The MPhil in Medieval and Renaissance literature is one of the most successful courses of its kind. Each year it attracts a first-class intake of students from the UK and abroad, and its graduates have an outstanding record in gaining employment in the academic world and outside. The Medieval and Renaissance pathways are separate, although some limited borrowing is possible. Each student works closely with a member of the Faculty on his or her chosen dissertation topic, as well as participating in seminars and classes. Training in how to read manuscript and early printed materials ensures that every student on the course is able to make use of the extensive collections in the University Library and in College libraries. Cambridge has a distinguished international reputation in English and in many other fields in the humanities (for example, Classics, Modern and Medieval Languages, History, Philosophy, and History of Art), and students on this course may be able to attend lectures offered by any Faculty within the school. This creates a learning environment which naturally enables interdisciplinary work. The course lasts nine months, with the last few months being devoted to intensive work on the dissertation. By the end of the course students should have developed: a comprehensive knowledge of their chosen area of research and of the critical debates within it; a wider knowledge of the literary writing of the period and the traditions that inform scholarship devoted to that writing. If students wish to continue from the M.Phil. to the Ph.D. they must obtain a minimum of 70 across the coursework with a minimum of 70 for the dissertation. Students must attend regular seminars in Michaelmas and Lent terms on the Interpretation of Literary Texts (Medieval strand of the M.Phil) / Texts, Context, and Methods (Renaissance strand), and weekly classes on Textual and Related Studies in Michaelmas Term. Participants on the M.Phil are required to attend a minimum of ten sessions selected from the fortnightly Graduate Research Seminars for the year which must include the Renaissance seminar or the Medieval Seminar as appropriate. Students are also welcome to attend lectures in the English Faculty, as well as, if they wish, lectures in other adjacent Faculties whose teaching might be of interest and relevance. A 12,000 – 15,000 word dissertation submitted at the end of Easter term which contributes 50% to the final mark. A short written exercise related to the dissertation which is marked on a pass/resubmission basis. Two 4,000-word essays. One is submitted at the end of Michaelmas Term the other at the end of Lent Term. These relate to the work pursued in the seminars taken which contribute 15% each to the final mark. A Textual and Related Exercise submitted at the end of Lent Term which contributes 20% to the final mark.