Our Department of English, Communication, Film and Media has a number of published creative writers among its permanent staff, working in fiction, poetry, screenwriting and writing for performance. These creative outputs are included in our submission for the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which monitors the quality of research in UK universities, English at Anglia Ruskin has an excellent track record of research success as evidenced by its score of 5 in the 2001 RAE and the very high percentage of 4* and 3* research submitted to the 2008 RAE. Our Grade Point Average was equivalent to that achieved by the Universities of Sussex, Lancaster, and Leicester, and we were the 11th highest scoring department, in terms of outputs, in the country.

Our writers are involved with local, national and international networks for publishing and performance. We offer a wide range of research interests within creative writing and have particular strengths in the short story; engagement with science and technology (all genres); experimental poetry; and screenwriting. We are committed to supporting creative development, fostering an excellent research environment and enabling students to make the most of the advantages offered by Cambridge for research and creative networking.

Our creative writing staff are highly active authors and performers (recent work is listed on each staff member's research activity page). There are strong collaborative links between staff in Writing and creative practitioners in Film, Media, Music and Drama at Anglia Ruskin. There are many formal and informal exchanges between staff and students from our Department and local organisations for fiction, poetry and theatre, including Cambridge Wordfest, Menagerie Theatre, Writers' Centre Norwich, CB1 Poetry, Women's Word at Lucy Cavendish College, and University of Cambridge Faculty of English and Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

Supervision and support

You will be allocated a supervisory team which will consist of a first and second supervisor, with additional members added if necessary.

We run informal workshop and discussion events for staff and postgraduate students in creative writing. We also host a research seminar which meets regularly and provides an opportunity for you to frame your creative practice as research in a supportive setting. We have a growing community of creative researchers, with discussion, meet-ups and an online environment to support and connect research students whose study involves creative output across the arts. We allocate a substantial sum each year towards the support of postgraduates in the form of bursaries and travel or conference expenses.

Facilities

We have dedicated desk space and computers available for all full-time research students.

We are a friendly, energetic Department with all the superb facilities of Cambridge, including the world-famous Cambridge University Library on our doorstep, plus a host of multi-media, video and radio production facilities on our campus.

Funding

There are a number of ways in which you can obtain external funding for doctoral research, from the full-time awards granted by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to smaller grants available from a range of grant-awarding bodies. Our programme periodically offers fully funded and fees-only fellowships and, from time to time, departmental bursaries are awarded to candidates showing exceptional potential. In addition to these, our programme has a Postgraduate Fund to which students can apply for help with travelling expenses, conference fees, and other research needs. We will give advice on external and internal funding to any interested prospective candidates for research degrees.

Career development and training

We are committed to offering training for our students both within our department itself and at University level. Within our department we offer support for a range of subjects, including:

• dealing with festivals, agents, and publishers
• balancing creative and critical work
• giving a conference paper
• updates on research methods and literature searches
• internet training
• editing skills

Many of our research students have teaching responsibilities in the department at all levels and others have been able to co-ordinate conferences.

Laura Dietz, BA, MA (Senior Lecturer): depictions of science in contemporary literature; the novel; creative writing pedagogy.

Dr Colette Paul, MA, MLitt, PhD: Short story theory and practice; contemporary fiction, particularly Canadian literature; narratology.

Please also view our staff in English Literature, Film Studies, Media Studies and Drama.

• MPhil: Candidates must hold a BA or equivalent in a related subject area.
• PhD: Candidates should normally hold an MA or equivalent in a related area subject area.
• For candidates whose first language is not English, a minimum IELTS score of 7 or equivalent is required with a minimum score of 6.5 achieved in each of the four language skills.
• We welcome applications from EU and international students.