About the course
Studying History with Plymouth University doesn’t mean choosing a subject you love over advancing your career. We make sure that traditional historical skills give our students the best preparation to stand out from the crowd and thrive in their future employment.
With a friendly, dynamic team of historians, you will have unrivalled opportunities to explore all aspects of History as part of your degree. You will study the political, social, economic, artistic, intellectual and cultural history of a wide range of societies in the past, from the fifteenth century to the present day. Your choice of modules will traverse the world’s continents, from Britain and Europe to the Americas, Africa or Asia. Moreover, our course permits undergraduate historians to take modules about the History of Art, which would normally only be offered to those taking a degree in that subject.
While offering the rigorous academic programme you’d expect from a History degree course, we also help our students develop the individual skills of analysis, leadership and self-motivation which help them stand out as graduate employees. Beyond individual tutoring, our modules give students the opportunity to lead their own research projects or to communicate their work to public audiences. Volunteering partnerships with heritage sites allow undergraduates to try out their skills at explaining complex ideas and completing important projects. By studying the causes of distinct historical events, from the transatlantic slave trade to the industrial revolution, our graduates are better able to analyse complex modern challenges such as international relations, industrial development or environmental sustainability, opening up a range of jobs in public policy, politics and government
Our historians are leading published specialists in their fields, allowing us to offer immerse final-year modules in their areas of expertise, ranging from the US Civil Rights movement to the European wars of religion to Indian secularism to British abolition of the slave trade. The first two years of our degree course provide broad and thematic modules to introduce students to the big differences of method, analysis and purpose amongst historians. There’s even a chance to study for a term or a year in America or Europe – and it’s more affordable than you expect.