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BA HISTORY WITH FOUNDATION

  • UCAS code
    V101
  • Typical offer
    CCD
  • Year of entry
    2021
  • Course duration
     4 years
  • Year of entry
    2021
  • Course duration
     4 years
View all

COVID-19 update


Find out about how we'll be delivering our courses in 2020.

Our BA History with Foundation course offers insights into the variety of human experience through the ages, while enabling you to develop core academic skills.

This four-year programme includes a foundation year that leads directly into the three-year course. It provides an excellent route to a degree in history if you do not have the typical entry requirements.

Discover a thousand years of world history, spanning Britain, Europe, Africa, America, the Middle East and Asia. Immerse yourself in subjects such as crusading, totalitarianism, witchcraft, gender and sexuality, race and colonialism.

Taught by experts from the Department of History, you will unlock people, places and perspectives otherwise impossible to access in a lifetime.

By choosing to study history at Reading, you will benefit from:

  • the ability to shape your own degree. Our wide variety of optional modules allow you to study the aspects of history you are most passionate about.
  • research-led teaching. You will learn from academics at the forefront of their disciplines, whose research feeds into your studies. This ensures you have exposure to the latest developments in the field.
  • our focus on student satisfaction. In 2019, we achieved a 91% satisfaction score for the teaching on our BA History course in the National Student Survey (for more details, ask us at www.reading.ac.uk/question).
  • dedicated career support. Employability modules and work placements form part of our careers guidance. Designed to complement your core learning, they also develop your research, analytical, teamwork and communication skills.

Your learning structure

The aim of the foundation year is to prepare you for your history degree. As you progress, each stage builds upon your prior learning:

  • Foundation year: gain a thorough grounding in study at degree level. Core modules will develop key skills to support your learning.

You will complete two skills-based modules: Study Skills develops your academic writing, research, referencing, critical thinking, teamwork, study techniques and study management; and Persuasive Writing explores how writing shapes our lives, and how it’s used for social media, journalistic and political persuasion.

Two additional modules develop skills specific to your degree: Identities explores identity in relation to national/race identity, gender, changing identities and sense of self, examining everything from texts and objects to film and cultural documents; and Perspectives enhances your ability to study and understand problems, events, objects and texts from a variety of perspectives.

  • First year: you will be introduced to long-term historical change across the medieval, early modern and modern periods. Become familiar with the political, intellectual and cultural history of the times, and develop essential research, presentational, organisational and essay-writing skills.
  • Second year: develop more specialist knowledge across a broad array of historical periods and geographical areas. You’ll explore a variety of primary sources and research approaches to help you identify a topic for your dissertation.

The third year of your course will offer more in-depth study opportunities, through:

  • supervised, independent research for your dissertation
  • selection of a special subject, requiring close reading of primary sources relating to the research interests of departmental staff
  • a range of optional modules available in the Department of History and elsewhere in the University.

Your learning environment

Alongside your lectures, you’ll be taught in small, interactive seminar groups that encourage debate with teaching staff and fellow students. As you prepare for classes and build on the topics covered in your seminars, there will be plenty of opportunity for independent study and research.

Classes are designed to offer guidance from teaching staff and explore different kinds of learning, such as formal and informal presentations. Field trips in the UK and abroad provide the opportunity to see history in context and view historical artefacts up close.

Our academics are actively engaged in research and contribute to current historical debate. Wherever possible, they will tailor their teaching to incorporate their cutting-edge research.

Placements opportunities with BA History with Foundation

At Reading, we ensure that placements are incorporated into your learning. You can undertake a short placement in a museum or heritage organisation in your second year, or choose modules in your final year that offer 10-day placements in local archives and secondary schools.

We also offer the opportunity to undertake a professional placement before your final year of study.

Our dedicated placement co-ordinators provide one-to-one support and training to ensure that you are fully equipped to secure a top-quality placement.

Staff in the department have close links with the University’s Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) and Special Collections, as well as external organisations such as Cliveden House, English Heritage and Reading Museum. Through these links with employers and external partners, we can help you find a professional placement that suits your interests.

