Culture, Heritage and History

Combining the complementary subjects of culture and heritage with history, this joint degree covers a wide range of subjects from early history through to the modern day. You will explore culture, history, language, literature and much more, within a national and international context, preparing you for life beyond university.

As you progress through the course, you will choose from a combination of modules, equally balanced between the two disciplines. You will have the opportunity to participate in an optional museum studies module, as well as possible volunteering positions across the Highlands.

Please see our FAQ sheet on our website for further information on this course.

Please note this course is delivered entirely online and available to study from anywhere in the world. Applicants outwith Scotland including International, should apply to the UHI Orkney study location.

Module outline

Year 1 - CertHE

Core modules are:

• What is history?

You will also choose one history option module, which may include:

• A Middle Age? Europe c.1100‐1500

• Empire, environment and identity: Scotland, 1600-2000

• People, protest and power: themes in modern British history, 1780-1918

You will also choose two culture and heritage option modules, which may include:

• Scotland: the brand

• Scotland's music

• What is culture?

You will also choose two option modules from our range of humanities and social science subjects.

Year 2 - DipHE

Core modules are:

• Historians and history

You will also choose one history option module, which may include:

• A curious age: European society and culture

• Court, kirk and burgh in medieval and early modern Scotland

• Themes in American history

You will also choose two culture and heritage option modules, which may include:

• Displaying the past: museum studies

• Golden mead and burning hearts

• Tradition, custom and belief

You will also choose two option modules from our range of humanities and social science subjects.

Year 3 - BA

You will choose at least two history option modules, which may include:

• Conquerors, crusaders and churchmen: the world of the Normans, c.911-c.1204

• Dynastic decline and religious violence: Valois France, 1550-1610

• Jacobites: patriots, rebels or opportunists?

• Land as power: the making of the modern Scottish landscape from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries

• Scots in North America: experience and identity

• Study of things: material culture of medieval and early modern Europe

You will also choose at least two culture and heritage option modules, which may include:

• Perceptions of heritage

• Raucle tongues: the Scots and Gaelic renaissance

• Scotland in film

• The Scottish Enlightenment and Highland society

PLUS

• Interdisciplinary project OR

• Public history

You will choose one further module from one of your two subject areas to ensure that you have a total of three modules from each half of your degree.

Year 4 - BA (Hons)

You will complete a dissertation in culture and heritage OR history. You will also study one option module from your chosen dissertation subject, plus three option modules from the other subject.

Culture and heritage options may include:

• Celtic and Celtic Revival art in Scotland

• Faeries and fables: the story of Gaelic literature

• For freedom alone: Scotland and philosophy

• Vikings and Valkyries

History options may include:

• Death and destruction: the social impact of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)

• Deviants, rebels, outcasts and villains: history from the margins in medieval and early modern society

• Empire and ‘others’: the shaping of British imperialism in North America

• Reaching the ‘estate of manhood’ in medieval and early modern Europe

• The empire strikes back: how the British empire shaped Scotland

If you wish to exit with a BA (Hons) Culture, Heritage and Scottish History degree you must undertake a Scottish History dissertation plus one further Scottish History module. Alternatively, if you are undertaking a Culture and Heritage dissertation, two of the three History modules must be in Scottish History.

This outline reflects the modules as currently delivered and is subject to change.

For more information on what you’ll study on your degree, as well as our range of other degree options, please explore our Humanities subject area page on our website.