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History at University of Portsmouth - UCAS

Course options

2025 - 2026
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There are other course options available which may have a different vacancy status or entry requirements – view the full list of options

University of Portsmouth has participated in the Teaching Excellence Framework. These ratings were awarded in 2023, for four years.

Open days

7Dec
University of Portsmouth Open Day
Undergraduate

Course summary

This is a Connected Degree Portsmouth is the only University in the UK with the flexibility to choose when to do an optional paid placement or self-employed year. Either take a placement in your third year, or finish your studies first and complete a placement in your fourth year. You can decide if and when to take a placement after you've started your course. Overview Explore the past to understand the now. Dive into moments of challenge, change and everyday life across six centuries and four continents. Uncover the ways in which diverse groups of people were shaped by, and themselves shaped, the world they lived in. In doing so, you can reflect on your own values and better understand how history is about the present, and the future. The city of Portsmouth has its own rich stories to tell, connecting to local, national and global history. Past and present meet on every corner - from its Tudor Castle to the millennial Spinnaker Tower. It's the ideal place to create your own immersive and relevant BA (Hons) History degree. Course highlights

  • Study in a city that’s always been a gateway to the wider world, with options to explore the past of Britain, Europe, Africa, Asia and North America
  • Get closer to history thanks to close links with Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, and the Portsmouth Museum and Records Service
  • Tailor your studies to times and themes you find most fascinating - from the British Civil Wars to the Opium War, from Victorian cities to modern Germany
  • Learn in a place where historians collaborate with linguists, sociologists and political scientists to answer deep and complex questions
  • Develop demonstrable skills in research, analysis and argument that are highly valued by all kinds of employers
  • Apply your new expertise in a CV-boosting work placement at a museum, heritage site, charity or other organisation of interest
Optional pathways You can follow optional Sociology or American Studies pathways through this degree, or include History as a pathway in our English Literature or International Relations courses. It'll lead to one of these awards at the end of the course:
  • BA (Hons) History with American Studies
  • BA (Hons) History with Sociology
Careers and opportunities Studying history will give you transferable skills in critical thinking, collaboration, research, analysis and argument, all of which are highly valued by many kinds of employers. As a qualified historian, you can move forward to further study and research or put your degree to work in areas such as:
  • archives and information management
  • corporate governance
  • creative industries
  • heritage
  • law
  • primary and secondary schools
  • higher education providers
  • publishing and media
  • trade unions
Graduate roles and destinations Roles our graduates have taken on include:
  • administrator for social enterprise
  • barrister
  • case worker for MP
  • development editor in publishing
  • exhibitions project manager
  • founder of a digital solutions company
  • researcher and writer for TV
  • teacher
  • workplace financial education consultant
Portsmouth alumni have worked with organisations including:
  • central and local government
  • higher education providers
  • National Trust
  • National Maritime Museum
  • NHS
  • the probation service
  • Royal Navy
Work experience and career planning Our Careers and Employability service can help you find relevant work experience during your course. We can help you identify placements, internships and voluntary roles that will complement your studies and build your portfolio. We'll also be available to help, advise and support you for up to 5 years as you advance in your career. This course allows you to take the Learning From Experience (LiFE) option. This means you can earn credits towards your degree for work, volunteer and research placements that you do alongside your study.

Subject options

This course offers the following subject options:

  • History with American Studies
  • History with Sociology

Modules

Year 1 Core modules in this year include:

