The Department of Literatures in English accepts graduate students to read for the MA, MPhil and PhD degrees. The MA is a degree by coursework and research paper, the MPhil by coursework and thesis, the thesis being the major component. Applicants for the MPhil who hold a MA may proceed directly to the thesis. Applicants for the PhD programme are normally required to register for the MPhil in the first place.

Research in progress covers Caribbean literature, English literature from Elizabethan to modern times, American Literature and post- colonial literatures, with emphasis on West Indian Literature. Library holdings are strong in early English and Renaissance Literature as well as West Indian Literature, and include manuscripts and other unpublished material by Roger Mais, Wilson Harris and Derek Walcott. Students may also have access to the West Indian reference collection of the National Library of Jamaica.