Undergraduate Creative Writing Provision in the UK: Origins, Trends and Student Views

Abstract

Recent surveys and statistics confirm that the provision of Creative Writing at undergraduate level is expanding in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). However, to regard Creative Writing as a single, coherent subject is perhaps premature, given the diversity of its origins, forms and purposes across the Higher Education sector.¹ This chapter aims to do the following:

• 1. outline various origins of undergraduate Creative Writing provision in UK HEIs, and to indicate current trends;

• 2. establish institutional justifications for Creative Writing provision;

• 3. touch on the issues of purpose from a student perspective.