Study abroad

In your second year, you can spend a term studying abroad at one of our partner institutions in the USA, Canada, Australia, or countries across Europe.

To find out more, visit our Study Abroad site.

Overview

This four-year programme includes a foundation year that leads directly into the three-year course. It provides an excellent route to a degree in history if you do not have the typical entry requirements.

Discover a thousand years of world history, spanning Britain, Europe, Africa, America, the Middle East and Asia. Immerse yourself in subjects such as crusading, totalitarianism, witchcraft, gender and sexuality, race and colonialism.

Taught by experts from the Department of History, you will unlock people, places and perspectives otherwise impossible to access in a lifetime.

By choosing to study history at Reading, you will benefit from:

  • the ability to shape your own degree. Our wide variety of optional modules allow you to study the aspects of history you are most passionate about.
  • research-led teaching. You will learn from academics at the forefront of their disciplines, whose research feeds into your studies. This ensures you have exposure to the latest developments in the field.
  • our focus on student satisfaction. In 2019, we achieved a 91% satisfaction score for the teaching on our BA History course in the National Student Survey (for more details, ask us at www.reading.ac.uk/question).
  • dedicated career support. Employability modules and work placements form part of our careers guidance. Designed to complement your core learning, they also develop your research, analytical, teamwork and communication skills.

Your learning structure

The aim of the foundation year is to prepare you for your history degree. As you progress, each stage builds upon your prior learning:

  • Foundation year: gain a thorough grounding in study at degree level. Core modules will develop key skills to support your learning.

You will complete two skills-based modules: Study Skills develops your academic writing, research, referencing, critical thinking, teamwork, study techniques and study management; and Persuasive Writing explores how writing shapes our lives, and how it’s used for social media, journalistic and political persuasion.

Two additional modules develop skills specific to your degree: Identities explores identity in relation to national/race identity, gender, changing identities and sense of self, examining everything from texts and objects to film and cultural documents; and Perspectives enhances your ability to study and understand problems, events, objects and texts from a variety of perspectives.

  • First year: you will be introduced to long-term historical change across the medieval, early modern and modern periods. Become familiar with the political, intellectual and cultural history of the times, and develop essential research, presentational, organisational and essay-writing skills.
  • Second year: develop more specialist knowledge across a broad array of historical periods and geographical areas. You’ll explore a variety of primary sources and research approaches to help you identify a topic for your dissertation.

The third year of your course will offer more in-depth study opportunities, through:

  • supervised, independent research for your dissertation
  • selection of a special subject, requiring close reading of primary sources relating to the research interests of departmental staff
  • a range of optional modules available in the Department of History and elsewhere in the University.

Your learning environment

Alongside your lectures, you’ll be taught in small, interactive seminar groups that encourage debate with teaching staff and fellow students. As you prepare for classes and build on the topics covered in your seminars, there will be plenty of opportunity for independent study and research.

Classes are designed to offer guidance from teaching staff and explore different kinds of learning, such as formal and informal presentations. Field trips in the UK and abroad provide the opportunity to see history in context and view historical artefacts up close.

Our academics are actively engaged in research and contribute to current historical debate. Wherever possible, they will tailor their teaching to incorporate their cutting-edge research.

Placements opportunities with BA History with Foundation

At Reading, we ensure that placements are incorporated into your learning. You can undertake a short placement in a museum or heritage organisation in your second year, or choose modules in your final year that offer 10-day placements in local archives and secondary schools.

We also offer the opportunity to undertake a professional placement before your final year of study.

Our dedicated placement co-ordinators provide one-to-one support and training to ensure that you are fully equipped to secure a top-quality placement.

Staff in the department have close links with the University’s Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) and Special Collections, as well as external organisations such as Cliveden House, English Heritage and Reading Museum. Through these links with employers and external partners, we can help you find a professional placement that suits your interests.

Study abroad

In your second year, you can spend a term studying abroad at one of our partner institutions in the USA, Canada, Australia, or countries across Europe.

To find out more, visit our Study Abroad site.

Entry requirements A Level CCD | IB 24 points overall

Select Reading as your firm choice on UCAS and we will guarantee you a place if you achieve one grade lower than the published offer.

