About 17,000 students, in Huddersfield, one of the largest towns in the country without formal city status. The campus is situated in the town centre with good access to shops, pubs and other facilities. Huddersfield is centrally located in the country, with good transport links. It is close to the M62 and M1 motorways, and by train Leeds is about 20 minutes away and Manchester 40 minutes. Manchester Airport is also easily accessible by train.

Approximate number of History undergraduates, male / female, each year: 75 on the single subject degree, with approximately 20 more on the joint pathways led by History. Gender balance is approximately 50:50.

History at Huddersfield

What is distinctive about the History Department and the courses it offers?

• we are committed to high-quality teaching and have a reputation for good staff-student relations
• we were among the top ranking History Departments in the ‘New Universities’ in the Research Ranking exercise of 1997
• we offer a very wide range of choice of History modules - we offer expert staff and courses in both Medieval and Modern History
• we stress the development of abilities which equip students for the work place: information skills, including IT and the resources of the internet, and techniques of debate and discussion as well as research and writing skills
• we provide the only History degree course to include a compulsory work placement - relevant to a student’s career intentions - which lasts for six weeks at the end of Year II, a key time for career choice. These placements are valued by employers and have undoubtedly improved students’ employment prospects

Degree courses available

V100 BA (Hons) History

V1L3 BA (Hons) History with Sociology

V1P4 BA (Hons) History with Media Studies

V1V9 BA (Hons) History with Heritage

QV31 BA (Hons) English and History

Main study options

In year one, students on the single-subject degree do a compulsory diet which introduces them to the main elements of history taught at Huddersfield: medieval history, modern British history, modern European and World History, and the History of Ideas. They also do skills modules that introduce them to IT for Historians and documentary analysis, amongst many others.

In year two, there is free choice across a wide range of modules, which are of two types. Survey modules consider broad themes or time-periods; in-depth studies, which may include a project, look at issues in more detail and with more emphasis on primary source material. Topics range as widely as Unification and Conquest, a module about the Anglo Saxons and Norman Conquest, The General Strike, Modern France, and Heritage as Applied History. The only compulsory element is the Work Placement, which covers six weeks at the end of the year.

In year three, single subject students do special subject work, again with completely free choice, and must do at least one piece of extended project or dissertation writing. Special subjects involve study at the cutting edge of the subject in a particular field and considerable work on original documentation; at present they include ones on Modern China, Medieval Women and Power, the French Revolution, and Britishness.

Combined pathway students get a choice from the above modules, combining them with modules from the other subject area. Further details on these other subject areas are accessible on the school web-site, which can be access from the History pages listed here.

Subjects with which History may be combined in joint courses: Media Studies, Sociology, English, Heritage; a degree in Politics with Contemporary History is offered through the Division of Politics.

The University of Huddersfield,

 Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH

Contact telephone number for History applicants: 01484-472315 / 472359