Course overview
This three-year History BA Honours degree focuses on developing your skills and abilities to critically analyse historical topics. You’ll graduate as a confident and independent learner, ready for your future.
You’ll learn to evaluate competing interpretations of history, and how to formulate, support and defend your own arguments and opinions.
You will explore themes including revolution, slavery, radicalism, medical history, and religion through a wide range of modules. These focus on a variety of time periods, geographies and cultures.
You’ll study in a vibrant learning community, with scholars at the forefront of their fields. You’ll also improve your research skills, completing a range of research projects during your degree.
You can follow your interests with opportunities to take modules from other subject areas such as archaeology, classics, politics, philosophy or a modern language at every stage of your degree.
Your course and study experience – disclaimers and terms and conditions
Please rest assured we make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the programmes, services and facilities described. However, it may be necessary to make changes due to significant disruption, for example in response to Covid-19.
View our Academic experience page, which gives information about your Newcastle University study experience for the academic year 2024-25.
See our terms and conditions and student complaints information, which gives details of circumstances that may lead to changes to programmes, modules or University services.
Quality and ranking
- Global Top 130 University – QS World University Rankings 2025
- Top 90 for Arts and Humanities – QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024
- Top 200 for History – QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024
- 65% increase in research power since 2014 – Research Excellence Framework 2021
- 42% of our research is classified as 4* world-leading research – Research Excellence Framework 2021
- Top 25 in the UK and Top 100 in the world for sustainable development – Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2024
- Top 125 for Arts and Humanities – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2025
- Global Top 170 University – Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024
Modules and learning
Modules
The information below is intended to provide an example of what you will study.
Most degrees are divided into stages. Each stage lasts for one academic year, and you’ll complete modules totalling 120 credits by the end of each stage.
Our teaching is informed by research. Course content may change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback.
Optional module availability
Student demand for optional modules may affect availability.
Full details of the modules on offer will be published through the Programme Regulations and Specifications ahead of each academic year. This usually happens in May.
To find out more please see our terms and conditions
Modules
| Compulsory Modules | Credits |
|---|---|
| Evidence and Argument | 20 |
| Historical Sources and Methods | 20 |
| What is History For? | 20 |
| Optional Modules | Credits |
|---|---|
| Introduction to Archaeology | 20 |
| Prehistoric Britain | 20 |
| The Archaeology of Britain from the Romans to the 20th Century | 20 |
| The Roman World from Romulus to Trajan | 20 |
| Slavery | 20 |
| Global Middle Ages | 20 |
| Stuff: living in a material world | 20 |
| Global Ancient Histories | 20 |
| History Lab I | 20 |
| History Lab II | 20 |
| Introduction to Public History | 20 |
You’ll have the choice of a very wide range of optional modules. These modules focus on a time period or geographic range or take a comparative look at a common theme or specific event from a different angle.
Your modules span a range of periods to ensure that you have a good breath of historical understanding.
You’ll also have the option to choose modules from outside of History.
Modules
| Compulsory Modules | Credits |
|---|---|
| Crafting History: The Dissertation Proposal | 20 |
| Researching History | 20 |
| Optional Modules | Credits |
|---|---|
| From Lascaux to Knossos: Prehistoric Europe | 20 |
| Archaeologies of the Roman Empire: The Roman World from Augustus to Justinian | 20 |
| The Medieval World: AD 400-1500 | 20 |
| Colonial Worlds: History and Archaeology | 20 |
| Hellenistic Empires from Alexander to Cleopatra | 20 |
| The Roman World from Hadrian to Heraclius | 20 |
| Greek and Roman Religions | 20 |
| Slavery in Greco-Roman Antiquity | 20 |
| Africa: History of a Continent | 20 |
| Oral History and Memory | 20 |
| Greece, from ancient to modern | 20 |
| Communication in the Medieval World, from Europe to Asia: Prayer, Poetry, Pictures, and Travel | 20 |
| Famines in History | 20 |
| History and Film: Representing the Past | 20 |
| East Asia: from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century | 20 |
| Violence in the American South: From the Colonial Era to Civil Rights | 20 |
| The Aftermath of War in Europe and Asia, 1945-56 | 20 |
| Revolutions of the Mind: European Thought, 1550–1750 | 20 |
| The Supernatural: The Cultural History of Occult Forces | 20 |
| Destroying Nature: Disasters, Diseases and Environmental Injustice | 20 |
| Diversities of Sexuality and Gender in History | 20 |
| A History of Contemporary Britain | 20 |
| The Mediterranean: a connected past | 20 |
| HaSS Study Abroad Semester 1 60 Credits | 60 |
| HaSS Study Abroad Semester 2 60 credits | 60 |
| Comparative History of Hispano-America and Brazil: From Independence to the Mexican Revolution (1789/1810-1917) | 20 |
| Career Development for second year students | 20 |
Optional modules will deepen your knowledge through intensive small group seminar discussion of primary sources.
