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BA HISTORY AND ENGLISH LITERATURE

  • UCAS code
    QV31
  • Typical offer
    BBB
  • Year of entry
    2022
  • Course duration
     3 years
  • Year of entry
    2022
  • Course duration
     3 years
View all

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

Our joint honours BA History and English Literature course allows you to explore the richness of English literature alongside the great variety of human history around the world.

Discover a thousand years of history whilst experiencing all the specialist areas on offer at the University of Reading. The Department of History's expertise covers a wide range of world regions – from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia and the Middle East – and historical periods, with module choices ranging from the Crusades to the 1960s, slavery in America to Tudor monarchy, and Cold War Berlin to medieval magic.

In your first year, your core History modules will explore people, politics, and revolution – finding out how people struggled for power in past societies – and the culture and concepts those societies developed. We will teach you the skills you need to study and research history through an individual project of your choice.

In your English literature modules, you will read more of authors and genres that you may already know (from tragedy to Gothic, from Shakespeare and Dickens to Plath and Beckett). But you will also encounter aspects of literary studies that may be less familiar to you, from children’s literature to publishing studies and the history of the book. Our academics have published research on everything from medieval poetry to contemporary Caribbean and American fiction.

As you progress through your degree, your module choices become more diverse and specialised: you can do archive work on Studying Manuscripts, or look at the politics of literature in Writing Global Justice. Everyone in the Department of English Literature, from new lecturers to professors, teaches at every level of the degree: this gives you the benefit of our expertise and makes you part of the conversation about our research and its impact outside the classroom. We place a strong emphasis on small-group learning within a friendly and supportive environment. In your first and second years, you will have a mix of lectures (which can be quite large) and seminars.

You can study abroad for a term in your second year at one of the University's partner institutions, including those in Europe, the USA, and Australia. The University also offers all students the chance to learn a modern language alongside their core subjects.

This course is flexible and enables you to shape your study to match your interests. Taught in small interactive seminar groups, you will regularly be able to discuss and debate topics with teaching staff and fellow students.

Placement

Placements are a prominent feature of our degree courses and are highly encouraged. Through our links with the Careers Centre, you can source potential employers and help with CVs and letters of application. Staff in the History Department also have close links with the University’s Institute of Education, Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) and Special Collections (archives), and with external organisations such as Cliveden House, English Heritage, Reading Museum, Reading Borough Library and the Berkshire Record Office.

Placements are a good way to show you how you can use the skills acquired through studying history in the real world. In History we ensure that placements are incorporated into your core learning. In the second year, we offer opportunities for short group placements in museums and heritage organisations, and encourage students to reflect on what they have learned from previous employment or voluntary work experience. For third years, two optional modules offer placements of 10 working days in local archives and secondary schools.

In English literature, you can take a placement module on languages and literature in heritage, in education, and in the media. Students on our Communications at Work module also undertake a short placement to explore the ways in which the skills and knowledge gained in their studies have direct application to the workplace.

You also have the option to study abroad for a term in the second year. Some of the universities we have links with include University of Ottawa, Canada; University of Maastricht, Netherlands; University of Georgia, USA; and Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

For more information, please visit the Department of History website.

Overview

Our joint honours BA History and English Literature course allows you to explore the richness of English literature alongside the great variety of human history around the world.

Discover a thousand years of history whilst experiencing all the specialist areas on offer at the University of Reading. The Department of History's expertise covers a wide range of world regions – from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia and the Middle East – and historical periods, with module choices ranging from the Crusades to the 1960s, slavery in America to Tudor monarchy, and Cold War Berlin to medieval magic.

In your first year, your core History modules will explore people, politics, and revolution – finding out how people struggled for power in past societies – and the culture and concepts those societies developed. We will teach you the skills you need to study and research history through an individual project of your choice.

In your English literature modules, you will read more of authors and genres that you may already know (from tragedy to Gothic, from Shakespeare and Dickens to Plath and Beckett). But you will also encounter aspects of literary studies that may be less familiar to you, from children’s literature to publishing studies and the history of the book. Our academics have published research on everything from medieval poetry to contemporary Caribbean and American fiction.

As you progress through your degree, your module choices become more diverse and specialised: you can do archive work on Studying Manuscripts, or look at the politics of literature in Writing Global Justice. Everyone in the Department of English Literature, from new lecturers to professors, teaches at every level of the degree: this gives you the benefit of our expertise and makes you part of the conversation about our research and its impact outside the classroom. We place a strong emphasis on small-group learning within a friendly and supportive environment. In your first and second years, you will have a mix of lectures (which can be quite large) and seminars.

You can study abroad for a term in your second year at one of the University's partner institutions, including those in Europe, the USA, and Australia. The University also offers all students the chance to learn a modern language alongside their core subjects.

This course is flexible and enables you to shape your study to match your interests. Taught in small interactive seminar groups, you will regularly be able to discuss and debate topics with teaching staff and fellow students.

Placement

Placements are a prominent feature of our degree courses and are highly encouraged. Through our links with the Careers Centre, you can source potential employers and help with CVs and letters of application. Staff in the History Department also have close links with the University’s Institute of Education, Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) and Special Collections (archives), and with external organisations such as Cliveden House, English Heritage, Reading Museum, Reading Borough Library and the Berkshire Record Office.

Placements are a good way to show you how you can use the skills acquired through studying history in the real world. In History we ensure that placements are incorporated into your core learning. In the second year, we offer opportunities for short group placements in museums and heritage organisations, and encourage students to reflect on what they have learned from previous employment or voluntary work experience. For third years, two optional modules offer placements of 10 working days in local archives and secondary schools.

