate study.

You only need to meet the relevant standard in one of the following.

Tests we accept

Duolingo english test.

Find out more on the Duolingo website .

IELTS – Academic (Test-Centre/UKVI SELT/Online)

*IELTS single score re-takes are not accepted. Candidates must meet the IELTS requirements on a single test sitting.

Imperial College London considers IELTS scores to be valid for 2 years.

Scores must be valid at the beginning of your studies at Imperial if your application is successful.

Find out more on  the IELTS website .

LanguageCert International ESOL

*Test scores are only considered valid if taken within two years of the intended course start date.

Find out more on the LanguageCert website .

Occupational English Test

Find out more on the Cambridge website .

PTE – Academic (Test-Centre/UKVI SELT)

Imperial College London considers Pearson (PTE) scores to be valid for 2 years.

Scores must be valid at the beginning of your studies at Imperial if your application is successful. 

For more information regarding Pearson, please visit the Pearson website . 

PTE Academic online test results are only accepted (where valid) for entry for those starting courses up to 31 December 2023.

TOEFL (iBT) and (iBT Paper)

*ETS at Home accepted for admission

Imperial College London considers TOEFL scores to be valid for 2 years.

You must meet the entry requirement in one test from your scaled scores ( 'My Best Scores' reported by TOEFL will not be considered ).

For more information relating regarding TOEFL please visit the ETS website . 

You must email your TOEFL scores to the relevant admissions teams .

Score reports sent via post will not be processed.

Trinity College London: Integrated Skills in English (ISE) Level III

Trinity college london: integrated skills in english (ise) level iv, english language qualifications we accept, as level/a-level.

*For this qualification our standard and higher English requirements are set at the same level. 

Australia Territory High School Certificate (HSC)

Cambridge c1 advanced certificate in english (cae), canadian high school diploma.

*For this qualification our standard and higher English requirements are set at the same level.  Must be studied in Canada and excludes Quebec High School Diploma.

Caribbean Examination Council – Secondary Education Certificate

Cambridge certificate of proficiency in english (cpe), european baccalaureate, gcse or gce 'o' level.

**For Home students we require a Grade 5 in English Language. This includes all courses except MBBS Medicine which requires a Grade 6 in English Language.

Hong Kong AS Level

Hong kong certificate of education examinations syllabus b, hong kong diploma of secondary education, indian 12th standard *cbse & cisce boards only, international baccalaureate.

For qualifications taken after 2013

For qualifications taken before 2013

International Baccalaureate MYP English e-assessed

International option of the french baccalaureat (oib), irish leaving certificate, malaysian certificate of education (sijil pelajaran malaysia), malta matriculation certificate, malta secondary education certificate, national certificate in educational achievement level 2 or level 3, scottish standard (ss) & national 5 (n5), singapore cambridge a-levels, singapore cambridge o-levels, singapore integrated programme - nus high school diploma, singapore integrated programme cambridge a levels (sipcal), ucl – undergraduate preparatory certificate in science and engineering (upcse) – english language module, usa advanced placement examination, usa high school diploma.

*For this qualification our standard and higher English requirements are set at the same level.  Must be studied in a majority English speaking country.

West African Examinations Council (WAEC)

What are you looking for?

• International Students
• Prospective International Students

English Proficiency

English-language proficiency requirements.

Effective for applications submitted for summer 2024 and later terms only.

The ability to communicate effectively in English—to read, write and speak the language fluently—is vital to your success as a USC student.

International graduate applicants are therefore expected to demonstrate their proficiency in English as part of the application process and should carefully review the guidelines below.

U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents (such as green card holders) are considered to be “domestic” applicants, regardless of where they have studied or reside. Domestic applicants are exempt from the university’s English-proficiency requirements.

Test Score Guidelines

Important: USC does not set university-wide score minimums for graduate admission. The scores listed below are typically used for placement purposes only—to determine if an admitted student will need to take the International Student English (ISE) examination upon arrival at USC.

English-proficiency scores must be dated within 2 years (24 months) of the date you submit your graduate application. For example, a prospective student applying to fall 2024 who submits their USC application in December 2023 will need to have taken the test no earlier than December 2021.

TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language)

USC accepts the TOEFL iBT Home Edition, iBT Paper Edition, and the standard in-person TOEFL iBT administered in official test centers. Admitted students are exempt from taking the ISE Exam with the following scores:

Sending official scores to USC: USC must receive scores electronically from the testing service for them to be considered official. Photocopies or paper copies of scores are not acceptable.

USC’s institution code is 4852. No department code is required.

IELTS (International English Language Testing System)

USC accepts IELTS Academic and IELTS Indicator (Online version) scores. Admitted students are exempt from taking the ISE Exam with the following scores:

Sending official scores to USC: USC must receive scores electronically from the testing service for them to be considered official. Photocopies or paper copies of scores from the testing service are not acceptable.

Select “University of Southern California” from the list of available institutions when you register to take the IELTS test. Alternatively, provide this information to your testing center after you have taken the test. Contact information for the USC department to which you are applying is not required.

PTE (Pearson Test of English) Academic

USC accepts PTE Academic and PTE Academic Online scores. Admitted students are exempt from taking the ISE Exam with the following scores:

Select “University of Southern California” from the list of available institutions when you register to take the PTE Academic test. Alternatively, provide this information to your testing center after you have taken the test. Contact information for the USC department to which you are applying is not required.

Special Accommodations

The Educational Testing Service (TOEFL), the British Council (IELTS) and Pearson (PTE Academic) will provide accommodations for those with disabilities.

Score Minimums Set by Programs

Please note that some individual programs may set internal score minimums that are higher than those listed here. Please refer to your intended graduate program(s) for information about their English proficiency requirements.

English-Language Test Waiver

International applicants are exempt from submitting English-proficiency scores under the following circumstances:

• You hold a degree (bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate) from USC or are currently enrolled in a USC degree program.
• You have completed a master’s or doctoral degree from a country in which English is both the language of instruction and the only official language. The degree needs to have already been completed at the time you submit your USC application. Applicants who have not yet completed a qualifying master’s or doctoral program at the time they apply will still need to submit English-proficiency scores.
• Your native language is English. This applies to native English speakers from countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada (except Quebec), where English is both the only official language of the country and the language of instruction.

USC does not waive the English-proficiency requirement based on any other consideration such as work experience, ESL enrollment, amount of time spent in the U.S., etc. It also cannot be waived on the basis of programs taught in English in non-Anglophone countries.

To determine if USC requires TOEFL/IELTS/PTE scores for your country of study, please check our Country Requirements page.

USC International Academy

Students looking to prepare their English and academic skills for the rigors of graduate study at USC may wish to explore the USC International Academy as an option.

Exceptions: The Office of Graduate Admission does not have the authority to grant exemptions to the university’s English-proficiency policies on the basis of applicant requests. Exemption requests submitted directly to our office by applicants themselves are automatically denied. If you have extraordinary circumstances that you believe may merit an individualized exemption, please contact your intended graduate program to discuss available options.

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English language requirements

UTS has English language proficiency requirements for every course.

English language requirements apply to both international and domestic students.

Each UTS course has English language proficiency requirements which you must satisfy in order to be considered. The way you demonstrate your proficiency depends on whether you have studied in English before.

I have previously studied in English

If you have previously studied in English, you satisfy the UTS English if one of the options below are applicable to you.

I have an assessable qualification undertaken in English

An assessable qualification is a qualification undertaken in English from an approved country (full list below). An assessable qualification is:

• senior secondary studies comparable with the New South Wales Higher School Certificate (HSC)
• one full year of Australian or comparable tertiary studies, including RATE Associate Diploma and Advanced Diploma, Associate degree, Bachelor degree and postgraduate studies
• comparable AQF Diploma and Advanced Diploma
• Australian or comparable non-award studies and tertiary preparation courses, with a full-time equivalence of one year.

Your qualification must have been undertaken in one of the following countries:

Many courses have further English language requirements. Be sure to check the special requirements section for additional criteria that relate to your course.

I have completed a course taught in English

If you do not have an assessable qualification from one of the above countries, you may still be able to satisfy the English language requirement.

If you have successfully completed no less than the equivalent of one year full-time study of a secondary/post-secondary course that is taught in English (equivalent to the level of Australian Year 12 or higher), you satisfy the UTS English language requirement. However, your course must be delivered by an institution that is:

• public or private
• accredited by a government, and
• recognised by UTS.

You must provide an official document from your institution on the institution letterhead certifying that the medium of instruction for your qualification was English.

