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CHOOSE A SUBJECT
2023/24
2024/25
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BA History

  • UCAS code
    V100
  • A level offer
    BBB
  • Year of entry
    2024/25
  • Course duration
    Full Time:  3 Years
  • Year of entry
    2024/25
  • Course duration
    Full Time:  3 Years

Develop key study and research skills as you discover diverse societies, cultures and individuals with our BA History degree.

Explore the past and what it means to be human as our academics take you on a journey through Britain, Europe, Africa, America, the Middle East and South Asia, spanning the past thousand years.

Choose history at the University of Reading

  • Top 125 in the world for History, Philosophy and Theology (Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2022).
  • Top 200 in the world for History (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023).
  • In the National Student Survey 2023, 100% of our students said teaching staff were good or very good at explaining things (100% of respondents studying BA History).

Your first year acts as an introduction, helping you to transition from school to university and identify your individual areas of interest. You’ll be presented with new and exciting fields of history you may not have considered before, including people, power and revolution, and culture, art and ideas.

Experts from the Department of History will equip you with the skills you need to study and research history, as you start to shape your degree through your choice of optional modules – from time periods ranging from medieval to modern, and from America to Africa.

Vibrant, collaborative learning environment

From your first day, you are a historian too. Your learning will take place through small, interactive seminar groups, encouraging discussion and debate with academics and peers.

We place a great deal of importance on employability skills, and some of our modules offer short work placements and act as an introduction to career exploration.

Placements and employability support

Placements are a prominent feature of our degree courses, offering an opportunity to demonstrate how you can apply your skills and knowledge in real-world settings.

Through our links with the Careers Centre, you can source potential employers and help with CVs and letters of application. We have close links with:

  • parliament
  • National Trust
  • English Heritage
  • British Museum
  • Berkshire Record Office
  • Museum of English Rural Life
  • Reading Museum.


Study history in context

Field trips in the UK and abroad enable you to access new areas of history within their historical surroundings. Past examples include the National Trust in Winchester and Westminster, and further afield in Paris and Berlin.

Additionally, you can choose to spend a term in your second year at one of our partner universities in Europe, the USA, Canada or Australia. We encourage all our students to seize this opportunity as it can open your eyes to new areas of history, build your confidence and skills, and set you apart in the job market.

Overview

Develop key study and research skills as you discover diverse societies, cultures and individuals with our BA History degree.

Explore the past and what it means to be human as our academics take you on a journey through Britain, Europe, Africa, America, the Middle East and South Asia, spanning the past thousand years.

Choose history at the University of Reading

  • Top 125 in the world for History, Philosophy and Theology (Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2022).
  • Top 200 in the world for History (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023).
  • In the National Student Survey 2023, 100% of our students said teaching staff were good or very good at explaining things (100% of respondents studying BA History).

Your first year acts as an introduction, helping you to transition from school to university and identify your individual areas of interest. You’ll be presented with new and exciting fields of history you may not have considered before, including people, power and revolution, and culture, art and ideas.

Experts from the Department of History will equip you with the skills you need to study and research history, as you start to shape your degree through your choice of optional modules – from time periods ranging from medieval to modern, and from America to Africa.

Learning

Vibrant, collaborative learning environment

From your first day, you are a historian too. Your learning will take place through small, interactive seminar groups, encouraging discussion and debate with academics and peers.

We place a great deal of importance on employability skills, and some of our modules offer short work placements and act as an introduction to career exploration.

Placements and employability support

Placements are a prominent feature of our degree courses, offering an opportunity to demonstrate how you can apply your skills and knowledge in real-world settings.

Through our links with the Careers Centre, you can source potential employers and help with CVs and letters of application. We have close links with:

  • parliament
  • National Trust
  • English Heritage
  • British Museum
  • Berkshire Record Office
  • Museum of English Rural Life
  • Reading Museum.


Study history in context

Field trips in the UK and abroad enable you to access new areas of history within their historical surroundings. Past examples include the National Trust in Winchester and Westminster, and further afield in Paris and Berlin.

Additionally, you can choose to spend a term in your second year at one of our partner universities in Europe, the USA, Canada or Australia. We encourage all our students to seize this opportunity as it can open your eyes to new areas of history, build your confidence and skills, and set you apart in the job market.

