Is Birmingham a good university for Ancient History?

I really want to do Ancient History at University, when reading about birmingham I fell in love with the description of the course on UCAS, but looking at some league tables it's quite low down on them...
So I was just wondering if it is meant to be a good university for Ancient History
Thanks x :smile:

Reply 1

pricey26

I'm not sure about what it's like for Ancient History, but Birmingham university in itself is a good university. One of my friends just got an offer for Ancient History from there the other day! :smile:

University of Birmingham

Birmingham

Reply 2

cjc3676

League Tables are often not helpful identifying an appropriate Uni courses - they focus very much on either the whole Uni or a Dept. They are always 2 years out of date and reflect things that will have no influence on how you will experience History at Birmingham as a u/g student.

Birmingham is a solid red-brick Uni with a long-standing reputation for good quality teaching and research. Its ABB admissions requirement reflects this. Similar Unis with the same admissions requirement are Manchester & Liverpool. All three Unis are very much worth applying to.

Reply 3

Energy_Purple

Hey!

I've also applied to Birmingham (recieved an offer this morning!) for Ancient History, and in my personal opinion from the research that I've done, it is by far one of the better universities for the course.

It has such a broad focus; in 3rd year, the core modules are all actually on Ancient Egyptian and Middle Eastern history, which makes a huge change from everywhere else that just does Greek/Roman. The study tours in 2nd year are something else that very few places do, and being able to actually study at location with all of the native resources and things you can't access anywhere else in the world is a massive bonus on top of being able to spend 2 weeks in a pretty place :tongue:

It also specialises in other things as well that make it incredibly unique; I know they used to do a module on Athenian Drama where you could actually perform a Greek play if you wanted to!

Birmingham also has the positives in that - as cjc3676 has said - it is a very respected Russell Group uni, with a long standing reputation for excellence, and an amazingly high student satisfaction rate for the course (91%!), with some good academics in the department.

League tables are usually all absolutely rubbish in my opinion; based on random factors and wildly changing for no reason between each table/year. At the end of the day, if the course is exactly what you want to do, and is perfect enough that you want to spend the next 3 years studying it, then that's a better indicator of how good it is for you :smile:

Good luck! :smile:

Reply 4

Athena_Laleak

Thank you for the replies! I definitely feel reassured about the course now :smile:

Reply 5

Eboracum

Original post by Athena_Laleak

My Dad is a lecturer there. It is a very good university. One of the things I've found is that when I talk to international students here at York and tell them I am from Birmingham I've had many responses saying "Oh there is a university there". People know it, you'll be fine.

Reply 6

Maicccccmannnn

Never ever sacrifice a course you love for a course high in the league tables.

You'll be studying it for three years, and being in love with the course will be priceless in improving your experience and results.

Reply 7

vikkirocks1993

Hello! i'm a second year ancient history and archaeology student at UoB - bit of a late reply to the thread but obviously i know a lot about your question!

The IAA (which is the department Ancient History is under) is undergoing a lot of scary changes at the moment - mostly for archaeology D: - but it means that the courses are moving around, getting changed a lot and funding isn't as generous as before. Just be aware of that. As an archaeology student, had i known this, I wouldn't have come to UoB.

You should also be aware that ancient history is a fairly difficult course. You only have around 5/6 contact hours a week, and the rest relies on you being motivated to do all the reading (which can be deathly boring) and extra work. They don't really teach you all that much, more shove you in the right direction.

During first year, you pick core modules which are things like greek & roman literature, egypt & asia, byzantium and then you have core modules like greek & roman history. You also get to do a project which you are allocated, but you can change this after christmas to another :smile:

I did rivers & civilisation, then king arthur. Second year is pretty much the same, but your core modules are egypt & landscapes or asia & environments.

However, the range of modules you can take is excellent and in my experience the staff have all been great (if a bit unorganized).

Reply 8

vikkirocks1993

also, forget the league tables, the University is a very good one! and a 1st class degree is a 1st class degree no matter where you get it from. I did muchmuch better than the grade requirements for the course so had the opportunity to go to unis at the top of the table, but I liked the look of UoB and so far, I've only had good experiences!