Careers

The difference between not wanting to do a one-minute monologue a few years ago, and now… the confidence to go out there and do that has come from being thrown into uni life.

Leila Khan, BSc (Hons) Drama and English Literature graduate and star of Netflix's Heartstopper

Our Drama degree will give you practical experience as both a performer and stage technician, and the academic understanding you need to be a director, a teacher, or to run your own theatre company.

You’ll develop skills for educational, community or charity sector careers, working on live briefs to devise performances and workshop activities. You can also experience being part of a professional troupe with our Community Theatre Company.

You’ll have opportunities to take part in collaborative projects, like our HMS Belfast project with Imperial War Museums to commemorate D-Day, and 60 Second Shakespeare with the Globe theatre, London.

What can you do with a Drama degree?

Where have other Drama graduates worked?

How can ARU help with my employability and career development?

Teaching and modules

You’ll get straight into the studio and work in a collaborative performance environment, developing theatre-making skills and exploring new drama practices, as well as staging and production.

The second year begins with a production at the Mumford Theatre, allowing you to perform in and produce a large-scale public performance from a selected source text. You’ll also take part in a community theatre project.

In your final year you’ll undertake a major piece of individual research relevant to your own interests, as well as collaboratively planning and executing our Festival of Performance in Cambridge.

Student work

Our student showcase

Created by ARU Writing, Film Production, Acting and Drama students for the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day commemorations. Brian Butler was a local Sightsetter in one of Belfast’s main gun turrets.
Created by ARU Writing, Film Production, Acting and Drama students for the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day commemorations. Captain Parham was remembered by Belfast’s sailors as a very gentle and humane leader.
Created by ARU Writing, Film Production, Acting and Drama students for the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day commemorations. Bob Shrimpton was part of HMS Belfast’s ASDIC (sonar) equipment team.
Created by ARU Writing, Film Production, Acting and Drama students for the Imperial War Museum’s D-Day commemorations. Charles Simpson was one of Belfast’s five Engineering Lieutenants.
Graduating students share their experiences of Drama at ARU, with clips from performances.

What will I study?

Modules are subject to change and availability, and may vary by location. If you have the choice of optional modules, these are indicated with a *.

Year 1

Ensemble Performance
Applied Drama
Key Skills
Key Concepts
Popular Performance
Into ARU

Year 2

Making Performance
Community Theatre Performance
Practice as Research
Ruskin Module (15 credits)
Physical Theatre *
Professional Theatre Practice 1 *
Performing Shakespeare *
Performing New Writing *

Year 3

Major Project
Festival of Performance
Site Specific and Immersive Theatre *
Screen Drama Production *
Professional Theatre Practice 2 *
Workshop Facilitation *
Provocations *

Module details

To prepare you for university study, you can take a foundation year at the start of this course. Find out more about foundation years.

Year 1

Foundation in Humanities, English, Media, Social Sciences and Education

Module details

You can choose to take an optional placement year as part of this course. Placements typically happen in Year 3, and your course will take four years overall. Find out more about placement years.

Placement year

Work Placement - Cambridge School of Creative Industries

Module details

What happens on a foundation year?

What happens on a placement year?

How is Drama assessed?

Who teaches Drama at ARU?

Read profiles of teaching and research staff on this course.

Dr Sue Wilson
Senior Lecturer
Dr Jonathan Croose
Senior Lecturer
David Jackson
Senior Lecturer Practitioner
Dr Eva Aymamí Reñé
Senior Lecturer

Facilities

You'll have full access to all our creative industries facilities including:

the Mumford Theatre, a 260-seater on-campus professional theatre
dedicated drama studio, with highly flexible black-box performance space
large rehearsal space with audio playback facilities, piano, LED lighting rig, portable dance mirrors, gym mats and rostra/modular staging
Students’ Union-run dance studio
podcast and video capture system.

Mumford Theatre
Mumford Theatre
Mumford Theatre
Covent Garden drama studio
Covent Garden drama studio
Dance studio

Entry requirements

UK students

Important additional notes

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

Other equivalent qualifications may be accepted for entry to this course; please email [email protected] for further information. Applicants to undergraduate courses can also check our information about undergraduate entry qualifications.

You'll need a computer and reliable internet access to successfully engage with your course.

We don't accept AS level qualifications on their own for entry to our undergraduate degree courses. However for some degree courses a small number of tariff points from AS levels are accepted as long as they're combined with tariff points from A levels or other equivalent level 3 qualifications in other subjects.