Modules
| Compulsory Modules | Credits |
|---|---|
| Reading History | 20 |
| Writing History | 40 |
| Optional Modules | Credits |
|---|---|
| Early Medieval Britain | 20 |
| Frontier Communities of Roman Britain | 20 |
| Neolithic & Early Bronze Age Britain in its European Context | 20 |
| Sex, bodies and identities in Classical Greece | 20 |
| Homeric Archaeology: Greece from Palaces to City States | 20 |
| Fundamentals of Digital Humanities: Computer literacy, data analysis and GIS | 20 |
| Semester One Substitute for Stage 3 HIS Capped Special Subject | 20 |
| Semester Two Substitute for Stage 3 HIS Capped Special Subject | 20 |
| Second Semester Two Substitute for Stage 3 HIS Capped Special Subject | 20 |
| Public History In Practice | 20 |
| The British Revolutions, 1640-1660 | 20 |
| The Irish Revolution, 1879-1923 | 20 |
| Reconstruction and the New South, 1865-1900 | 20 |
| British Foreign Policy since Suez | 20 |
| Birth Control in the 19th and 20th Centuries | 20 |
| Civil Rights and Armalites Northern Ireland since 1969 | 20 |
| Civil Rights in America, 1948-1975 | 20 |
| Women in Colonial South Asia: Tradition, Reform and Modernity | 20 |
| Europe and the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1798 | 20 |
| Punishing the Criminal Dead: Crime, Culture, and Corpses in Modern Britain | 20 |
| The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1961-1990 | 20 |
| The Rising Generation: Youth, Age and Protest in Cold War Britain | 20 |
| Haitian Revolution | 20 |
| Healthy Spaces for Healthy Bodies: Medicine, Humans, Places | 20 |
| Buddhism and Society in Medieval Japan | 20 |
| The Renaissance World of Florence, 1450-1550: Machiavelli, Mayhem, and Strife | 20 |
| The Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps – Origins, Experiences and Aftermaths | 20 |
| Nineteenth Century Aotearoa New Zealand: Maori, Pakeha & Tauiwi | 20 |
| War and Remembering: Recalling War in Oral Histories, c.1950-2022 | 20 |
| British Colonialism in Sudan: Violence, Gender and Race, 1899-1956 | 20 |
| Fictional Histories: from medieval to modern | 20 |
| Exhausted! The problem of sleep (and not sleeping) from 1750 to the present day | 20 |
| Inter-American Relations from the Spanish-American War (1898) to the end of the Cold War (1989/1991) | 20 |
| Career Development for final year students | 20 |
| Envious Show: Wealth, Power and Ambition in Narratives of the Country House, 1550-2000 | 20 |
Teaching and assessment
Teaching methods
Most of your course will be delivered through lectures, seminars and workshops.
Seminars form a more important part of your education in later stages, and help build our learning community, where you’ll debate with peers and refine your ideas.
Skills and experience
Business skills
You’ll be able to boost your employability and develop enterprising behaviours, attributes and skills through two major career development modules.
Research skills
Independent research training is embedded throughout our History degree. This gives you the chance to develop your research skills – learning how to critically assess evidence and evaluate different interpretations – from your first year of study to your final-year dissertation.
Opportunities
Study abroad
Experience life in another country by choosing to study abroad as part of your degree. You’ll be encouraged to embrace fun and challenging experiences, make connections with new communities and graduate as a globally aware professional, ready for your future.
You can choose to spend up to a year studying at a partner institution overseas.
If you choose to study abroad, it will extend your degree by a year.
Find out more about study abroad
Work placement
Get career ready with a work placement and leave as a confident professional in your field. You can apply to spend 9 to 12 months working in any organisation in the world, and receive University support from our dedicated team to secure your dream placement. Work placements take place between stages 2 and 3.
You’ll gain first-hand experience of working in the sector, putting your learning into practice and developing your professional expertise.
If you choose to take a work placement, it will extend your degree by a year, and your degree title will show you have achieved the placement year. A work placement is not available if you’re spending a year studying abroad. Placements are subject to availability.
Find out more about work placements
Facilities and environment
Facilities
You’ll be based in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, in the historic Armstrong Building at our city-centre campus.
You’ll have access to a range of on-campus facilities, including:
- the Philip Robinson University Library, which houses over 800,000 books and provides access to ca. 1.8m e-books
- Special Collections & Archives – a rich collection of archival material, historical medical texts and rare books
- The Great North Museum: Hancock, our on-campus museum which holds an extensive collection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan artefacts
Support
You’ll have the support of an academic member of staff as a personal tutor throughout your degree to help with academic and personal issues.
Peer mentors will help you in your first year. They are fellow students who can help you settle in and answer any questions you have when starting university.
Your future
Our graduates go on to a diverse range of careers including:
- Education
- Journalism
- Government and policy work
- Finance and legal services
- Charity and heritage sectors
Careers support
Our award-winning Careers Service is one of the largest and best in the country, and we have strong links with employers. We provide an extensive range of opportunities to all students through our ncl+ initiative.
Visit our Careers Service website
Recognition of professional qualifications outside of the UK
From 1 January 2021 there is an update to the way professional qualifications are recognised by countries outside of the UK
Entry requirements
All candidates are considered on an individual basis and we accept a broad range of qualifications. The entrance requirements and offers below apply to 2025 entry.
| A-Level | |
|---|---|
| AAB including History. Applicants offering a Modern Language are welcomed. General Studies accepted. | |
| International Baccalaureate | |
|---|---|
| 34 points. History required at Higher Level Grade 6. | |