In English literature, you can take a placement module on languages and literature in heritage, in education, and in the media. Students on our Communications at Work module also undertake a short placement to explore the ways in which the skills and knowledge gained in their studies have direct application to the workplace.

You also have the option to study abroad for a term in the second year. Some of the universities we have links with include University of Ottawa, Canada; University of Maastricht, Netherlands; University of Georgia, USA; and Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

For more information, please visit the Department of History website.

Entry requirements A Level BBB | IB 30 points overall

Select Reading as your firm choice on UCAS and we'll guarantee you a place even if you don't quite meet your offer. For details, see our firm choice scheme.

Typical offer

BBB, including grade B in A level History, Ancient History, or Classical Civilisation and grade B in A level English Literature or related subject.

Related subjects include: English Language, English Language and Literature, Drama and Theatre Studies, or Creative Writing.

International Baccalaureate

30 points overall, including 5 in English and History, both at higher level.

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.

BTEC Extended Diploma

DDM (Modules taken must be comparable to subject specific requirement)

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

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)
  • Genre and context
  • Poetry in English
  • Research and criticism

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Optional modules include:

  • 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 Ccolonial experience: Africa, 1879-1980
  • Unity, nationalism and regionalism in Europe
  • Historical approaches and my dissertation
  • Intellectuals and society in twentieth century Italy
  • My career: working it out
  • 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
  • Victorian Britain
  • Going public
  • The Romantic Period
  • New early modern period
  • ‘The greatest of terrestrial kingdoms’: France at the crossroads of the world in the high middle ages
  • Introduction to old English
  • Lyric voices
  • Renaissance texts and cultures
  • Chaucer and Medieval narrative
  • Early modern theatre practice
  • Restoration to revolution
  • The Romantic Period
  • Modernism in poetry and fiction
  • Critical issues
  • Victorian literature
  • Contemporary fiction
  • Writing America
  • Writing and revising
  • Shakespeare
  • Writing genre, Iientity
  • Writing, genre and the market
  • The business of books

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Core modules include:

  • Dissertation (either in history or in English literature)

Optional modules include:

  • 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
  • Holocaust testimony: memory, trauma and representation
  • Industrialisation and its discontents: city, country and utopia in England, 1800-2000
  • Race, ethnicity and citizenship in America
  • Restoration literary culture: drama and poetry, 1660-1700
  • 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
  • Classical and Renaissance tragedy
  • Discovering archives and collections
  • Dissertation
  • Editing the Renaissance
  • 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
  • Modern epic
  • Popes and emperors: contests for power in the central middle ages
  • Revolution in Britain and Ireland: 1603-1649
  • Science in culture
  • The sixties: politics and culture in a divided world
  • The United States and the Cold War
  • The writer's workshop: studying manuscripts
  • Victorian and Edwardian children's fantasy
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • American poetry: Bishop to Dove
  • Black British fiction
  • Colonial explorations
  • Contemporary American fiction
  • Children’s literature
  • Class matters
  • ‘Eyes on the prize’: literature of the US Civil Rights Movement
  • Classical and Renaissance tragedy
  • Decadence and degeneration
  • Dickens
  • Eighteenth-century novel
  • Fiction and ethnicity in post-war Britain and America
  • Editing the Renaissance
  • Family romances
  • Holocaust fiction
  • City of death and desire: Henry James and Venice
  • Holocaust testimony
  • Irish poetry
  • James Joyce
  • Literature and the railway
  • Margaret Atwood
  • Modern and contemporary British poetry
  • Modern Scottish fiction
  • Nineteenth-century American fiction
  • Nigerian prose literature: from Achebe to Adichie
  • Packaging literature
  • Psychoanalysis and t ext
  • Restoration literary culture
  • Samuel Beckett
  • Science in culture
  • The writer’s workshop: studying manuscripts
  • Victorian and Edwardian children’s fantasy
  • Virginia Woolf and Bloomsbury
  • Class matters
  • Writing women: nineteenth-century poetry
  • American graphic novel
  • The African-American short story
  • Digital text: literature and the new technologies
  • John Milton
  • Modern American drama
  • Modernism and politics
  • Shakespeare and gender
  • Utopia
  • Victorian literature and medicine

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Fees

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

New international students: £19,500 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.

Flexible courses (price per 10 credit module)

UK/Republic of Ireland students: £750

International students: £1275

Careers

Throughout your degree you can select career and skills related modules, encouraging you to think about what career you would like and what skills you will need. If you would like a career in teaching, or in archives or records management, try our optional third-year modules, History Education and Discovering Archives and Collections. We have had a high success rate from students who have completed History Education, with many of our graduates gaining places for Initial Teacher Training. Additionally, these modules develop a wide range of interpersonal, organisational, presentational and research skills readily transferable to other areas of employment.

Overall, 93% of graduates from the Department of History are in work or further study 15 months after the end of their course [1]. As a graduate you will have a broad range of transferable skills, including the ability to think clearly and critically, to communicate with confidence and work effectively both individually and as part of a team. Recent employers have included The British Museum, The Football Association, The House of Commons, Marks and Spencer, MI5, Morgan Stanley and Siemens Financial Services.

You may also wish to consider postgraduate study.

[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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Subjects C-E

  • Chemistry
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  • Climate Science
  • Computer Science
  • Construction Management
  • Consumer Behaviour and Marketing
  • Creative Writing
  • Drama
  • Ecology
  • Economics
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  • English Literature
  • Environment

Subjects F-G

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Subjects H-M

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  • International Foundation Programme (IFP)
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  • Law
  • Linguistics
  • Marketing
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  • Medical Sciences
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  • Museum Studies

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  • Zoology

Subjects A-C

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  • 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

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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