About an Online PhD in English Literature

If you are looking for an online doctoral degree in English literature, you may be disappointed. At this time, there are currently no programs that are offered online that are accredited. Accreditation of a college and degree is required to teach. The reason the accredited schools do not offer the online doctorate in English Literature is because teaching is an integral part of the program. Typically by the third year of the English Lit program, students will become teaching assistants in colleges and universities. Students taking this PhD will be prepared as scholars and teachers of literature.

In most programs, students who desire to pursue the PhD in literature will need to have a Master of Arts in English Literature. Also, in most programs, students must have a competent knowledge of at least one foreign language in addition to the English language before taking the entrance examinations. Generalizing, students will need satisfactory scores on the verbal and analytical writing sections of the GRE General Test (approximately 600/5.0) and a satisfactory score (approximately 600) on the GRE Subject Test: Literature in English, but check the school of interest for details.

There is one program online that offers a distance learning PhD in English Literature, however, it is non-accredited. It is offered by the Atlantic International University. If you want to take the chance of taking this degree without being able to teach, then use your discretion. Remember, in the United States taking a non-accredited program is like not having a degree at all, so Bright Hub is not endorsing this program.

Want to know how the potential schools might rank? Learn more here about the PhD in literature graduate school rankings. Be mindful again, that these are not offered online. Perhaps as more students become interested in this program, accredited and state schools will provide it. We will keep you posted!