Acceptable assessable courses of study include:

• Australian or comparable non-award studies and tertiary preparation courses.

I have completed another acceptable qualification or program in English

The following is also recognised by UTS as meeting the English language requirements:

• UTS College Academic English Level 5 (AE5). You must have achieved a “Pass” for courses with an English language admission requirement of IELTS 6.5 with 6.0 in writing
• UTS College Academic English Level 6 (AE6). You must have achieved a “Pass” for courses with an English language admission requirement of IELTS 7.0 with 7.0 in writing
• High school English mark equal to or greater than 75% from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway or Switzerland
• Australian TAFE (NSW) Certificate IV in English for Academic Purposes (EAP).  In 2018, the EAP test replaced Certificate IV and will be recognised by UTS as meeting minimum English Language Proficiency requirements from 2019.
• for courses requiring an IELTS academic overall score of 8.0, you must receive an overall CPE score of 200 or above
• for courses requiring an IELTS academic overall score of 7.5, you must receive an overall CPE score of 191 - 199
• for courses requiring an IELTS academic overall score of 7.0, you must receive an overall CPE score of 185 – 190
• for courses requiring an IELTS academic overall score of 6.5, you must receive an overall CPE score of 176 – 184
• Successful completion of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program subjects ‘English A: literature’ or ‘English A: language and literature.  This is applicable if the Diploma Program was taught in a language other than English.
• A result of level 4 or above in the core subject English in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination .

I have not studied in English

If your previous education was not conducted in English, you are required to demonstrate proficiency in English by completing an English language test or program recognised by UTS. English language proficiency test scores are recognised if they were obtained less than two years before you applied to UTS . For IELTS OSR, the validity period is two years from the one skill re-take date.

Each course at UTS requires different English language test results to satisfy the language requirement. For all combined courses, the highest English language requirement test scores apply.

Please note that the TOEFL Paper Based Test is currently being phased out by TOEFL. UTS will continue to accept TOEFL IBT and TOEFL IBT Home Edition scores, provided the test was taken within the two years prior to application at UTS.

Undergraduate coursework English language requirements

Bachelor of Science/Master of Teaching in Secondary Education (C10404)   Bachelor of Communication (Writing and Publishing)/Master of Teaching in Secondary Education (C10405)   Bachelor of Technology/Master of Teaching in Secondary Education (C10406)   Bachelor of Business/Master of Teaching in Secondary Education (C10449)    Bachelor of Economics/Master of Teaching in Secondary Education (C10450)

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR): 7.5 overall, speaking 8.0, listening 8.0, reading 7.0, writing 7.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 102-109 overall, speaking 23-27, listening 23-27, reading 23-27, writing 24
• PTE (Academic): 73-78 overall, speaking 79, listening 79, reading 65, writing 65
• C1A/C2P: 191-199 overall with 200 in both the speaking and listening, and a reading and writing score of 185

Please check the special requirements section to see if you need to satisfy other requirements.

Bachelor of Communication (Honours)

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR):  7.0 overall, writing 7.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 94-101 overall, writing 23
• PTE (Academic):  65-72 overall with a writing score of 65
•  C1A/C2P: 185-190 overall with a writing score of 185
• UTS College Academic English Level 6 (AE6): Pass grade

Bachelor of Nursing   Bachelor of Nursing/Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation

• IELTS (Academic/OSR): 7.0 overall, speaking 7.0,  listening 7.0, reading 7.0, writing 7.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based): 94 total, speaking 23,  listening 24, reading 24, writing 27
• PTE (Academic): 65 overall, speaking 65,  listening 65, reading 65, writing 65
• OET: B score in listening, reading, writing and speaking

All other courses

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR): 6.5 overall, writing 6.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 79–93 overall, writing 21
• PTE (Academic): 58-64 with a writing score of 50
• C1A/C2P: 176-184 with a writing score of 169
• AE5/AE6 (PASS): AE5

Note: For all combined courses, the applicable English language requirement is the higher of the scores of the two component courses. 

Postgraduate coursework English language requirements

Master of Teaching in Primary Education Master of Teaching in Secondary Education

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR): 7.5 overall, speaking 8.0, listening 8.0, reading 7.0, writing 7.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 102-109 overall, speaking 23-27, listening 23-27, reading 23-27, writing 27
• PTE (Academic): 73-78 overall, speaking 79, listening 79, reading 65, writing 65
• C1A/C2P: 191-199 overall with 200 in both the speaking and listening, and a reading and writing score of 185.

