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History (with integrated foundation year)

Entry requirements


The University welcomes undergraduate applications from students studying the Access to Higher Education Diploma, provided that relevant subject content and learning outcomes are met. We are not able to accept Access to Higher Education Diplomas as a general qualification for every undergraduate degree course.

GCSE/National 4/National 5

A minimum grade C or grade 4 pass in GCSE (or equivalent) English or Welsh is a requirement for entry to all our degree schemes. Level 3 KS/FS Communication may be acceptable in lieu of GCSE English or Welsh.

About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time including foundation year | 2024

Subject

History

In choosing History with integrated Foundation Year at Aberystwyth University, you will study one of the most valuable of subjects.

Most of us are curious about the past and about the way human societies have evolved over time. A degree in History will allow you to place the past in perspective and equip you with the analytical skills of interpretation, analysis and communication that are both vital in everyday life and highly sought after by employers. Our degree encourages you to follow your own historical interests, within a first-class research-led teaching environment.

**Benefits of Foundation Year**

The integrated foundation year - designed for prospective students who do not have a sufficient or relevant academic background - is the perfect option to access this highly sought after scheme. In the Foundation Year, you will gain a solid base of key skills such as essay writing, analysis and how to consider primary and secondary sources, which will prepare you to excel in the rest of the degree.

There are few fixed entry requirements, but each applicant will be assessed on an individual basis to ensure that they are right for the course and that the course is right for them.

Following the foundation year, the syllabus of this course is identical to its sister course [History, V100].

**Why study History at Aberystwyth University?**

- History has been taught in Aberystwyth since 1872, making our department the most established in Wales and one of the foremost in Britain.

- Our teaching is innovative, research-based and designed to develop your transferable skills in areas such as analysis, interpretation and communication, which will prepare you for a wide range of careers.

- Our subject specialisms enable you to follow your historical interests from the medieval period to the present day, ranging across four continents, and embracing political, social, economic and cultural history.

- As an Aber History student, you will have full use of the National Library of Wales, one of the five Copyright Libraries of the UK and Wales’s leading archive repository.

- As part of your degree, you will have the opportunity to study abroad at a partner university, to undertake Heritage sector work placements and to plan for your future career.

During your four years of study, you will develop your historical interests by choosing option modules from the full range of subject areas taught by our department and your overseas host institution. You will also be learning and applying research approaches and methods that will ready you for your final year dissertation.

Employability is embedded in all our courses, and our graduates have been successful in securing professions in many different fields, including:

- education

- academic scholarship and research

- archive curation and management

- law

- publishing

- national, regional and local politics

- the Civil Service

- the police

- the armed forces

- media and the creative industries

- business and entrepreneurship.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,000
per year
England
£9,000
per year
EU
£16,520
per year
International
£16,520
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,000
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,000
per year
Scotland
£9,000
per year
Wales
£9,000
per year

Extra funding

Aberystwyth University offers a valuable package of scholarships and bursaries to support students. Our long-established Entrance Examination competition means you could get up to £2,000 a year towards your living and study costs. You can combine that with any or all of our other awards, to make your financial package more valuable. Our awards include Sport and Music Scholarships, Bursaries for Care Leavers/Young Carers/Estranged Students and a range of department specific awards. Please visit our website for full details.

The Uni


Course location:

Main Site (Aberystwyth)

Department:

Department of History and Welsh History

Read full university profile

What students say


We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.

93%
History

How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

History

Teaching and learning

91%
Staff make the subject interesting
99%
Staff are good at explaining things
90%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
86%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

89%
Library resources
96%
IT resources
90%
Course specific equipment and facilities
89%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

95%
UK students
5%
International students
52%
Male students
48%
Female students
84%
2:1 or above
11%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
C

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

History

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£16,000
low
Average annual salary
99%
high
Employed or in further education
59%
high
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

14%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
9%
Teaching and educational professionals
8%
Other elementary services occupations

History is a very popular subject (although numbers have fallen of late) — in 2015, over 10,000 UK students graduated in a history-related course. Obviously, there aren't 11,000 jobs as historians available every year, but history is a good, flexible degree that allows graduates to go into a wide range of different jobs, and consequently history graduates have an unemployment rate comparable to the national graduate average. Many — probably most — jobs for graduates don't ask for a particular degree to go into them and history graduates are well set to take advantage. That's why so many go into jobs in the finance industry, human resources, marketing, PR and events management, as well as the more obvious roles in education, welfare and the arts. Around one in five history graduates went into further study last year. History and teaching were the most popular further study subjects for history graduates, but law, journalism, and politics were also popular postgraduate courses.

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

History

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£14k

£14k

£21k

£21k

£24k

£24k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

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Lower entry requirements
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This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.

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This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.

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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Course location and department:

This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.

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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):

We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.

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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).

This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.

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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.

You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

Have a question about this info? Learn more here