Children’s Literature at Postgraduate Level in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Undergraduate courses in children’s literature were offered, generally as parts of degrees in either English literature or education, fairly widely throughout Britain by the mid-1980s, and it is unsurprising that the graduates from such courses, together with other professionals in the area—teachers, librarians, writers, editors, and publishers—frequently expressed the desire to study the subject at a higher level. This demand coincided with an educational climate in which universities were encouraged to set up Masters level courses, and led to the inauguration of several programmes in which children’s literature formed the whole or a significant part. In the United Kingdom, Reading University was the first to respond to this need, followed by a course (now no longer running) from the University of Warwick. The then Roehampton Institute (now Roehampton University) established a children’s literature MA in the early 1990s, the first group of students beginning their studies in January 1993. Subsequently, as will be seen below, many other universities have followed suit.