Durham University

Durham

History At Durham, Sounds Appealing!!!!

Well, i want to do history at uni. Ive just finished my AS year and my expected grades are high. I've looked at the good university guide 2007 and it ranks Durham University at second for history. I know this may not be so credible but after some research i've found out that Durham Uni has a good reputation for history.

Just wondering what people think about history at Durham and whether they enjoy it or not and what aspect of history are they studying.

Thanks in advance. :smile:

Reply 1

goldenbarnes

history has tort me many things, like not to start wars and how the rusians invaded germany in 1986. overall i would rate history at durham good and i would say do it it is good

Durham University

Durham

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Reply 2

Tomber

Yeah, the department at Durham has a good reputation.

Goldenbarnes clearly knows the score though, a penetrating analysis there. :p:

Reply 3

Vincente

I was wondering what it is that makes Durham's history department so renowned? I mean it has arguably one of the highest entry standards and applicants for a place but I never knew why it stood out so much???? Is it the resources, lecturers, course it self........???

Reply 4

TKR

Not sure what's so great about History at Durham... think I'd die if I had to write all those essays though

Reply 5

Agbonlaheto

I did history half of the time.

The reasons why it is highly regarded:
Good library resources, helpful department staff, wide range of topic/eras offered, smallish seminar classes, very difficult to be offered a place in the dep.

In 3 years I studied: Reformation Europe, Cold War, all aspects of American history since 1850s, Egypt and Sudan since 1890s, Wilhelmine Germany and Propaganda. Considerable choice you will no doubt notice - bear in mind I did politics the other half of the time.

Also, you can do your dissertation on any historical subject and/or era you want.

Reply 6

Vincente

The reasons why it is highly regarded:
Good library resources, helpful department staff, wide range of topic/eras offered, smallish seminar classes, very difficult to be offered a place in the dep.

I'm guessing the last reason is why Durham stands out so much? I mean no offence but any top 20 university in the UK should also offer small classes, good facilities etc.

Reply 7

Agbonlaheto

The last reason would not exist were it not for the 'small classes, good facilities etc'. It's hard to get a place becauase more people with with A's are applying to go there and they are doing so because it has a good reputation.

Why or if this is better than any of the other top 20 unis I don't know

Reply 8

Tomber

In terms of modular choice, there are plenty of courses out there which are just as good as the Durham one. Durham is so competitive to get in because of its setting, but my own university offers good library resources, helpful department staff, wide range of topic/eras offered, smallish seminar classes which all compare very favourably with Durham. In fact our department is a fair bit larger, with 35 academic staff compared with Durham's 26.

Reply 9

Alphie

Top 20?! Durham is undoubtedly one of the top 5 history departments in the country - although I agree it's quite a difficult subject to assess in this way.

I think people are right in that the levels of staff-student interaction facilitated by the course structuring is a major plus. Every module is entirely the work of one academic - their research propmts the teaching, they devise the course, they write the lectures, they give the lectures, they (for the most part) take the seminars - usually in pretty small groups, they set your essays and they mark your essays etc etc. It's not like other departments where the modules are run by the department, who then 'contract out' different bits of it to various staff. Consequently, staff are very accessible, and always helpful and enthusiastic. This system also results in a huge diversity of topics that you can study, as Agbonlaheto mentioned.

For example, last year I looked at the office of kingship in early-medieval European societies, the religious and political history of the Tudor age, the built environment in Renaissance England, the settling of Australia, and the role of propaganda in twentieth century warfare. The huge choice available means you could cover an even wider range, or if you prefer, focus in on a particular period/type of history.

I've no direct experience of any other history departments so it's hard to be conclusive, but I certainly don't have any complaints about History at Durham.

Reply 10

Jelkin

I did one module in History in my first year and I was very impressed. Students are expected to work pretty hard and in my seminar group everyone did - they all seemed really intelligent and eloquent on each topic we studied. In fact, I was far more impressed than I was with my fellow English students, many of whom never quite seem to know what's going on and who don't seem to do much work (not that I did loads in my first year either, i suppose). Staff also seem far more responsive than the English dept staff, when you email them for help outside tutorials. Altogether, I would say it's probably a pretty challenging course (all those summatives!), but if you love history then I think you'd enjoy studying it at Durham.

Reply 11

goldenbarnes

While we're on the subject of History, does anyone know what to expect from the Early Renaissance Level 3 module? I accidentally signed up for it last term and don't really know what to expect.

Reply 12

Tomber

Alphie

Every module is entirely the work of one academic - their research propmts the teaching, they devise the course, they write the lectures, they give the lectures, they (for the most part) take the seminars - usually in pretty small groups, they set your essays and they mark your essays etc etc. It's not like other departments where the modules are run by the department, who then 'contract out' different bits of it to various staff. Consequently, staff are very accessible, and always helpful and enthusiastic. This system also results in a huge diversity of topics that you can study, as Agbonlaheto mentioned.

Where are these other departments? Every university history course I've looked at is run as the former description.

Reply 13

Alphie

I suppose I was really refering to other academic departments rather than other history courses. However, off the top of my head, the Cambridge course, where the first part of the Tripos is broad survey modules seems quite differently organised. I notice Liverpool offer just five modules in their first year, and appropriate staff are listed as 'coordinators' rather than 'tutors'. I'm sure there are others too.

I was just trying to describe what has struck me as the key merits of History at Durham. As I say, it's extremely hard to compare.