English majors typically enroll in several English courses and one in another subject. This other subject area could be a course in film, which can count either as a drama course or an English course; we encourage students to look seriously at the film courses offered in the English department and the College of Humanities as film studies is one of the College’s particular strengths.
The Kenyon-Exeter program combines the best of two academic systems—the rich curricular options of a top British university and the intimacy of a liberal arts-style seminar taught by Kenyon faculty. Each semester Kenyon-Exeter students enroll in two University of Exeter classes which allow them to work intensively alongside British and international counterparts, with the Kenyon-Exeter Seminar constituting an additional course each semester. Some students may even return to Gambier with more than the 4.0 units of credit that comprise a ‘full load’ at Kenyon.
Kenyon English majors typically enroll in four courses each year—two per semester—drawn from the University of Exeter’s undergraduate course catalogue. Most choose three courses (or “modules”) in the Department of English (which can include film studies and creative writing as well as literary studies) and a fourth course from another department. Because Kenyon enjoys a long-standing relationship with Exeter’s Department of English, we can ensure that the English courses you undertake in Exeter will integrate fully and well into your Kenyon English major. For example, creative writing courses taken at UEx can count towards your Kenyon “Emphasis” in Creative Writing, and all of the marks that you earn in Exeter’s Department of English will be factored into your Kenyon GPA, distinguishing the program from other study-abroad options.
While the focus of your Exeter coursework will probably be English and History, Kenyon students have also taken courses in Drama, History, Classics, Theology, Biology, Psychology, Politics, Spanish, French, and Italian. If your major isn’t English, or if you are a double major, the Kenyon Resident Director can help you navigate course choices across the University. And, of course, the RD will help with transition issues and, if personal or academic problems emerge, will help you find the appropriate academic and psychological support.
Because the British academic semester is shorter, many Kenyon-Exeter students find Exeter courses more briskly paced and intensively focused than courses they have undertaken in Gambier. Kenyon-Exeter students have typically thrived on this challenge, enjoying increased opportunity for independent research and secondary readings connected to the course’s primary syllabus. They find the difference in British university culture an exciting opportunity to cultivate new intellectual skills—to learn independently, to develop greater autonomy and self-direction in their research and creative projects. Thus many Kenyon-Exeter students return to Gambier eager to pursue Honors in English—and well-prepared to do so.
Students have also taken courses in drama, history, classics, theology, biology, psychology, Spanish, French and Italian. Non-English majors are required to take four English courses and two courses outside the field of English. Most University of Exeter courses are taken for 30 Exeter credits (.935 Kenyon units), though some non-English courses are worth 15 credits (.468 Kenyon units), and the two-semester Kenyon Seminar is equivalent to 1.0 unit of Kenyon credit, making a total of 4.74 units towards the Kenyon degree. For each class taken (typically three per semester), students should expect to be in class about three hours a week--two hours one day, and one another.