Entry requirements A Level BBB

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.

 Our typical offers are expressed in terms of A level, BTEC and International Baccalaureate requirements. However, we also accept many other qualifications.

Typical offer

BBB, including History or a humanities-based essay subject.

Humanities-based essay subjects include: Classical Civilisation, English Language, English Literature, Geography, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies.

International Baccalaureate

30 points overall including 5 in History or a humanities-based essay subject 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

Compulsory modules

Perspectives in History 

Gain a geographically and chronologically broad study of history, discovering the potential pathways available to you throughout your degree. You’ll not only examine specific historical contexts, but also the historiographies, methodologies and theories that have shaped historians’ perspectives.  

Exploring Evidence

Making History and You: Practices and Possibilities

Embark on your own research project to refine the transferable skills required for studying, and producing, history at university level. You’ll be guided through the process of effective reading, understanding historiographical debate, and how to write in a concise and convincing manner.  

History Now

Explore a range of current issues in light of historical comparisons and discover how we can learn from the past. You’ll consider current and past events in a constructive and evidence-based way to understand how historians may contribute to public life.  

Optional modules

Arriving in Britain: A History of Immigration, 1685–2004  

Examine the experiences of migrant groups in Britain from the early modern period to the early twenty-first century. Consider the different reasons for migration, forms of persecution and economic motivations, the positive and negative reception to migrants, and how migrants have shaped Britain.  

Antisemitism: Medieval Christian-Jewish Relations and the Concept of ‘Antisemitism’ 

Explore the concept of antisemitism in relation to one particular period of history: the High Middle Ages (1095-1291). You’ll examine the contemporary idea of antisemitism by setting it in its long-term historical context, and reflect on how understanding earlier periods of history can help us better understand the modern world.  

Chivalry: The Emergence and Impact of a Medieval Ethos

Doomsday Dystopias: Nuclear Disaster in the Cold War Imagination 

Examine four real Cold War nuclear episodes and the impacts these events had on fictional imagination of disaster: the 1945 Hiroshima/Nagasaki A-bombings which ushered in civil defence in 1950s America; 1962’s Cuban Missile Crisis; 1983’s ‘Able Archer’ NATO exercise that almost triggered war, and 1986’s Chernobyl disaster in the USSR.  

After Malthus: Sex, Society, Sustainability and the Politics of Population in the Long Nineteenth Century

US Environmental Diplomacy from Nixon to Obama

Hunger and Famines in History

Examine the significant causes of famine across the modern world and how it impacts different cultures and societies. You’ll explore the diverse methods in which governments and survivors have attempted to tackle famine, and how historical knowledge can be used to address famine in contemporary societies.  

Merlin the Magician

Explore the rise and transformations of the figure of Merlin and its influence upon ideas of magic, prophecy, natural philosophy and power. Examine a period stretching from the twelfth to the twentieth century to develop an understanding of long-term patterns of historical change.  

Western Imaginaries of the Middle East 

Discover how Western culture has ‘imagined’ and depicted the Middle East, drawing on the influential work of Edward Said and his theory of ‘Orientalism’. You’ll explore the main arguments and criticisms of Said’s work and rely on Orientalism as a lens to understand the stereotypes of the Middle East. 

Radicalism and Protest in Britain: From the Levellers to Black Lives Matter

Explore case studies of British radicalism and protest movements such as the suffragettes, chartism, environmentalism, LGBT activism and more. You’ll consider the tactics used by radicals and the historical context behind the emergence of these movements. 

Everyday Life in a Medieval Town: Reading, 1100-1500 

Explore medieval Reading as a case study to learn more about everyday life in medieval England, drawing on a range of primary materials and developing your analytical skills.  

Rape in the United States: From Colonisation to Civil Rights

Become familiarised with the changing social and legal understandings of rape in the US. Apply your skills to reflect critically upon the historical basis of contemporary ideas surrounding sexual violence, gender and race. 

Family, Childhood and the Advent of Welfare in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century

The Rwanda Genocide of 1994 

Explore the Rwanda Genocide of 1994 and learn of the history of Rwanda. You’ll discover the cause, course and legacy of the 1994 genocide and the possibility of justice and reconciliation, as well as major themes in African History such as the creation of tribes, the impact of colonialism, the challenges of the postcolonial state, and post-conflict resolution.  

