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BA HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY

  • UCAS code
    VV15
  • Typical offer
    BBB
  • Year of entry
    2021
  • Course duration
     3 years
  • Year of entry
    2021
  • Course duration
     3 years
View all

COVID-19 update


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

Analyse beliefs and concepts and consider how past societies worked with our BA History and Philosophy. Studying history and philosophy allows you to question your assumptions and trace the origins of modern societies and cultures.

Discover a thousand years of history whilst experiencing all the specialist areas on offer at the University of Reading. The History Department's expertise covers a wide range of regions, from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia and the Middle East. Module choices cover diverse periods and topics, 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 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.

Studying philosophy will equip you with the ability to think logically, to evaluate arguments critically, and to challenge your own ideas and those of other people. You will be taught by leading experts whose research strengths lie especially in moral philosophy and the philosophy of the mind and language. Your first year will introduce you to the general skills required for all philosophy and you will also have the chance to explore non-western philosophies such as Indian philosophy.

In both subjects, you will be taught in small interactive seminar groups, encouraging discussion and debate with teaching staff and fellow students. We place a great deal of importance on employability skills and offer a range of modules to help students gain relevant work experience as well as explore career options.

You will be encouraged to undertake work placements and there is the opportunity to study abroad for a term in your second year. The University also offers all students the chance to learn a modern language alongside their core subjects.

Placement

Placements are encouraged as they provide you with a chance to put your newly acquired knowledge and skills into practice as well as allowing you to gain valuable real-world experience. Through our links with the Careers, Placement and Experience 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.

In History we ensure that placements are incorporated into 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.

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

Discover a thousand years of history whilst experiencing all the specialist areas on offer at the University of Reading. The History Department's expertise covers a wide range of regions, from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia and the Middle East. Module choices cover diverse periods and topics, 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 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.

Studying philosophy will equip you with the ability to think logically, to evaluate arguments critically, and to challenge your own ideas and those of other people. You will be taught by leading experts whose research strengths lie especially in moral philosophy and the philosophy of the mind and language. Your first year will introduce you to the general skills required for all philosophy and you will also have the chance to explore non-western philosophies such as Indian philosophy.

In both subjects, you will be taught in small interactive seminar groups, encouraging discussion and debate with teaching staff and fellow students. We place a great deal of importance on employability skills and offer a range of modules to help students gain relevant work experience as well as explore career options.

You will be encouraged to undertake work placements and there is the opportunity to study abroad for a term in your second year. The University also offers all students the chance to learn a modern language alongside their core subjects.

Placement

Placements are encouraged as they provide you with a chance to put your newly acquired knowledge and skills into practice as well as allowing you to gain valuable real-world experience. Through our links with the Careers, Placement and Experience 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.

In History we ensure that placements are incorporated into 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.

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 will guarantee you a place if you achieve one grade lower than the published offer.

Typical offer

BBB, including grade B in A level History, Ancient History, or Classical Civilisation.

International Baccalaureate

30 points overall including 5 in History 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:

  • Reason and argument
  • 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:

  • Human nature
  • Radical philosophy
  • Meaning of life
  • Past and present
  • Texts and contexts
  • Ideas and ideologies
  • Philosophy of world religions
  • Elementary logic
  • Mental machines
  • Reality: the big questions
  • Writing the philosophical essay

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

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
  • Ethical argument
  • From scepticism to therapy
  • Meaning and the mind
  • Global philosophy
  • Ignorance, doubt and relativism
  • Oppression, inequality and enemies of democracy

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Core modules include:

  • Dissertation (either in history or in philosophy)

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
  • 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
  • Biomedical ethics
  • Discovering archives and collections
  • Dissertation in history
  • Dissertation in philosophy
  • Environmental ethics
  • Are we free?
  • Colour
  • Contemporary consequentialism and contractualism
  • Early analytic philosophy
  • Ethical intuitionism
  • Future people and climate ethics
  • God and religious belief
  • Speech attacks: bullshit, propaganda, silencing
  • The scandal of film
  • Tyranny, rhetoric and lies
  • Crime and violence
  • Death
  • God, time and freedom
  • Happy, good and meaningful lives
  • Philosophy of literature
  • The science of consciousness
  • Wittgenstein's philosophy of mind and action
  • Worldviews in science
  • Philosophy independent learning module
  • European case studies
  • Fairness
  • 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
  • Philosophy of cognitive science
  • Philosophy of crime and punishment
  • Philosophy of language
  • Philosophy of Wittgenstein
  • Political extremism in Britain between the Wars
  • 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

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.

Flexible courses (price per 10 credit module)

UK/Republic of Ireland students: £750

International students: £1275

Careers

Throughout your degree you will complete 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, but both these modules develop a wide range of interpersonal, organisational, presentational and research skills readily transferable to other areas of employment.

Our graduates are valued by employers for their research, analytical, teamwork and communication skills. 93% of graduates from the Department of History are in work or further study 15 months after the end of their course [1]. Previous graduates have found employment in the civil service, journalism, consultancy, finance, local and central government, and recent employers have included The British Museum, Cambridge University Press, The Football Association, House of Commons, MI5, Ministry of Defence, Morgan Stanley, Yellow Media Works, local authorities and other universities.

[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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More
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CHOOSE A SUBJECT
2020
2021
Undergraduates
Postgraduates
Undergraduates
Postgraduates

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

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

Ready for more?

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