History and Philosophy and Ethics (Professional Placement Year)

Passionate about ideas? Fascinated by the past? Use advanced critical thinking to evaluate how the past influences the present on our History and Philosophy and Ethics degree.

• Learn how to use evidence and analyse information to solve problems and question traditional beliefs.

• Develop critical thinking skills and apply them to contemporary challenges, issues and debates.

• Combine professional skills and opportunities with subject knowledge in an innovative combination of subjects.

Apply your knowledge of the humanities to contemporary challenges, issues and debates. Our Philosophy and History degree is designed to help you gain specialised subject knowledge and practical skills.

We work together with many different subjects to provide a special way of learning both in and out of your field.

Our History and Philosophy degree course is inspiring, innovative and compelling. It explores the assumptions, beliefs and values which shape human behaviour and our responses to it through the years. You'll explore important questions that are essential to all academic subjects like history, literature, the arts, and sciences.

You’ll love working on our beautiful campus. It’s not only inspiring, but also a historic resource in its own right. Newton Park offers a way into a wide range of historical subjects and approaches. It's perfect for learning how to read a landscape to explore the symbols of wealth and power.
By working collaboratively across the Humanities, you'll develop expertise in your own subject alongside the skills and approaches that will help you in your future career.

You'll learn to communicate well, work with others, plan projects, implement projects, and make presentations. You'll also learn to analyse information and use critical thinking to present your ideas clearly to others.

Our courses are taught by people whose research embraces past and present, abstract concepts and physical structures. It crosses continents, including Western and Eastern schools of thought. You'll analyse big data and tiny fragments of text, and explore objects and images, the rhetoric of power, the gaps in the narrative.

By studying these subjects together, you’ll apply your knowledge of philosophy to contemporary changes, issues and debates. After all, we need to understand where we’ve been to have a sense of where we might go next.

Combined Honour Awards
At Bath Spa University many of our undergraduate programmes can be combined, so you don’t have to limit yourself to one subject. If you choose to study a combined award then in Year One you’ll start by studying both subjects in equal depth. From Year Two you can choose whether to continue with equal numbers of modules from each subject, or whether you want to select additional modules in one or the other. Upon successful completion of the programme you will graduate with a joint degree.

More about the Professional Placement Year
A Professional Placement Year (PPY), traditionally known as a sandwich year, is where you undertake a period of work with an external organisation for between 9-13 months. The placement occurs between your second and final years of undergraduate study. You can engage in multiple placements to make up the total time and are required to source the placement(s) yourself, with support from the Careers team.

Year one

Introductions and foundations: develop your critical thinking skills and follow a broad curriculum which allows you to ask questions, challenge your own assumptions, interrogate evidence, data and opinions.

Year two

Practical, applied, relevant: this year combines academic study with the acquisition of professional skills and the application of your knowledge and understanding to a defined problem or idea.

Year three

Achievement, consolidation, creativity: your final project in the third year brings all this together. You’ll identify your own questions and area of study, develop your proposal and put it into practice. This might be an extended piece of academic writing, an exhibition, community project, or the creation of digital resources.

We’ll assess your progress in a variety of ways including essays, research papers, group presentations, projects, portfolios, and reports. There are timed assessments and some modules may have end-of-year examinations.

Our assessment methods allow you to develop and demonstrate different skills. Many of these will help you in the workplace, for example: planning ahead, working to deadlines, and managing priorities.

Remember that you’ll be devising your own projects and research questions, giving you the freedom to develop your own expertise, supported by your tutors, our partners and your peers.