Graduate Certificate in Executive Management   Executive Master of Business Administration   Graduate Certificate in Media Practice and Industry   Master of Media Practice and Industry   Master of Media Practice and Industry (Extension)

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR): 7.0 overall with a writing score of 6.5 Note: the IELTS OSR is not recognised as evidence of English language proficiency for the following courses: Graduate Certificate in Executive Management and Executive Master of Business Administration.
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 94-101 overall with a writing score of 24
• PTE (Academic): 65-72 overall with a writing score of 58
• C1A/C2P: 185-190 with a writing score 176

Please check the special requirements section to see if you need to satisfy other requirements

Graduate Diploma in Psychology (Advanced) - OPM   Master of Pharmacy   Master of Pharmacy (International)   Master of Clinical Psychology   Master of Physiotherapy

• IELTS (Academic/OSR): 7.0 overall, 7.0 in each subtest
• TOEFL (Internet-based): 94 overall, reading 24, listening 24, speaking 23, writing 27
• PTE (Academic): 65 overall, speaking 65, listening 65, reading 65, writing 65
• C1A/C2P: Not applicable

Master of Orthoptics

• IELTS (Academic/OSR): 6.5 overall with a writing score of 6.5; or
• TOEFL: internet based: 79-93 overall with a writing score of 24; or
• PTE (Academic): 58-64 overall with a writing score of 58; or
• C1A/C2P: 176-184 overall with a writing score of 176

Master of Genetic Counselling   Master of Speech Pathology

• IELTS (Academic/OSR): 7.0 overall, writing 7.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based): 94-101 overall, writing 27
• PTE (Academic): 65-72 overall with a writing score of 65
• C1A/C2P: 185-190 overall with a writing score of 185

Master of Animation and Visualisation   Graduate Certificate in Animation and Visualisation

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR): 6.5 overall, speaking 6.5, listening 6.5, reading 6.5, writing 6.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 79–93 overall, speaking 20–22, listening 20–23, reading 19–23, writing 21–23
• PTE (Academic): 58-64 overall with a score of 58 in listening, speaking and reading, and a score of 50 in writing
• C1A/C2P: 176-184 overall with a score of 176 in listening, speaking and reading, and a score of 169 in writing
• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR):  6.5 overall, writing 6.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 79-93 overall, writing 21
• PTE (Academic): 58-64 with a writing score of 50
• UTS College Academic English Level 5 (AE5): Pass grade

Postgraduate research English language requirements

All Business research courses [except C03069 Master of Business (Research)]   All Health research courses   All Communication research courses   All Education research courses   All International Studies research courses   All Graduate School of Health research courses   All Law research courses   All Sustainable Futures research courses   All Analytics and Data Science (Connected Intelligence Centre) research courses

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR):  7.0 overall, writing 7.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 94-101 overall, writing 27

C03069 Master of Business (research)

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR):  7.0 overall, writing 6.5
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 94-101 overall with a writing score of 24
• PTE (Academic): 65-72 overall with a writing score of 58

All Design, Architecture and Building research courses All Engineering research courses All Information Technology research courses All Science research courses All Transdisciplinary Innovation research courses

• IELTS (Academic/Online/OSR): 6.5 overall, writing 6.0
• TOEFL (Internet-based/Home Edition): 79–93 overall, writing 21

English language tests and programs

All the links below open external websites. 

• International English Language Testing System (IELTS)
• International English Language Testing System Online (IELTS Online)
• International English Language Testing System (IELTS One Skill Retake – OSR)
• Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)   If you sit the TOEFL test, you must arrange for the official score report to be sent directly to UTS. The UTS institutional code for TOEFL is  0743 .
• Pearson Test of English (PTE)
• Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE)
• Academic English Level 5 (AE5) AND Level 6 (AE6)  AE5 and AE6 are offered by  UTS College  as a pathway to UTS, the UTS College CRICOS provider number is 00859D.
• Occupational English Test (OET)

Additional English language tests

Linguaskill scores will be accepted for courses which require an overall IELTS score of 6.5 with 6.0 in writing . You must score 176-184 (using the Cambridge English Scale) to be eligible. The test must be undertaken less than one year prior to applying to UTS and is only applicable for applications received in 2023 and 2024.