Typical offer

CCD

We welcome applicants from non-traditional educational backgrounds (for example, mature students, students who study part-time or those who have studied at International Schools in the UK or elsewhere) and will consider applicants on a case-by-case basis.

International Baccalaureate

24 points overall

BTEC Extended Diploma

DMM

Extended Project Qualification

In recognition of the excellent preparation that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) provides to students for University study, we can now include achievement in the EPQ as part of a formal offer

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0, with no component below 6.0

For information on other English language qualifications, please visit our international student pages.

Alternative entry requirements for International and EU students

For country specific entry requirements look at entry requirements by country.

International Foundation Programme

If you are an international or EU student and do not meet the requirements for direct entry to your chosen degree you can join the University of Reading’s International Foundation Programme. Successful completion of this 1 year programme guarantees you a place on your chosen undergraduate degree. English language requirements start as low as IELTS 4.5 depending on progression degree and start date.

  • Learn more about our International Foundation programme

Pre-sessional English language programme

If you need to improve your English language score you can take a pre-sessional English course prior to entry onto your degree.

  • Find out the English language requirements for our courses and our pre-sessional English programme

Structure

  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 3
  • Year 4

Core modules include:

  • Study Skills
  • Persuasive Writing
  • Identities
  • Perspectives

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Core modules include:

  • Journeys through history 1 (people, power and revolution)
  • Journeys through history 2 (culture, art and ideas)
  • Research skills and opportunities in history (individual project)

Optional modules include:

  • Past and present
  • Texts and contexts
  • Ideas and ideologies
  • Optional modules in Archaeology, Ancient History, Politics, or other subjects

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Core modules include:

  • Historical approaches and my dissertation
  • My career: working it out
  • Public history: its uses and abuses

Optional modules include:

  • Cradle to coffin: living and dying in early modern England, c.1580-1720
  • Europe 1450-1600: religion, culture and belief
  • Crusading in the high Middle Ages, 1095-1291
  • Kingship and crisis in England, c.1154-1330
  • Under the red flag: Labour and British politics, 1880-1939
  • Warrior nation: Prussia and Germany, 1740-1945
  • Power, poverty and protest: the social history of rural England, 1800-2000
  • Society, thought and art in modern Europe
  • The colonial experience: Africa, 1879-1980
  • Unity, Nationalism and Regionalism in Europe
  • Intellectuals and society in twentieth-century Italy
  • Political culture in seventeenth-century England
  • Women of the medieval world
  • American history: from colonial times to the late twentieth century
  • Europe in the Twentieth Century
  • Rebel Girls - the influence of radical women 1795-1919
  • ‘The greatest of terrestrial kingdoms’: France at the crossroads of the world in the High Middle Ages

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Core modules include:

  • Dissertation in history

Optional modules include:

Topics

  • Axis at War: life and death in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, 1936-45
  • From Darwin to death camps? Evolution and eugenics in European society, 1859-1945
  • Gothic: architecture, money and cultural identity
  • Industrialisation and its discontents: city, country and utopia in England, 1800-2000
  • Race, ethnicity and citizenship in America
  • The struggle for a new civilisation, 1931-1941
  • Witches, heretics and social outcasts: Europe and its outsiders c.1250-1550
  • Battleaxes and benchwarmers’: early female MPs 1919-1931
  • Discovering Archives and Collections
  • European case studies (3)
  • France and Europe since 1945
  • History education
  • Ireland and the English in the middle ages
  • La Belle Epoque: France 1880-1914
  • Medieval magic and the origins of the witch-Craze
  • Popes and emperors: contests for power in the central Middle Ages
  • Revolution in Britain and Ireland: 1603-1649
  • The Sixties: politics and culture in a divided world
  • The United States and the Cold War