Important additional notes

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

Other equivalent qualifications may be accepted for entry to this course; please email [email protected] for further information. Applicants to undergraduate courses can also check our information about undergraduate entry qualifications.

You'll need a computer and reliable internet access to successfully engage with your course.

We don't accept AS level qualifications on their own for entry to our undergraduate degree courses. However for some degree courses a small number of tariff points from AS levels are accepted as long as they're combined with tariff points from A levels or other equivalent level 3 qualifications in other subjects.

Important additional notes

Our published entry requirements are a guide only and our decision will be based on your overall suitability for the course as well as whether you meet the minimum entry requirements.

Other equivalent qualifications may be accepted for entry to this course; please email [email protected] for further information. Applicants to undergraduate courses can also check our information about undergraduate entry qualifications.

You'll need a computer and reliable internet access to successfully engage with your course.

We don't accept AS level qualifications on their own for entry to our undergraduate degree courses. However for some degree courses a small number of tariff points from AS levels are accepted as long as they're combined with tariff points from A levels or other equivalent level 3 qualifications in other subjects.

International students

English language requirements

Making you an offer

Fees and funding

UK students

£9,535 UK students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

If you're a UK student, you don't need the money to pay for university now.

If you accept an offer to study at university, you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan to cover your course fees.

Both full-time and part-time students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan. Part-time students should be studying more than a quarter (25% intensity) of a full-time course each year.

You'll start repaying the loan in the April after you graduate.

If you start a course on or after 1 August 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £25,000. This is called repayment Plan 5. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £25,000. After 40 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

If you started a course on or before 31 July 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £27,295. This is called repayment Plan 2. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £27,295. After 30 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

For example for students who are on repayment Plan 5:

If you earn £25,500, you'll repay £45 a year or £3.75 a month
That's because £25,500 is £500 above the threshold, and 9% of £500 is £45.

What you repay depends on how much you earn after university. The more you earn, the more you pay back.

For more information about student loans, see our undergraduate student finance page.

This information also applies to:

Irish nationals living in the UK or Ireland
EU, EEA and Swiss nationals benefiting from citizens’ rights under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.

£9,535 UK students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

If you're a UK student, you don't need the money to pay for university now.

If you accept an offer to study at university, you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan to cover your course fees.

Both full-time and part-time students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan. Part-time students should be studying more than a quarter (25% intensity) of a full-time course each year.

You'll start repaying the loan in the April after you graduate.

If you start a course on or after 1 August 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £25,000. This is called repayment Plan 5. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £25,000. After 40 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

If you started a course on or before 31 July 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £27,295. This is called repayment Plan 2. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £27,295. After 30 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

For example for students who are on repayment Plan 5:

If you earn £25,500, you'll repay £45 a year or £3.75 a month
That's because £25,500 is £500 above the threshold, and 9% of £500 is £45.

What you repay depends on how much you earn after university. The more you earn, the more you pay back.

For more information about student loans, see our undergraduate student finance page.

This information also applies to:

Irish nationals living in the UK or Ireland
EU, EEA and Swiss nationals benefiting from citizens’ rights under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.

£9,535 UK students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)

If you're a UK student, you don't need the money to pay for university now.

If you accept an offer to study at university, you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan to cover your course fees.

Both full-time and part-time students can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan. Part-time students should be studying more than a quarter (25% intensity) of a full-time course each year.

You'll start repaying the loan in the April after you graduate.

If you start a course on or after 1 August 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £25,000. This is called repayment Plan 5. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £25,000. After 40 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

If you started a course on or before 31 July 2023, you won't repay anything until you earn more than £27,295. This is called repayment Plan 2. At this point, you'll repay 9% on everything you earn over £27,295. After 30 years (from the April after graduation), all remaining debt is wiped.

For example for students who are on repayment Plan 5:

If you earn £25,500, you'll repay £45 a year or £3.75 a month
That's because £25,500 is £500 above the threshold, and 9% of £500 is £45.

What you repay depends on how much you earn after university. The more you earn, the more you pay back.

For more information about student loans, see our undergraduate student finance page.

This information also applies to:

Irish nationals living in the UK or Ireland
EU, EEA and Swiss nationals benefiting from citizens’ rights under the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement.

£1,400 Placement year (2024-25)

International students

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01245 686868

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