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History BA (Hons)

On this modern history course you will explore, debate and evaluate the key events and ideas that have shaped our world.

Overview

Watch: Lecturer in History Dr Christopher Zembe and Senior Lecturer Sophie Brockmann speak about how research feeds into the History BA course at DMU, ensuring students are learning the most relevant ideas and theories.

Exploring primarily modern and contemporary history, our course is diverse, international in focus and innovative. While focusing on war and conflict, immigration, racism, nationalism and empire, you’ll explore, debate and evaluate the key events and ideas that have shaped our world. 

This course will hone your ability to absorb, understand and communicate complex information. As you progress through the course, we’ll challenge you with more in-depth explorations and you’ll be supported by a passionate teaching team who provide an interactive and dynamic learning environment. 

You will choose from a broad range of modules which are taught by lecturers who are leading experts in their fields. We cover British, South Asian, European, African and North and South American history and also offer unique specialist topics such as history of photography, history of sport and leisure, and history in the workplace. By studying a mixture of year-long and half-year modules you can expand your learning and experience a variety of different teaching methods and assessment patterns.

Key features

  • Develop a wide range of transferable skills by learning how to research and communicate complex information effectively. Our graduates use these skills to forge successful careers across a range of professions including teaching, the law, marketing and the heritage and museum sector.
  • Specialise in distinctive areas such as photographic history, history of sport and leisure, war and conflict, migration, history and employability, ethnicity and racism.
  • Learn from academics with international reputations who utilise innovative teaching methods to deliver a lively learning experience, which is enhanced by lectures from visiting guest speakers
  • Boost your career prospects through placement and internship opportunities – our students have gained valuable skills at a large regional newspaper, the award-winning King Richard III visitor centre in Leicester, as well as teaching in Spain.
  • Enhance your studies through DMU Global, our international experience programme. History students recently learnt about Jewish immigrant life in New York, discovered Danish heritage in Copenhagen and explored the legacies of authoritarian rule in Berlin. 
  • Benefit from organised visits to archives and museums such as National Archives in London. You can also access DMU’s own historical collections, such as the Stephen Lawrence Papers, the Ski Club of GB archive and the Kodak collection, held at the Kimberlin Library.

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More courses like this

History with French, Mandarin or Spanish BA (Hons)

  • UK
  • EU/International

Institution code: D26

UCAS course code: V100

Duration: Three years full-time, four years full-time with a placement. Six years part-time.

Fees and funding: 

2023/24 tuition fees for UK students: £9,250.

Find out more about tuition fees and available funding.

Additional costs: Here at DMU we provide excellent learning resources, including the Kimberlin Library and specialist workshops and studios. However, you should be aware that sometimes you may incur additional costs for this programme.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Order a prospectus

Book an Open Day

Submit a study-related enquiry

Duration: Three years full-time, four years with placement.

Fees and funding: 

2023/24 tuition fees for international students: £15,250

Additional costs: Here at DMU we provide excellent learning resources, including the Kimberlin Library and specialist workshops and studios. However, you should be aware that sometimes you may incur additional costs for this programme.

Contact us: For more information, call us on +44 (0)116 2 50 60 70.

How to apply

Order a prospectus

Submit a study-related enquiry

Entry criteria

Typical entry requirements

  • 112 points from at least 2 A levels or
  • BTEC Extended Diploma DMM or
  • International Baccalaureate: 26+ Points

Plus five GCSEs grades 9-4 including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above.

  • Pass Access with 30 level 3 credits at Merit and GCSE English (Language or Literature) at grade 4 or above.

We will normally require students to have had a break from education from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.

  • We also accept the BTEC First Diploma plus two GCSEs including English Language or Literature at grade 4 or above

Interview required: No

English language requirements

If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential.

English Language tuition, delivered by our British Council-accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.

 

Structure and assessment

 

Course modules

Teaching and assessments

First year

  • Presenting and Representing the Past
  • The Making of the Modern World
  • Twentieth Century Europe
  • Modern Britain, 1760–2000

Second year

  • Visualising the Modern World 1860-1950 (half-year option)
  • The Historian’s Craft: Sources and Methods in History
  • The Cold War (half-year option) 
  • History in the Workplace (half-year option)
  • Histories of the Global South
  • Sport in Twentieth Century Britain (half-year option)  
  • Divide and Quit: the closing days of imperial rule in India (half-year option) 
  • The Origins of Multicultural Britain (half-year option) 

Third year

  • Dissertation
  • Yugoslavia and Beyond (half-year option)
  • Photography and Conflict (half-year option)
  • Borders and Boundaries: Legacies of Colonial Rule: India and Pakistan since 1947 (half-year option)
  • Environmental History of the Americas (half-year option)
  • Jews in Twentieth Century Britain (half-year option) 
  • History and Heritage (half-year option)
  • Witchcraft, Magic and the Supernatural in Britain and Europe from 1500 (half-year option)
  • Transatlantic Sport (half-year option)

Click here for more detailed module information


Note: All modules are indicative and based on the current academic session. Course information is correct at the time of publication and is subject to review. Exact modules may, therefore, vary for your intake in order to keep content current. If there are changes to your course we will, where reasonable, take steps to inform you as appropriate.

