History and Politics

Studying BA (Hons) History and Politics offers specialist training in both subjects, while giving you the tools to approach them from an interdisciplinary perspective. Our history component covers a vast range of time periods and regions, from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome to the medieval world, the Tudors, the Americas, China, India, and modern global conflicts and revolutions.

The politics element of this course will help you understand current events, how change happens, and how you can be part of it. You’ll explore a wide range of social and public policy areas, tackling key issues that affect communities in the UK and beyond. By engaging with political theory, international politics, digital politics, and topics like environmentalism and climate change, you will develop future-orientated skills that are key to understanding our present political moment. This blend of subjects will give you insight into these issues from both a modern and historical perspective, encouraging you to question what you know, rethink what matters, and consider how we can create a better world.

You’ll be supported by passionate staff who bring a wealth of expertise and diverse research approaches to both history and politics. As well as developing your academic skills, you’ll have opportunities to work with tutors and the wider community to produce original research with real-world impact. Our flexible programme allows you to specialise in areas that interest you. You’ll be introduced to a variety of approaches and learn not just about events and people, but how to apply different theories and methods to study them. We also place a strong emphasis on employability, offering valuable practical skills training, including advanced analytical techniques that many employers seek.

This course has a foundation year available.

Features and Benefits

• We are one of the largest centres for historical study in the UK.

• Take advantage of the opportunity to undertake collaborative projects with museums, art galleries or other external partners, equipping you with practical 'real world' experience and helping you to gain a competitive edge in the graduate jobs market.

• The Department of History, Politics and Philosophy has a wealth of expertise, with leading researchers whose published work covers a wide range of times and places, and this research underpins all of our teaching. The department is also home to the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage.

• Offers you an in-depth and varied account of the nature of politics in the twenty-first century. Politics staff have a variety of expertise in areas including critical international relations, digital politics and US foreign policy, and the course content is directly informed by these research specialisms of the teaching team.

• We place a strong emphasis on key employability skills. Our modules, teaching and assessment are geared, in part, around the practical skills needed to ensure you’re fully prepared for your future career.

• Each year offers increasing levels of flexibility with a broad range of option modules, so you can choose to specialise in areas that interest you.

• Our course provides flexible opportunities for internationalisation, including the opportunity to study a foreign language as part of the course, and the option to study abroad in your second year.

• The teaching team is friendly, supportive and committed to research-informed teaching, providing you with an intellectually challenging environment. As a student, you will benefit from pastoral care and a study support network designed specifically for Joint Honours students.

• Our assessments develop the essential skills you’ll need as a historian - as a problem solver, critical thinker, researcher and writer. They also embrace practical exercises which may include placements, documentary filmmaking, group projects, and the practice of public history.