History
Entry requirements
A level
Pass Access to Higher Education Diploma with 60 credits including 45 credits at Level 3
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
UCAS Tariff
We will generally make you an offer if your predicted grades are at the top of this range and you meet any subject specific requirements (where applicable). If your predicted grades are towards the lower end of this range we can still consider your application but will also take into account subjects studied at Level 3, your GCSE (or equivalent) profile and/or relevant non-academic achievements, references and your motivation for study.
About this course
**Explore past movements and people and how they have shaped the present with our expert-led History degree**
Immerse yourself in the global histories of revolution, power, and people from the past to the present day with our BA History degree. You will study the rise and fall of states, the causes of wars and revolutions, and social and political movements.
You will interpret sources, explain how societies change and why this is important. Study with a supportive and stimulating department, and equip yourself to analyse the many challenges of today.
**Hands-on learning**
Our students tell us that St Mary’s is the perfect location to explore history at London’s many museums, archives and historic houses, such as:
- the British Museum
- the Imperial War Museum
- Hampton Court
- the London Docklands
- the Palace of Westminster.
As a student here, you’ll have easy access to be able to undertake your own first-hand research.
**A history programme led by experts and research**
Our curriculum is designed on the principle of research-led teaching by historians who are experts in their fields. Our student, Steph, explains that this has given her invaluable insights and learning experiences.
Our department is placed 2nd for teaching quality in London by the Guardian University Guide 2021.
We genuinely care about our students and will encourage you to think critically, which has positioned our university in the top 10 for student experience (Times Good University Guide 2024).
Recently, one of our history lecturers, Prof Glenn Richardson, guested on the Not Just the Tudors podcast to discuss his biography of Cardinal Wolsey and his rise to and sudden fall from power.
Modules
Level 4 is an introductory year during which you are introduced to new ideas, new periods of history, and new ways of making connections across themes, topics and geographical areas. With support from your tutors, you will begin to develop the skills you need to study history in greater depth. The Level 5 modules are designed around broad themes, and are all taught through lectures and seminars, using a wide range of primary and secondary sources. Single Honours students typically take the core module and choose five optional modules across the academic year. You study subjects in much greater depth, using original source material as evidence. Single Honours students (and students majoring in History) must complete a dissertation in history, and choose four more modules from the list of options. The dissertation is a piece of independent research: it is a significant piece of supervised academic writing that takes a full academic year to complete.
Tuition fees
Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:
The Uni
St Mary's University, Twickenham
School of Liberal and Creative Arts
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.
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.
History
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
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.
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.
Top job areas of graduates
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.
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.
£21k
£26k
£27k
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.
Explore these similar courses...
This is what the university has told Ucas about the criteria they expect applicants to satisfy; some may be compulsory, others may be preferable.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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?
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