Overview

Our teaching is interactive, informal and enjoyable. We encourage you to develop your own thoughts, ideas and viewpoints and you will build the skills you need to be effective in both historical study and the modern workplace. 

The modules are all designed to improve your skills as an effective historian from analysis and research to reasoning and evaluation. They are also constructed to help you develop aptitudes and characteristics that will improve your employability such as initiative, teamwork and communication.

You will be taught by experts in their field, the people who are writing the books you are reading. Our history staff are renowned nationally and internationally for the quality of their teaching and research.

We work hard to ensure that the student experience is lively, dynamic and stimulating, and regular guest lecturers and speakers address both curriculum-related topics and topics of broader historical interest.

Contact hours

You will be taught through a combination of lectures, tutorials, seminars, group work and self-directed study. Assessment is through coursework (presentations, essays and reports) and usually an exam. Your precise timetable will depend on the optional modules you choose to take, however, in your first year you will normally attend around 9 hours of timetabled taught sessions (lectures and tutorials) each week, and we expect you to undertake at least 28 further hours of independent study to complete project work and research.

 

Facilities and features

Placements

Library and learning zones

On campus, the main Kimberlin Library offers a space where you can work, study and access a vast range of print materials, with computer stations, laptops, plasma screens and assistive technology also available. 

As well as providing a physical space in which to work, we offer online tools to support your studies, and our extensive online collection of resources accessible from our Library website, e-books, specialised databases and electronic journals and films which can be remotely accessed from anywhere you choose. 

We will support you to confidently use a huge range of learning technologies, including Blackboard, Collaborate Ultra, DMU Replay, MS Teams, Turnitin and more. Alongside this, you can access LinkedIn Learning and learn how to use Microsoft 365, and study support software such as mind mapping and note-taking through our new Digital Student Skills Hub. 

The library staff offer additional support to students, including help with academic writing, research strategies, literature searching, reference management and assistive technology. There is also a ‘Just Ask’ service for help and advice, live LibChat, online workshops, tutorials and drop-ins available from our Learning Services, and weekly library live chat sessions that give you the chance to ask the library teams for help.

More flexible ways to learn

We offer an equitable and inclusive approach to learning and teaching for all our students. Known as the Universal Design for Learning (UDL), our teaching approach has been recognised as sector leading. UDL means we offer a wide variety of support, facilities and technology to all students, including those with disabilities and specific learning differences.

Just one of the ways we do this is by using ‘DMU Replay’ – a technology providing all students with anytime access to audio and/or visual material of lectures. This means students can revise taught material in a way that suits them best, whether it's replaying a recording of a class or adapting written material shared in class using specialist software.

Campus Centre

The home of  De Montfort Students' Union, (DSU) our Campus Centre offers a welcoming and lively hub for student life. Conveniently located at the heart of campus, it includes a convenience store, a Subway and a Starbucks. Here you can find the DSU-owned charitable accommodation service Sulets and DSU’s shop, SUpplies, selling art supplies, stationery and clothing, and printing and binding services. The building is also home to the DSU officer team. 

Opportunities and careers

Find the people who will open doors for you

DMU's award-winning careers service provides guaranteed work experience opportunities DMU Careers Team
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Placements

This course gives you the option to enhance and build your professional skills to progress within your chosen career, through a placement. Our dedicated team offers a range of careers resources and opportunities so you can start planning your future.

Students Kayleigh Cardy and Cory Hancock secured year-long placements as English language teaching assistants in Spain though DMU’s Erasmus+ programme. Kayleigh said: “It’s been so much more than a placement. I’ve travelled, I’ve learnt about a whole new culture and I’ve grown as a person. It’s highlighted what I can achieve when I set my mind to something and I feel better prepared for my final year of university as I’m more independent and confident.”

Students on the #DMUglobal trip to New York

DMU Global

This is our innovative international experience programme which aims to enrich your studies and expand your cultural horizons – helping you to become a global graduate, equipped to meet the needs of employers across the world.

Through DMU Global you can take advantage of a wide range of opportunities including on-campus and UK activities, overseas study, internships, faculty-led field trips and volunteering, as well as Erasmus+ and international exchanges.

Most recently, our second-year students visited one of the world’s leading cultural institutions, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. They listened to an inspiring talk from Mary Yearwood, the Director of Collections and Information services, who said: “History needs to be fought for so go find the unsung heroes and sheroes.”

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Graduate careers

The History in the Workplace module offers work experience opportunities, awareness of History related careers and prepares you to improve your employability skills. Our graduates have gone on to forge successful careers in various professions, such as in teaching, law, public relations, marketing, journalism, civil service and the heritage and museum sectors, including roles such as: 

  • Deputy Manager at the National Waterways Museum
  • Communication and Marketing Executive at Cambridge University Press
  • Associate at multinational law firm Eversheds Sutherland
  • Head of History at a high school 

Graduates also have the opportunity to undertake further studies such as Sports History and Culture MA at DMU.

Recent graduate, Jessica, is now undertaking a PhD at DMU. She said: “The staff were clearly enthusiastic about their subjects and it felt like a vibrant department to be part of. I felt supported by my personal tutor and subject tutors; they were always there to ask about further reading or something I wasn't clear on, as well as individual support.”

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