Creative Writing and Philosophy & Ethics (with Foundation Year) BA (Hons)

Liverpool Hope University

This is a four year degree taught at our Hope Park campus. The Foundation Year aims to develop your skills so that after a year, you will be equipped with the necessary skills needed for studying the full BA Hons degree programme.

Please note that Combined Honours degrees at Liverpool Hope University are split 50/50. This means both subjects will be studied equally.

Creative Writing

Creative Writing at Liverpool Hope will give you the chance to experience the joys of crafting the written word. The degree focuses on developing you as a writer of poetry and prose (fiction and non-fiction), broadly within the field of literature (poems, short stories, novels, long-form essays). Some professional writing - reviews, blogs and articles for different kinds of media - is also studied. Our focus on creativity and employability means you will be able to produce engaging, innovative and marketable texts.

By studying Creative Writing, you will be empowered with an enhanced command of your craft, increased confidence in expressing your thoughts and emotions, an understanding of the values that inform your writing practice, and the technical skillset to deliver your work to various audiences. Your writing will be enhanced by studying under celebrated writers and academics, as well as developing a range of workplace skills to prepare for fulfilling careers.

The degree will often challenge you and ask you to reach beyond your own experience and interests into those of contemporary and historical communities. Using these as creative stimuli, you will be required to reflect upon social contexts, power, and how truth and justice can be communicated or miscommunicated through creative writing. By the end of the degree, you should have a wide appreciation of forms, genres and applications. Included in the degree are field trips to Wales, and Liverpool museums and galleries, which provide material for writing exercises as well as widening your student experience.

Philosophy & Ethics

Philosophy and Ethics explores the big questions of life and morality: on what basis do we judge things good or evil? It challenges you to examine your assumptions, opinions and worldview. Do we need to believe in God for life to have meaning – or have the arguments for the existence of God broken down? What does it mean to be human? Do we have free will, or is our life completely determined?

Through close attention to the primary texts of philosophers such as Plato, Aquinas, Descartes, Hume, Kant and Nietzsche, our Philosophy and Ethics degree will help you learn to analyse and evaluate arguments, and to compose and communicate your own ideas in a reasoned way. You will have a grounding in the foundational questions of philosophy. As you progress, you will look in depth at philosophy of religion, political philosophy, applied ethics and issues of human personhood, artificial intelligence and animality.

The degree is taught by a core team of critical academics who are passionate about teaching and are internationally recognised researchers and writers. This degree will equip you with the intellectual skills and perspectives needed to face the ethical and ideological challenges of the contemporary world.