MA English Admission 2026: Eligibility, Exams and Admission Process

MA English is a 2-year postgraduate program that focuses on the fundamental literary concepts, tendencies, and trends across periods, genres, and cultures in English literature. The eligibility criteria for admission are usually a BA English with a minimum aggregate of 50 - 55% marks.

The admission to the program is usually based on entrance examinations. Most of the government institutions prefer admission through CUET-PG. The autonomous and private colleges take admissions based on their self-conducted PG entrance examinations or through the merit of the graduation scores of the candidates.

Some of the top NIRF-ranked institutions that offer an Master of Arts in English course are Miranda House, St.Stephen’s College, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College, Hansraj College, St. Xavier's College Kolkata, Loyola College, Madras Christian College, etc. The course fees range between INR 865 - INR 2.17 Lakhs, depending on the type of institution.

MA English Admission Highlights

Some of the key points for Master of Arts in English admission are listed below:

MA English Eligibility Criteria

The MA in English eligibility criteria for admission may differ for different institutions. Here we have the list of basic requirements that one should fulfill to apply for the Master of Arts in English:

• The candidates should have completed a BA in English or should have a bachelor’s degree with English as one of the subjects.
• Some institutions accept candidates with a bachelor's degree in any discipline.
• The applications should have secured a minimum aggregate of 50 - 55% marks in graduation.
• The reserved category candidates are given a relaxation of 5%. So they should have a minimum aggregate of around 45% marks in graduation.
• The candidates who are in the final year of their graduation can also apply for admissions, but will have to fulfill the minimum percentage.

MA English Entrance Exams

The top institutions usually take admissions for the MA in English, based on the entrance examination. The government institutes usually accept the scores of CUET-PG. The autonomous and private colleges usually conduct their own entrance exams.

Here is the list of some of the MA English entrance exams, along with their tentative dates:

MA English Colleges in India

MA in English is one of the most preferred postgraduate courses in the field of arts, and thus, there are numerous institutes in India offering this course. We have curated some of the top NIRF-ranked institutes that offer Master of Arts in English.

Top MA English Government Colleges

Here is the list of some of the top government colleges that offer an MA in English program. Most of the colleges in this list are affiliated with the University of Delhi and are the top NIRF-ranked institutes in the college category. The list below provides the top colleges along with the course fees and admission process:

Top MA English Autonomous Colleges

The list below includes some of the top NIRF-ranked autonomous colleges that offer an Master of Arts in English program, along with tuition fees and admission process:

Top MA English Private Colleges

Here is the list of some of the top NIRF-Ranked private universities that offer an Master of Arts in English. The course fees and the admission process of these institutions are also mentioned below:

MA English Admission Process

The MA in English admission into most of the government colleges is usually based on the scores of the national-level entrance examination, i.e., CUET-PG. Let’s consider the admission process of Delhi University, which will be common to all its affiliated colleges like Miranda House, St.Stephen’s College, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm College, Hansraj College, etc.

• Entrance Examination - The candidates interested in applying for MA in English admission to any of the colleges affiliated to Delhi University will have to register for CUET-PG. The candidates should check the exam subjects they need to appear for in CUET-PG for the MA in English admission and appear for those papers on the assigned date and centre.
• Registration - The candidates will have to register at the University of Delhi CSAS(PG) through its UoD’s online platform or www.pgadmission.uod.ac.in. The CSAS (PG) is the common admission window for all the PG programs of all Departments/ Centres/ Colleges of the University of Delhi. The candidates will have to register and create their login credentials.
• Application Form - They will have to provide all the personal & academic details, select the course (MA course) and college preference, upload the documents, and pay the application fees of INR 250 for UR/OBC-NCL/EWS and INR 100 for SC/ST/PwBD.
• Merit List - There will be two merit lists released for admission, one is the Common Merit List (CML) in which all the candidates will be considered, and the other is the Category 2 Merit List (C2ML), which is only for students of the University of Delhi. The candidates will be evaluated based on their CUET-PG scores only.
• Seat Allocation - The candidates who have been allocated the seats will be visible on their CSAS(PG) dashboard. They will have to accept the allocation to confirm their seat.
• Admission - After the candidates have accepted the allocation, the institute will verify their documents, and once approved, the candidate will have to pay the admission fees within the stipulated time through the link generated on his/her dashboard only

Apart from the government colleges, admission into other institutes will be almost similar to the above process. The candidates will have to directly register at the official website of the institute for the specific course and appear for the entrance exam, if any. The institute will evaluate the candidates based on their exam scores and their previous academic records, and will release the merit list of the selected candidates.

Also read about other MA Courses

MA English Admission FAQs