Course overview
This three-year joint honours degree focuses on developing your skills and abilities to critically analyse historical and political topics. You’ll graduate as a confident independent learner with a specialist knowledge in areas of interest to you.
You’ll be able to follow your own path, choosing to study modules which are closely related, or cast your net wide, studying topics that span six continents.
You’ll study in a research-led environment, alongside scholars at the forefront of their fields. You’ll also improve your research skills, completing a range of research projects during your degree.
In history, you’ll explore themes including revolution, slavery, radicalism, medical history, and religion across a variety of periods, geographies and cultures. In politics, you’ll look at global politics, political philosophy and international relations.
Your course and study experience – disclaimers and terms and conditions Â
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 150 for Politics and International Studies – QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024
- 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 2024Â
- Top 125 for Arts and Humanities – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2025
- Top 125 for Social Sciences – 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.Â
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 |
| Order and Disorder: The Shaping of the 21st Century | 20 |
| Optional Modules | Credits |
|---|---|
| Slavery | 20 |
| Global Middle Ages | 20 |
| Stuff: living in a material world | 20 |
| Global Ancient Histories | 20 |
| Historical Sources and Methods | 20 |
| History Lab I | 20 |
| History Lab II | 20 |
| Introduction to Public History | 20 |
| What is History For? | 20 |
| The Westminster System: the UK in comparative perspective | 20 |
| Key Concepts in International Politics | 20 |
| Becoming a Political Analyst | 20 |
| Power and Inequality | 20 |
| Politics of Happiness | 20 |
Modules
| 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 |
| Crafting History: The Dissertation Proposal | 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 |
| Researching History | 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 |
| Politics of the Middle East | 20 |
| International Institutions and Organizations | 20 |
| Becoming a Political Researcher | 20 |
| Government and Politics of the USA | 20 |
| The Politics and Policy of the European Union | 20 |
| Power and Poverty in the Global Economy | 20 |
| A Global History of Political Thought | 20 |
| Political Violence and the Modern State | 20 |
| The Politics of Africa: Africa’s place in Global Politics | 20 |
| Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: Social Issues in Contemporary Political Philosophy | 20 |
| Critical Security Studies | 20 |
| Democracy or Dictatorship? What are the differences and how do we analyse them | 20 |
| Sex, Gender and Power | 20 |
| The Politics of Race | 20 |
Modules
| Optional Modules | Credits |
|---|---|
| Early Medieval Britain | 20 |
| Sex, bodies and identities in Classical Greece | 20 |
| Semester One Substitute for Stage 3 HIS Capped Special Subject | 20 |
| Semester Two Substitute for Stage 3 HIS Capped Special Subject | 20 |
| Reading History | 20 |
| Writing History | 40 |
| 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 |
| Final Year Dissertation | 40 |
| Final Year Project: Semester 1 | 20 |
| Final Year Project: Semester 2 | 20 |
| The Ethics of Killing | 20 |
| Cities and World Politics | 20 |
| Applied Data Science for Political Research | 20 |
| The Politics of Protest in the Middle East | 20 |
| International Political Thought | 20 |
| Community-based Research in Politics | 40 |
| Politics of Immigration | 20 |
| Politics of Citizenship | 20 |
| Apartheid regimes – from the local to the global | 20 |
| Public Policy: Theories, Cases, Skills | 20 |
| Politics as a Way of Life | 20 |
Teaching and assessment
Teaching methods
Most of your modules will be delivered through lectures, seminars and workshops. Seminars become more important in Stage 2 and 3, reflecting your development into a confident and skilled independent learner and part of the School’s wider learning community.
In Politics, you’ll also focus on public speaking, with in-class debates used to test, defend and refine your ideas.
Skills and experience
Practical skills
You’ll have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience carrying out community-based politics research. You’ll support a local institution or non-governmental organisation and apply some of your learned skills in the workplace.
Research skills
You’ll be able to choose to complete an independent research project in Stage 3. You can either complete a dissertation, or the more practical option of hands-on research within the community.
You’ll learn to plan, develop and implement a project, while contributing to academic knowledge, or having an impact on the community.
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.Â
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 at our city-centre campus between the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, in the historic Armstrong Building and the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, in the recently refurbished Henry Daysh Building.
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
Join our network of successful graduates
On graduation from our degree courses, you will have the proven ability to think critically, assess complex material and data, carry out research, construct a well-informed argument and articulate it on paper and in person.
Some of our graduates have used this powerful combination of skills to progress directly into careers in politics, economics and international relations – for employers such as the Houses of Parliament, HM Treasury, local government, the Civil Service, inter-governmental organisations and public affairs consultancies.
Others have applied their skills with equal success in the media, law, finance, management consultancy, education, human resources, marketing, business and academia.
Our Politics graduates include MPs in Westminster, fast-track civil servants in the Cabinet Office and Department for Work and Pensions, parliamentary researchers, and Brussels-based public affairs consultants.
Our staff also maintain strong links with governmental bodies such as the UK and Scottish Parliaments, NATO and the EU.
Careers support
You’ll benefit from targeted careers support throughout your degree. In your induction week, you’ll explore potential career paths.
In Stage 2, you can apply for a work placement with a local political party or charity. In Stage 3 you can boost your prospects by conducting policy research on behalf of a local community organisation.
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
Check the government’s website for more information.
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.Â
| A-Level | |
|---|---|
| AAB including History. General Studies accepted. | |
| International Baccalaureate | |
|---|---|
| A minimum of 34 points including History at Higher Level grade 6. | |
