Religious movements, institutions and theological ideas have had a profound influence on historical events and processes. Studying undergraduate History and Theology is an exciting chance to discover how and why our world emerged, alongside the ideas that are shaping religion, faith and spirituality in the 21st century.

The University of Birmingham provides an intellectually challenging environment to nurture your enthusiastic appreciation of the past and religion. Our knowledge covers a wide range of historical periods (antiquity, medieval, early modern, modern and contemporary), geographical contexts (Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America) and religious ideologies, which encourages you to question some of the myths, preconceptions and prejudices in the interplay of history and theology. During your degree course, you will also develop an informed appreciation of the religious and historical contexts surrounding pressing contemporary issues, which will allow you to engage critically with historical and theological debates and identify how they influence each other.

**1st** Times Higher Education ranked the Department of History 1st in the country for its performance in the latest Research Excellence Framework exercise
**Top 10** for Theology in the Complete University Guide 2022

**Why study this course?**

**Present Day Application** – We believe in history as a practical and engaged endeavour that speaks to questions of social inequality, community belonging and even climate change. As a Birmingham student you have opportunities to learn about the uses of history whether through modules such as Public History or through placements in the heritage sector.
**Become a Specialist** – Indulge in a wide range of specialist optional modules from medieval to modern periods, over a vast geographical area, taught by our renowned academic staff. Our unusually large number of teaching staff means that you'll have a wide range of optional modules.
**Bury Yourself in a Book** – Explore our Cadbury Research Libraries collections consist of over 200,000 rare books dating from 1471 and more than four million manuscript items.
**Culturally-diverse city** – All faiths are well-represented in Birmingham, with more than 650 churches, mosques, synagogues and temples across the city. Outside London, Birmingham has the UK’s largest Muslim, Sikh and Buddhist communities, the second largest Hindu community and the seventh largest Jewish community.
**Diverse Perspectives** - Unlike other universities, we engage with all students/major religions and not just the typical approach of studying the three major abrahamic religions. This allows you to gain a strong understanding of all major religions whilst also specialising in the topics that interest you the most. In your final year, you have an unprecedented freedom to choose any module that interests you ranging from the Hebrew Bible to the Holocaust.
**Studying at the University of Birmingham will boost your employability prospects** - we are ranked forth in the UK for being targeted by the top UK employers (High Fliers Research 2022).

**Joint Honours flexibility**
Every degree programme at the University is divided into 120 credits of study for each year of the programme. In the first year of a Joint Honours programme, you will study 60 credits in each subject as you learn the core elements of the disciplines. We recognise that students on Joint Honours programmes might come to favour one subject slightly more than another. To account for this, we have added more flexibility into the second and final years of our programmes. In the second year, you can stick with the 60-60 split between the two subjects or shift to a 80-40 credit weighting, effectively a major/ minor combination. You can either go back to 60-60 in the final year, maintain the same 80-40 split or reverse the major and the minor and go to a 40-80 weighting.