Women in American History: From Slavery to 'Second Wave'

Warfare in Early Modern Europe

Consider the relationship between warfare, and its ‘badges, battles and buttons’, with the wider social, economic and political contexts. You’ll be introduced to war and warfare in early modern Europe and study the consequences of war and the historical basis of our contemporary ideas on war. 

War, White Heat, and the Winds of Change: Britain's Twentieth Century

Suffragette

Big History

Voyages in the Early Modern World, 1450-1800

Optional Language or University Wide Module

Study a module from outside your department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you. 

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules

Going Public: Presenting the Past, Planning the Future 

Explore public interpretations of the past and how history has been presented in the world outside of academia. You’ll work collaboratively with external partners on a group project which will challenge you to deal with ‘difficult’ history and conflicting narratives as you engage with wider audiences.  

Preparing for your Dissertation 

Prepare for your dissertation under the supervision of a member of the History Department. As well as key elements in research design, you’ll begin to think about how you select and engage with primary source material. 

Optional modules

People, Power and Revolution: Political Culture in Seventeenth-century England 

Explore the turbulence of the political landscape in the seventeenth century as you study events such as Charles I’s execution and Oliver Cromwell’s rise to power. You’ll consider the extent ordinary people knew of, or were involved in, politics, what events led to revolution, and how politics compared from the beginning to the end of the century.  

Kingship and Crisis in England, c.1154–1330 

Examine continuity and change in English politics from the last twelfth to the early fourteenth century. You’ll learn of the concepts and expectations of kingship (and queenship) and issues, exploring seven reigns spanning the period. 

‘The brightest jewel in the British crown’: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1757-1947 

Discover the role of South Asia in international politics and globalisation, exploring key themes in the making of modern South Asia during the period of British colonial rule over the Indian subcontinent and its impact on the wider imperial world.  

Europe in the Twentieth Century 

Explore the geopolitical dynamics of modern European history from the formation of the German nation state in 1971 to the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. You'll consider why twentieth-century Europe was so violent, how warfare has evolved, and how Europe’s role has changed in a contemporary sense.  

Revolutionary Cities 

Study the themes of hope, idealism and enthusiasm that have fuelled revolutionary moments through a range of times and spaces. With a particular focus on urban revolution, you’ll take a comparative approach to assess similarities and identify continuities and changes among cities such as Florence in 1484 and Petrograd in 1917.  

American Century: United States History since 1898 

Investigate the impact that US foreign policy has had on the development of the modern American state and society since the Spanish-American war of 1898.  

Black Britain: Race and Migration in Post-war United Kingdom

Explore race in post-war Britain and how immigration has rendered contemporary Britain into a truly multi-cultural society. You'll study the influx of immigration from the 40s, 50s and 60s and the restrictive immigration acts that followed, and analyse the experience of migrants and the political responses of both the white population and black power and civil rights groups. 

Women in Medieval History

Explore the role of women throughout the centuries with a particular focus on Western Europe. Learn how social status, cultural revolution, and other social and economic dynamics impacted how these women engaged with, and contributed to, the world around them.  

The Colonial Experience: Africa since 1879

Survey the history of British – and also German, Belgian, and French – colonialism with an outlook into its legacy in Africa, South of the Sahara, 1879. Reflect on how the colonial experience relates to gender, age, social status and initiative. 

Hollywood Histories: Film and Past 

Tackle film aesthetics and off-camera censorship and reception as you study historical films evoking a different past from the present in which they were made. Ranging from silence to epic, to television to slow-burn docudramas, you’ll question how films reflect or shape popular notions of the past.  

Rebel Girls: The Influence of Radical Women 1792-1919 

Explore the changing perceptions of Victorian womanhood and the influence of women who defied their social gender expectations and challenged the Victorian double standard. Examine social attitudes to gender, the development of feminism and female politics, and the influence of public women.  