Special requirements

Faculty of arts and social sciences courses, graduate certificate in media practice and industry (c11289)  master of media practice and industry (c04394)  master of media practice and industry (extension) (c04411).

Applicants who have previously studied in English may only satisfy the English language requirements for these courses if they have successfully completed tertiary qualifications of at least three years that was taught and assessed solely in  English from one of the below approved countries:

• New Zealand
• Republic of Ireland
• South Africa
• United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)
• United States of America

Master of Teaching in Secondary Education and all degrees combined with the Master of Teaching in Secondary Education (C04255)

Applicants who have previously studied in English only satisfy the English language requirements for these courses if they have successfully completed an undergraduate qualification of at least three years that was taught and assessed solely in English from one of the below countries:

If you have not studied English, or have not satisfied the above requirement , you must take an English language test recognised by UTS. Find out more in the I have not studied in English  section.

Graduate School of Health courses

Master of pharmacy (c04252)  master of pharmacy (international) (c04395)  master of physiotherapy (c04306)  master of orthoptics (c04299)  master of speech pathology (c04386)  master of genetic counselling (c04374) graduate diploma in psychology (advanced) (c06149) - uts online  .

Applicants who have previously studied in English may only satisfy the English language requirements for these courses if they have successfully completed tertiary qualifications in the relevant degree of at least three years that was taught and assessed solely in English from one of the below approved countries:

• United Kingdom

In order to provide sufficient evidence to support this, you will need to submit an official document from your institution on the institution letterhead certifying that your tertiary qualification was taught and assessed solely in English.

If you have not studied English, or have not satisfied the above requirement , you must take an English language test recognised by UTS. Find out more in the I have not studied in English section.

For Pharmacy and Physiotherapy courses , the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) may have additional English Language Requirements for registration at the completion of the course.

Master of Clinical Psychology (C04300) 

Applicants must demonstrate their English competency in one of the approved pathways listed in the English Language Skills Registration Standard outlined by the Psychology Board of Australia. These requirements are also applied by AHPRA for eligibility for Provisional Registration once students are enrolled in the course.

Nursing and Midwifery courses

Bachelor of nursing (c10122)  bachelor of nursing bachelor of creative intelligence and innovation (c10351)  bachelor of midwifery (c10225)  bachelor of midwifery/bachelor of creative intelligence and innovation (c10329)  graduate diploma in midwifery (c07070).

The English language requirements of these courses align with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council  (external site) English Language proficiency criteria. English requirements for these courses can be found under the I have not studied in English section. Please note that all midwifery courses are only available to domestic students only.

The test results must be current up to 2 years old and apply to one test sitting. The test scores from two different tests cannot be combined. However, a maximum of two sittings of the same test, in a 6 month period is acceptable only if:

• IELTS: an overall score of 7 is achieved in each sitting and achieve a minimum score of 7 in each component across the two sittings, and no score in any component of the test is below 6.5.
• TOELF iBT: a total score of 94 in each sitting and achieve a minimum score of 24 for listening, 24 for reading, 27 for writing and 23 for speaking across the two sittings, and no score in any of the sections is below 20 for listening,19 for reading, 24 for writing and 20 for speaking.
• Academic PTE: a minimum overall score of 65 in each sitting is achieved and achieve a minimum score of 65 in each of the communicative skills across the two sittings, and no score in any of the communicative skills is below 58.
• OET: tested in all 4 components in each sitting and achieve a minimum score of B in each component across the two sittings, and no score in any component of the test is below C.

For applicants who declare English as their primary language, evidence of the following will only be accepted:

• Satisfactorily completed at least six years of primary and secondary education taught and assessed in English in a recognised country, including at least two years between years 7 and 12.
• United Kingdom 
• and the United States of America.

Students sponsored through aid programs

Special consideration for English language requirements may be given to applicants sponsored through aid programs (e.g. Australia Awards, World Bank, etc.). In some countries the Australian embassy may have different English language requirements for those seeking a student visa. Check with your nearest Australian Diplomatic Post before registering for an English language test.  UTS also accepts diplomas and advanced diplomas from Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) recognised tertiary institutions in Australia as well as most other Australian foundation studies programs.

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.