Special subjects

  • Cold War Berlin: politics and culture in a divided city, 1945-65
  • Cults and miracles; the powers of sanctity, 1066-1215
  • Deviance and discipline: church and outcasts in the central Middle Ages
  • From Louis the Fat to Louis the Saint: the image of kingship in Capetian France
  • Making revolution: Russia, 1905-1929
  • Ritual, myth and magic in early Modern Europe
  • Slavery in America
  • The countryside in English culture, c.1750-1939
  • The interregnum in Britain and Ireland, 1649-1660
  • The last super power and the new world power: the United States and China in the historical context
  • Victorian lives

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Fees

New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £9,250* per year

New international students: £17,320 per year

*UK/Republic of Ireland fee changes

UK/Republic of Ireland undergraduate tuition fees are regulated by the UK government. These fees are subject to parliamentary approval and any decision on raising the tuition fees cap for new UK students would require the formal approval of both Houses of Parliament before it becomes law.

EU student fees

With effect from 1 August 2021, new EU students will pay international tuition fees. For exceptions, please read the UK government’s guidance for EU students.

Additional costs

Some courses will require additional payments for field trips and extra resources. You will also need to budget for your accommodation and living costs. See our information on living costs for more details.

Financial support for your studies

You may be eligible for a scholarship or bursary to help pay for your study. Students from the UK may also be eligible for a student loan to help cover these costs. See our fees and funding information for more information on what's available.

Careers

Our BA History with Foundation course equips you with transferable skills that are highly valued in the workplace. 93% of graduates from the Department of History are in work or further study 15 months after the end of their course [1].

Your history degree can open the door to a number of professions. Our graduates have found employment in a variety of sectors, including publishing, museums and heritage, law, teaching, accountancy and banking, and social care.

Examples of recent graduate employers include:

  • The Civil Service
  • Victoria and Albert Museum
  • John Lewis
  • The British Museum
  • Macmillan Publishers
  • Siemens Financial Services
  • Museum of English Rural Life
  • NHS
  • Morgan Stanley. 

[1] Graduate Outcomes Survey 2017/18; First Degree responders from History.

Contextual offers


We make contextual offers for all our courses.

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  • History
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  • Information Technology
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Subjects A-B

  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Animal Science
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Architectural Engineering
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Building and Surveying
  • Business and Management, Accounting and Finance

Subjects C-E

  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Classical Studies
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management
  • Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
  • Creative Writing
  • Drama
  • Ecology
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environment

Subjects F-G

  • Film & Television
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Foundation programmes
  • French
  • Geography
  • German
  • Graphic Communication and Design

Subjects H-M

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • International Development
  • International Foundation Programme (IFP)
  • International Relations
  • Italian
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Marketing
  • Mathematics
  • Medical Sciences
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Museum Studies

Subjects N-T

  • Nutrition
  • Pharmacology
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate Studies
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Psychology
  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Spanish
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Surveying and Construction
  • Teaching
  • Theatre

Subjects U-Z

  • Wildlife Conservation
  • Zoology

Subjects A-C

  • Agriculture
  • Ancient History
  • Animal Sciences
  • Archaeology
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Biological Sciences
  • Biomedical Sciences
  • Business (Post-Experience)
  • Business and Management (Pre-Experience)
  • Chemistry
  • Classics and Ancient History
  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management and Engineering
  • Consumer Behaviour
  • Creative Enterprise

Subjects D-G

  • Data Science
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Energy and Environmental Engineering
  • Engineering
  • English Language and Applied Linguistics
  • English Literature
  • Environmental Science
  • Film, Theatre and Television
  • Finance
  • Food and Nutritional Sciences
  • Geography and Environmental Science
  • Graphic Design

Subjects H-P

  • Healthcare
  • History
  • Information Management and Digital Business
  • Information Technology
  • International Development and Applied Economics
  • Languages and Cultures
  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Management
  • Medieval History
  • Meteorology and Climate
  • Microbiology
  • Nutritional Sciences
  • Pharmacy
  • Philosophy
  • Physician Associate
  • Politics and International Relations
  • Project Management
  • Psychology
  • Public Policy

Subjects Q-Z

  • Real Estate and Planning
  • Social Policy
  • Speech and Language Therapy
  • Strategic Studies
  • Teaching
  • Theatre
  • Typography and Graphic Communication
  • War and Peace Studies
  • Zoology

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