Reform and Revolt in the Modern Middle East: Egypt from Ataturk to the ‘Arab Spring’  

Examine the key events, individuals and themes that shaped the Middle East in the 20th century, with a particular focus on Egypt. You’ll explore the origins and impact of Arab nationalism, outline the key Arab-Israeli wars and their consequences, and critically appraise the presidencies of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak.  

Encountering the Atlantic World, 1450-1850 

Become introduced to the Atlantic World, discovering the impactful connections made between the 14th and 18th century and their turbulent influence on culture, economies and political structures. Explore how these connections have left an important and, at times, unsettling legacy in the modern world.   

My Career: Wider Horizons

Study Trip: Exploring Cities and their Histories

Medieval Europe: Power, Religion and Death

The Crusades, 1095-1291

Vampires and Victorians

Medieval Medicine

Noise Annoys: British Youth Culture, Popular Music and Social Change, 1950s-90s

Being British, Representations of the People: Democracy and Society in Britain, 1838-1928

From Revolution to Reconstruction: A Social History of Nineteenth Century USA

Society, Art and Thought in Modern Europe

Unity, Nationalism and Regionalism in Europe

'Apocalittici e integrati': Intellectuals and Society in Twentieth Century Italy

Gain insight into the conflicts between the intellectual class and state in Fascist and Republican Italy. Exploring case studies will reveal the relationships between key Italian intellectuals and institutions such as the state, universities, media, and the Mafia. 

Optional Language or University Wide Modules

Study a module from outside your department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you. 

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Compulsory modules

Dissertation in History

Develop powers of synthesis and analysis and refine your knowledge on your chosen dissertation topic. You'll develop vital research skills as you explore specialised literature and primary sources and articulate a well-versed argument. 

Optional modules

Discovering Archives and Collections

Develop your interest in careers in the archives sector through placements based internally at the University’s Special Collections or externally at the Berkshire Record Office. You’ll grow a practical understanding of the industry as you develop your research, as well as oral, written, and other professional skills.  

History Education 

Gain and reflect on practical work experience as you develop your interest in a career in education. You’ll have the opportunity to apply your skills and share your knowledge in schools as you’re introduced to lesson-observation skills, secondary-level teaching strategies, and pedagogy characteristics of initial Teacher Education.  

Anarchy in the UK: Punk, Politics and Youth Culture in Britain, 1976-84  

Examine and evaluate primary sources as you survey the history of punk and the 1970s-80s UK punk scene. Reflect on how culture relates to wider political and socio-economic contexts as you use punk culture as a lens into British history.  

Becoming a Revolutionary: The Old Regime and the French Revolution, 1787-1794

Explore the historiographical debates raised by the French Revolution that ended the Old Regime and the long-term origins and immediate causes of it. In particular, explore how the French became revolutionised and how the process of building a new society promoted a new genre of revolutionaries associated with a new political culture, radicalism and rule of terror. 

Cold War Berlin: Politics and Culture in a Divided City, 1945-89

Eugenics from 1865 to the Present Day 

Survey the history of eugenics from 1865 to the present day as you reflect on the way eugenic ideas have been expressed in differing historical contexts and the ways the history of eugenics has been understood.  

Gender in Africa: From Eighteenth Century 'Amazons' to Twentieth Century Child Soldiers

Healing and the Holy: Medieval Saints, Medicine, and Miracles

Heretics and Popes: Heresy and Persecution in the Medieval World  

Gain hands-on experience as you analyse a wide range of primary sources from medieval heresy and heretics. Reflect on the phenomenon of medieval heresy and dissent while considering the ways in which the historiography of medieval heresy has evolved.  

Landscapes of the Mind: Romanticism and the Rural Idyll, c.1750-1939

The Last Super Power and the New World Power: The United States and China, 1882-1989

Sexual Politics: Gender, Sex, and Feminism in Britain after 1918

Explore the factors underpinning gender roles from 1918 to the present to develop a wider understanding as to why attitudes of gender, sex and feminism have evolved, considering wider social and academic reasoning.  

Slavery in America

Survey the history of slavery in America and reflect on the different perspectives and representations surrounding it. You'll consider the changing ways in which the history of slavery has been understand as you examine a range of primary sources that show it in its wider historical context.  

