The Shakespeare Institute is a postgraduate center for the study of Shakespeare and Renaissance drama. It is part of the University of Birmingham and is based in Stratford-upon-Avon, the town where Shakespeare was born. It was founded in 1951.
The Institute offers campus-based and online postgraduate degrees, including MA and research degrees. Students can study Shakespeare’s plays and poems, their performance history, and their reception across the world. Being in Stratford gives students direct access to Shakespeare’s birthplace, his final resting place, and the theaters of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The Institute works with the Royal Shakespeare Company, so students have contact with working theater practitioners. It also hosts Britgrad, the annual British Graduate Shakespeare Conference, where postgraduate researchers present their work. The Institute library holds extensive collections in Shakespeare and early modern drama.
This is a serious academic path, not just tourism. Applicants should look for programs with real scholarly staff, strong libraries, and links to working theater. The Institute’s setup in Stratford is unusual and hard to replicate elsewhere.
Related reading for literature students includes the West African literature master in Accra, Persian literature and poetry in Tehran, and Francophone African literature in Dakar.
Graduates go on to teaching, academic research, theater work, and cultural heritage roles. Strong writing and research skills are the core of what the degree teaches.
