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York St John University

UCAS Code: L2V2 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)

Entry requirements

GCSE/National 4/National 5

1 GCSE at Grade C/4 or above (or equivalent) including English Language.

UCAS Tariff

48

About this course

Course option

4years

Full-time | 2025

Subjects

Politics

History

Through the interdisciplinary foundation year you can to develop skills and knowledge both within and beyond the degree you will progress onto. The course allows you to explore different aspects of your own subject area, as well as a wider framework of contexts, approaches and crossovers with other subjects.

The foundation year provides a welcoming and encouraging environment in which you can first encounter those key questions and challenges that will later inform your undergraduate study. This is the course for you if are excited about getting into higher education but don't want to dive straight into an undergraduate degree. This might be because you have been out of education for a while, you do not yet have the entry requirements for the course you want to do, or you just do not feel ready yet.

As well as building your academic skills, this course is designed to build your confidence and welcome you to the diverse and inclusive community at York St John University. We will make sure that you are fully aware of the resources and opportunities available to you both during the foundation year and throughout the rest of your studies, whilst also introducing you to York, a city steeped in history and culture.

Studying History and Politics together will give you a deep understanding of the institutions, processes and events that shape our lives. Contemporary states, politics and ideas cannot be fully understood without analysing their historical background. This degree emphasises the relevance of history to modern life, as you combine historical investigation with the discussion of debates and issues in current politics.

By looking back at how society and political institutes were shaped throughout history, you can better understand the forces shaping them today. Throughout this course you will investigate the relationship between the past, the future and the present.

In your History modules you will focus on significant social and political developments over the 19th and 20th centuries from across the world. These may include periods of British, American, European and Russian history. You will investigate historical processes such as revolution, conflict and international organisation.

Throughout the Politics section of this course you will learn about the institutions and processes behind modern states. This will include a focus on the domestic government and politics of the UK, but you will also have the opportunity to explore politics from a global perspective. We will investigate crucial debates about how states interact with each other, the changing role of the state, and how states should respond to collective dilemmas such as climate change.

The course includes a wide range of optional modules, and you could find yourself studying anything from Edwardian Britain to the Arab Spring. Combining the study of History and Politics will allow you to gain an in depth understanding of events, institutions and policies and their impact on people and society over time.

We do everything we can to help you graduate into a great career, and you will study a specialist Work Related Learning module in your second year. Our connections include York Museums Trust, York Explore and Yorkshire Film Archive.

Modules

For module information for the Foundation Year, please click here are scroll down to the 'Course structure' tab:

https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/foundation-years/liberal-arts-foundation-year/

For module information for Politics and History, please click here are scroll down to the 'Course structure' tab:

https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/joint-honours/politics-and-history-ba-hons/

Tuition fees

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

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£14,000
per year
International
£14,000
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni

Course location:

York St John University

Department:

Humanities

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.

85%
Politics
81%
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.

Politics

Teaching and learning

87%
Staff make the subject interesting
93%
Staff are good at explaining things
84%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
68%
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

72%
Library resources
81%
IT resources
67%
Course specific equipment and facilities
84%
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?

96%
UK students
4%
International students
63%
Male students
37%
Female students
65%
2:1 or above
19%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
C
C

History

Teaching and learning

92%
Staff make the subject interesting
97%
Staff are good at explaining things
83%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
77%
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

72%
Library resources
86%
IT resources
77%
Course specific equipment and facilities
81%
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?

99%
UK students
1%
International students
51%
Male students
49%
Female students
64%
2:1 or above
7%
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.

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.

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.

£16,615
low
Average annual salary
93%
med
Employed or in further education
37%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

22%
Other elementary services occupations
14%
Sales assistants and retail cashiers
11%
Business, finance and related associate professionals

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.

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.

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

£19k

£19k

£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.

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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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.

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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

Have a question about this info? Learn more here

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