History, Politics and International Relations
De Montfort University
UCAS Code: LVF2 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
112 UCAS points from at least two A-levels or equivalent
Access to HE Diploma
Pass QAA Access to Higher Education course with at least 30 level 3 credits at Merit. We will normally require students have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
T Level
UCAS Tariff
About this course
Our programme is diverse, international in focus and innovative. We will teach you the skills for effective research and analysis, helping to hone your ability to absorb, communicate and critically analyse complex information.
Reflecting the globalised world we live in, the History curriculum covers a wide range of modern and contemporary European and non-European histories, exploring topics such as colonialism, decolonisation, immigration, ethnic minorities, racism and gender.
You will also gain an understanding of the role politics plays at local, national and global levels and explore the crucial issues in contemporary international politics that are impacting our world. Our research-informed curriculum provides both the practical tools and the theoretical knowledge to understand a wide range of political issues and respond to the current social, political and economic challenges.
As you progress through the course, we’ll challenge you with more in-depth explorations, and the subject matter will become increasingly complex. You can choose to specialise in either History, Politics or International Relations. You’ll be supported by a passionate teaching team who provide a dynamic learning environment and whose national and international expertise is embedded within the curriculum.
**Key features**
* Explore distinctive areas such as photographic history, history of sport and leisure, war and conflict, migration, ethnicity and racism.
* Choose to specialise in either History, Politics or International Relations as you progress in your studies.
* Develop a wide range of transferable skills by learning how to research and communicate complex information effectively. Our graduates use these skills to forge successful careers across a range of professions including teaching, the law, marketing and the heritage and museum sector.
* Benefit from expert teaching delivered by our team of renowned academics, as well as gain wider knowledge and insight through organised trips to archives and museums such as The National Archives in London.
* DMU is the only university in the UK to hold both ‘Congress to Campus’ and ‘European Parliament to Campus’ events, featuring visits from prominent political figures to enhance your study experience.
* Apply your skills in a real-world context through a placement. Previous students have gained professional experience at a large regional newspaper, Leicester’s award-winning King Richard III Visitor Centre, the House of Commons and local governments.
* Benefit from Education 2030, where a simplified ‘block learning’ timetable means you will study one subject at a time and have more time to engage with your learning, receive faster feedback and enjoy a better study-life balance.
Modules
**First year**
Block 1: Politics, People and Place
Block 2: Empire, nation and revolution in the 19th century
Block 3: Global Challenges: Politics and Social Policy
Block 4: Ideology, War and Society in the 20th century
**Second year**
Block 1: Global Cold War
Block 2: Select to study one specialism from the list below:
Multicultural Societies in History
Political Research in Action
Block 3: Select to study one specialism from the list below:
Political Theory: Why Big Ideas Matter
Contemporary International Relations Theory
Block 4: Continue with the specialism selected in Block 2:
Investigating the Past
Not in Westminster: National and Local Politics
**Third year**
Block 1: Culture, Society and Conflict
Block 2: Select to study one specialism from the list below:
Independence Movements
Contentious Politics in the City
Block 3: Tackling Global Crises
Block 4/ Year long: Select to study one specialism from the list below:
History Dissertation
Politics and International Relations Project
Assessment methods
We want to ensure you have the best learning experience possible and a supportive and nurturing learning community. That’s why we’re introducing a new block model for delivering the majority of our courses, known as Education 2030. This means a more simplified timetable where you will study one subject at a time instead of several at once. You will have more time to engage with your learning and get to know the teaching team and course mates. You will receive faster feedback through more regular assessment, and have a better study-life balance to enjoy other important aspects of university life.
**Structure**
Our teaching is interactive, informal and enjoyable. We encourage you to develop your own thoughts, ideas and viewpoints and you will build the skills you need to be effective in both historical study and the modern workplace.
The modules are all designed to improve your skills as an effective historian from analysis and research to reasoning and evaluation. They are also constructed to help you develop aptitudes and characteristics that will improve your employability for a wide range of careers.
You will be taught by experts in their field, the people who are writing the books you are reading. Our history staff are renowned nationally and internationally for the quality of their teaching and research. We work hard to ensure that the student experience is lively, dynamic and stimulating, and regular guest lecturers and speakers address both curriculum-related topics and topics of broader historical interest.
There is a varied mix of assessment including: work in pairs and in groups, primary source analysis, presentations, portfolios, podcasts and/ or videos, essay writing, timed essays, and individual project work culminating in a dissertation. The assessments are designed to build on each other as you progress in your studies and you will have opportunities to receive feedback on your work throughout. With a variety of different assessment methods, you can build on your individual strengths as well as develop a range of skills in creativity, project management, team work, verbal communication, writing for a variety of audiences and the use of different technologies.
**Contact hours**
You will be taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, seminars, group work and self-directed study. In your first year you will normally attend around 9 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and tutorials) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 28 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
Leicester Campus
Arts, Design and Humanities
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.
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
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Politics
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
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.
Top job areas of graduates
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.
Politics
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.
Top job areas of graduates
The numbers of people taking politics degrees fell sharply last year and we'll keep an eye on this one - it can't really be because of graduates getting poor outcomes as politics grads do about as well as graduates on average. Most politics or international relations graduates don't actually go into politics - although many do, as activists, fundraisers and researchers. Jobs in local and central government are also important. Other popular jobs include marketing and PR, youth and community work, finance roles, HR and academic research (you usually need a postgraduate degree to get into research). Because so many graduates get jobs in the civil service, a lot of graduates find themselves in London after graduating. Politics is a very popular postgraduate subject, and so about one in five politics graduates go on to take another course - usually a one-year Masters - after they finish their degrees.
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.
£18k
£20k
£29k
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.
Politics
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£18k
£22k
£30k
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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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?
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