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Study With Us

We are passionate about teaching and love collaborating with students to explore fresh, creative, and genuinely engaging ways of learning together. Our courses offer exciting approaches to canonical authors (course topics deal, for instance, with Shakespeare and ecological catastrophe; queer Victorians; crime and piracy in eighteenth-century fiction) while also allowing you to study a wide range of contemporary media (e.g. computer games, digital literature, television, and film).

Scroll down to learn about the innovative teaching formats we offer and the creative projects developed by our students. You’ll also meet some of our current students and graduates, many of whom have gone on to exciting careers in teaching, editing, public relations, journalism, digital media, and a wide range of other fields.

Current Students and Career Stories

Why study English? Hear from our current students and discover where our outstanding alumni have gone next.

Picture of Albana Lota

Albana Lota

Teacher education programme

Student in the teacher education programme for grammar schools

Initially I chose English as my subject because I had a general interest in English literature and thought it might be fun to study. Now that I am studying it, I can say that it is more than just fun, it has become quintessential to my understanding of the world. The broad array of seminars that are offered each semester has granted me the personal freedom to individualise my course of study by focusing on feminist and Black studies, for example.

Picture of Anja Bittner

Anja Bittner

MA European Studies

Graduate of the BA in European Studies and current MA student in European Studies

Studying English literature and cultural studies is not just about understanding a language but about understanding people and the meanings they create through writing. Starting with an introductory lecture, students receive the basic tools of text analysis and, following this, they can attend engaging seminars with topics ranging from Shakespeare to Sherlock, from vampires to video games, and many more. Despite having reservations as a first-generation university graduate, this major showed me that academic research, instead of being scary and intimidating, is fun and I can wholeheartedly recommend it for anybody searching for the why behind the plot.

Picture of Eva Nigmann

Eva Nigmann

BA ICBS

Student in the BA programme International Cultural and Business Studies

I have been studying English cultural and literary studies for several years now, and I honestly think I am never going to get tired of it. It is a field which offers many interesting opportunities to learn more about literature and British culture and most of the skills I learned are very useful to me, even in day-to-day life. I love analysing and discussing the cultural idiosyncrasies of Britain and the vast landscape that are the literatures in English, and would definitely say that this field of study includes something interesting for everybody.

Picture of Julia Dachl

Julia Dachl

Teacher

Graduate of the teacher training programme and fully qualified teacher at a grammar school

Studying English at the University of Passau helped me to underpin and expand my love of English culture and literature with sound background knowledge. As a former tutor for Cultural Studies and Academic Writing, I was also able to gain my first teaching experience before starting my teacher training (Referendariat). The experiences and content of my studies support me in my daily attempts to inspire my students with this passion, too.

Picture of Katharina Schiessl

Katharina Schießl

Teacher

Graduate of the teacher training programme for grammar schools and current trainee teacher

My studies in English have deepened my understanding of how literary works are embedded into the past and continue to impact our understanding of art, morals, values and traditions in the present, thereby proving very beneficial for my vocational training as a teacher. The seminars on British literature and culture taught me the importance of being able to dissect literary works in English and to derive meaning and knowledge from them hidden between the lines, which sharpened my critical and analytical thinking skills. This academic foundation enhances my teaching practices and helps me to inspire students to engage with English literature – and literature in general – in a meaningful way.

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Innovative Teaching Formats

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