World Turned Upside Down

Pirates of the Caribbean: Empire, Slavery, and Society, 1550-1750

Medieval Magic and the Origins of the Witch-Craze 

Absorb the history of magic as you gain an understanding of medieval practices and theories of magic. You’ll consider the wider social contexts within which they were developed to gain a deeper understanding on why they were welcomed or repressed.  

Ireland and the English in the Middle Ages

Investigate the initiation, consolidation and subsequent decline of English lordship and colonisation in Ireland from the later twelfth to fifteenth centuries. You’ll survey key developments in the relations between England and Ireland and assess the political, social and economic impacts and limitations of English lordship and colonisation in Ireland across the period.  

The Tudors, 1485-1603

Axis at War: Life and Death in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, 1936-45

Explore Italian and German society during a war which sparked civil war in Italy and sent millions to their deaths in the Holocaust. You'll examine diaries, letters, secret police reports and Allied Intelligent assessments to gain a view of life under fascism and the differing experiences of the Second World War. 

The United States and the Cold War

Battleaxes and Benchwarmers': Early Female MPs 1919-1931 

Assess the aftermath of suffrage and reassess the importance of the 1918 Representation of the People Act on British democracy. You'll examine the impact of the acts in relation to women, and the emergence of female MPs throughout the transformative social, political and economic context of the 1920s.  

Utopia: The Quest for a Perfect World

Modern Science and Empires, 1750-2000

The Making of the French Revolution

The Romantic Revolution: Culture, Environment and Society in England, c.1790-c.1900 

Explore English Romanticism and the far-reaching, profound ideas of the Romantic artists and writers who drew a distinction between nature and humanity. You'll consider Romanticism in its wider social and political historical context. 

South Africa and Zimbabwe from the Early 1800s to Mandela

Poor Law to Hostile Environment: Repatriation, Deportation and Exclusion from Britain 1800-2016

Politics and Popular Culture: Post-Arab Spring Egypt 

Explore the key themes that defined the Arab Spring protests through exploration of Egypt. You'll reflect on the meaning of revolution and how this was contested and debated in the Egyptian context while exploring the relationship between politics and popular culture of the period. 

From Darwin to Death Camps? Evolution and Eugenics in European Society, 1859-1945 

Examine the reception of Darwin’s ideas and their influence in shaping social theories. You’ll focus on the shifting perceptions of a desirable social and biological order found in attempts by science, medicine and the State to influence heredity and evolution, regulate sexuality and reproduction, and eradicate disease and defect.  

Rethinking the English Revolution, 1640-1660

'Race', Ethnicity and Citizenship in America

The American Civil War

Religion and Politics in the Medieval West, 1050-1492

Optional Language or University Wide Modules

Study a module from outside your department to enhance your understanding of history and culture. Alternatively, you can learn one of ten languages offered by the University at a level appropriate for you. 

These are the modules that we currently offer for 2024/25 entry. They may be subject to change as we regularly review our module offerings to ensure they’re informed by the latest research and teaching methods.

Please note that the University cannot guarantee that all optional modules will be available to all students who may wish to take them.

You can also register your details with us to receive information about your course of interest and study and life at the University of Reading.

Fees

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

New international students: £22,350

*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

94% of graduates from History are in work or further study within 15 months of graduation (based on our analysis of HESA data (c) HESA 2023, Graduate Outcomes Survey 2020/21 includes all History responders).

Throughout your degree you will complete career and skills-related modules, encouraging you to think about future career options and the skills you will need to succeed.

Our students develop a broad range of transferable skills, including: the ability to think clearly and critically; to communicate with confidence; and to work effectively, both individually and as part of a team.

Recent employers have included:

  • Museum of London
  • British Army
  • BBC News
  • KPMG
  • Department for Education
  • Deloitte
  • The National Trust
  • civil service (including Fast Track).

Hear from some of our recent graduates, who have found rewarding roles within archives and heritage, government, and teaching.

George discusses the course

Contextual offers


We make contextual offers for all our courses.

Take the next step



How to apply for 2024 entry

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Chat to our students

My time at Reading taught me that education should not be a means to an end but a challenging and continuing experience. This approach has given me the confidence to actively pursue different opportunities.

Chloe Wilson
BA History graduate

Related Subjects


  • History

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