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MA Creative Writing by Distance Learning

Annual Intake and International Scholarships: In 2009 Lancaster University expanded its highly successful Distance Learning MA in Creative Writing.  We now have eight highly regarded writers tutoring on the course and admit an annual cohort of 18-20 students.  The next deadline for applications is the end of April 2011.  In 2009 and 2010 we were able to offer two International Scholarships (worth £8,000 over two years) to applicants who needed assistance in financing their studies; we are hoping to be able to offer the scholarships again in future years. The recipients of the awards in 2009 were Rosie Thapa (Nepal) and Joyce Chigiya (Zimbabwe).  The 2010 awards have gone to Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva (Uganda) and Bode Asiyanbi (Nigeria). 

Since its inception in 1999, the distance learning MA has rapidly evolved into an international programme, linking students in the UK and overseas through virtual learning.  The programme is mediated almost entirely by online tutorials and conferences, with a live Summer School at its mid-point.  You will be a member of a cohort of 18-20 students, exchanging writing in a range of literary forms and critiquing it from different social and cultural perspectives.

The programme at Lancaster is entirely student-centred and tutorials involve the close critiquing of student work. No formal programme of teaching to specific objectives is initiated; instead we aim to respond to individual needs through the allocation of a personal tutor who will be an expert in your chosen genre. The online conferences allow another level of responsiveness in the context of the entire group.

The course runs on LUVLE, the University's password-protected intranet facility (available via the web and requiring no additional software).  It begins with a preliminary conference in which students introduce themselves and their work. There is a further creative conference later that term, then a conference each term for six terms, which stimulates creative work and critiques. The course site also provides research training modules and a cybercafé where students can meet and communicate informally.

In each term students submit work for two tutorials which span the online conferences. A course outline is negotiated at the beginning of the course, which becomes the frame of reference for the student’s work and progress. Each creative assignment is accompanied by an assignment commentary, which discusses the genesis of the creative work and any special difficulties of issues you have encountered.

Students receive detailed written critiques from their tutor engaging both with the assignment commentary and the creative work itself. The student’s self-critical writing in the final MA portfolio may be largely drawn from these reflective exchanges.

After the end of the Summer Term of the 1st year of the course, a five-day Summer School is held on campus which consists of workshops, readings and visits by agents, publishers and writers. Personal tutorials are also held to review progress and this is an opportunity to meet with fellow students in a convivial way.

Both the 2006-08 and the 2008-10 cohorst of DLMA students submitted exceptionally strong portfolios.  Of the fourteen students who graduated in December 2008, seven were awarded Distinctions and three gained Merits; of the eighteen who will graduate in December 2010, eight were awarded Distinctions and nine gained Merits.  Read some of their comments on the DLMA.

See The Creative Writing Postgraduate Handbook on the Postgraduate Portal for full details.