History and Journalism
UCAS Code: VP15
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
You should have Grade C/Grade 4 or above in GCSE Mathematics.
Access to HE Diploma
Pass with 45 Level 3 credits including 30 Distinctions and a number of merits/passes in subject specific modules.
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
With three Higher Level subjects at 655
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
You should have Grade C/Grade 4 or above in GCSE Mathematics.
Scottish Advanced Higher
Scottish Higher
UCAS Tariff
We've calculated how many Ucas points you'll need for this course.
About this course
The BA History & Journalism will help you develop a keen understanding of the past so that you can produce riveting journalism about the present. If you loved history at school, and want to help report and shape current events, then this is the degree for you.
**Why study BA History & Journalism at Goldsmiths?**
- This course is designed so that the two strands – journalism and history - mesh seamlessly together; informing one another. You’ll be taught by historians who are also journalists, and journalists who have written about history. All of the tutors you’ll encounter have extensive experience, having written about some of the most important global events of our times – from revolutions in Latin America to the effect of oil exploration in Africa.
- By the end of the programme, you’ll have an advanced ability to gather, synthesise and understand historical information and present it to audiences in a wider range of contexts and platforms.
- From a journalism perspective, you’ll finish the course with a comprehensive knowledge of multi-media journalistic techniques – and a large portfolio of work which will include long-form pieces of journalism and articles written for our in-house live local news website Eastlondonlines. You’ll leave us well prepared for a career in journalism, communications, marketing, research, charities and NGOs.
- You’ll have access to state-of-the-art labs equipped with Macs with editing software and hard drive space for your work. You’ll also be able to access technical equipment such as cameras or sound recording equipment.
- We’ll give you extensive assistance to help you find informal work experience. You also have the option to do a placement as one of your third-year module choices; this is normally undertaken in the summer before your final year.
- We host regular Media Forums which feature speakers from journalism and the wider media industries discussing and debating current issues, such as the crisis in local newspapers, the future of the BBC and ethnic minority representation in the media.
- There are a huge range of other events, talks and conferences including an annual Human Rights film screening festival. Goldsmiths also hosts two outside journalistic research units – Airwars (which researches conflict zones in the Middle East) and the Centre for Investigative Journalism.
Modules
You will take core modules in historical concepts and methods, journalism skills and long form historical journalism with a final project devoted to a piece of extended journalistic research in a historical context. All practical journalism modules are taught by practising journalists from our School of Journalism, who have experience at the highest levels of the national media.
You will also choose option modules from both departments, with the opportunity to work creatively and undertake innovative assessments such as blogs and YouTube videos.
In addition to the modules you study during your degree, we encourage you to make the most of the exciting calendar of activites that both departments organise throughout the year, including a range of guest speakers and lecturers.
Year 1 (credit level 4) You take the following compulsory modules:
Concepts and Methods in History
Media History and Politics
Introduction to Power, Politics and Public Affairs
Introduction to Multimedia Journalism
You will also take one of the following 30 credit options:
Religion, Peace and Conflict
Dictators, War and Revolution
Self, Citizen and Nation
Year 2 (credit level 5) You study the following compulsory modules:
Extended Feature Research and Writing
Media Law and Ethics
Feature Writing
Option modules - You will study 30 credits of modules that fuse History and Journalism, 30 credits of History modules and a 15 credit Media option.
Examples of History and Journalism modules include:
Introduction to the History of the Modern Middle East
Minorities in East-Central Europe: Coexistence, Integration and Annihilation,
c.1870-1950
Modern Revolutions in Comparative Perspective
Imagining Africa: Ideology, Identity and Text in Africa and the Diaspora
Examples of History modules include:
Black and British: A Long and Varied History
Britain Through the Lens
Empires in Comparative Perspective: Imperium Romanum to Pax
Americana
Heresy, the Occult and the Millennium in Early Modern Europe
History in Practice
Histories of Sexualities
Southeastern Approaches: A History of Serbs and Serbia since the Middle
Ages
The USA in the Era of the Vietnam War, 1954-75
Visual and Material Culture in Early Modern Europe
Global History of Buddhism
Latin American Revolutions 1945-1990
London’s History Through Literature
History of Asian Medicine: From Manuscripts to YouTube
History in the News
The Fictional Nineteenth Century
London's Burning: Social Movement and Public Protest in the Capital, 1830-
2003
Year 3 (credit level 6) Core module - Interdisciplinary project and you will take 30 credits from the Department of History and 30 credits from the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies.
Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.
Assessment methods
You’ll be assessed by a variety of methods, depending on your module choices. These include coursework assignments such as extended essays, reports, presentations, practice-based projects or essays/logs, group projects and reflective essays, as well as seen and unseen written examinations.
The Uni
Goldsmiths, University of London
History
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.
Journalism
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)
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)
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.
Media, journalism and communications
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
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.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Media, journalism and communications
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£20k
£23k
£26k
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.
History and archaeology
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£19k
£23k
£27k
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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Post-six month graduation stats:
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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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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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