  • Beliefs, Communities, and Conflicts: Europe 1400-1750 (20 credits)
  • Discovering World Histories: Peoples and Places (20 credits)
  • Societies, Nations, and Empires: Europe 1750-2000 (20 credits)
  • Thinking Like An Historian (20 credits)
  • Traces of the Past: Exploring Lives Through Sources (40 credits)
There are no optional modules in this year. Year 2 Core modules in this year include:
  • Debating the Past: Historical Case Studies (20 credits)
  • Working With the Past (20 credits)
Optional modules in this year currently include:
  • A History of US Foreign Policy: From the Great War to 9/11 (20 credits)
  • Empire and Its Afterlives in Britain, Europe, and Africa (20 credits)
  • Engaged Citizenship in Humanities and Social Sciences (20 credits)
  • Envisioning Ourselves: Media and the Making of Modern Britain, 1850-2000 (20 credits)
  • Global Security (20 credits)
  • Intercultural Perspectives On Communication (20 credits)
  • Introduction to Teaching (20 credits)
  • Marketing & Communication (20 credits)
  • Modernity and Globalisation (20 credits)
  • Nationalism and Migration: Chaos, Crisis and the Everyday (L5) (20 credits)
  • News, Discourse, and Media (20 credits)
  • Principles of Economic Crime Investigation (20 credits)
  • Professional Experience L5 (20 credits)
  • Puritans to Postmodernists: American Literature (20 credits)
  • Slavery and Resistance in the Atlantic World (20 credits)
  • The Hidden Lives of Things: Material Culture in the Early Modern World (20 credits)
  • Transitional Justice & Human Rights (20 credits)
  • Underworlds: Crime, Deviance & Punishment in Britain, 1500-1900 (20 credits)
  • Wildlife Crime: Threats and Response (20 credits)
Placement year (optional) Have the opportunity to do an additional work placement year after your second or third year on this Connected Degree - we're the only UK university to offer flexible sandwich placements for undergraduates. Year 3 Core modules in this year include:
  • Specialist Option: Empires and Identities (20 credits)
  • Specialist Option: Everyday Life, Extraordinary Lives and Challenging Inequality (20 credits)
  • Specialist Option: Popular Cultures (20 credits)
  • Specialist Option: Societies in Revolution (20 credits)
These specialist subjects could cover themes such as:
  • Everyday Slaughter? Accidents and Safety in Britain, c.1850-1970
  • Sex, Gender and Power in Early Modern England
  • Civil Rights USA
  • The Opium War, 1839-1842
  • The Imperial City: Popular Culture, Slums and Scandal in Britain, 1780-1939
  • Racism and Anti-Racism in Post-war Britain
  • Conflict, Conspiracy Consensus: Religious Identities in Elizabethan England
  • Britain in Revolution: the Impact of the Civil Wars: 1637-1662
  • The French Revolution
  • Thomas Jefferson and the Making of the American Republic
  • Cinema-going in Wartime Britain
  • Magic and Modernity, 1780-1900
  • The Making of the German Nation
Optional modules:
  • Dissertation (History) (40 credits)
  • Major Project (40 credits)
We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies. Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

Assessment method

You’ll be assessed through a variety of formats. The emphasis is on giving you a range of ways to demonstrate what you’ve learned and how your thinking has developed. Your history degree with us is weighted more towards coursework than traditional exams. Assessment types include: written essays written reports blogs podcasts individual presentations group presentations dissertation You’ll be able to test your skills and knowledge informally before you do assessments that count towards your final mark. You can get feedback on all practice and formal assessments so that you can continue to develop and improve The way you’re assessed may depend on the modules you select. As a guide, students on this course last year were typically assessed as follows: Year 1 students: 8% by written exams, 10% by practical exams and 82% by coursework Year 2 students: 22% by practical exams and 78% by coursework Year 3 students: 24% by practical exams and 76% by coursework

How to apply

29Jan

This is the deadline for applications to be completed and sent for this course. If the university or college still has places available you can apply after this date, but your application is not guaranteed to be considered.

Application codes

Please select a course option – you will then see the application code you need to use to apply for the course.

Points of entry

The following entry points are available for this course:

  • Year 1
  • Year 2
  • Year 3

Entry requirements for advanced entry (i.e. into Year 2 and beyond)

We welcome applications for advanced entry. If you’d like to apply for advanced entry, you need to select the required year when you complete your UCAS application.

Entry requirements

Qualification requirements

English language requirements

TestGradeAdditional details
IELTS (Academic)6English language proficiency at a minimum of IELTS band 6.0 with no component score below 5.5.
Cambridge English AdvancedCambridge English: Advanced (CAE) (taken after January 2015). An overall score of 169 with no component score less than 162.
Cambridge English ProficiencyCambridge English: Proficiency (CPE) (taken after January 2015). An overall score of 169 with no component score less than 162.
PTE Academic62An overall score of 62 with a minimum of 59 in each skill.
TOEFL (iBT)7979 with a minimum of 18 in Reading, 17 in Listening, 20 in Speaking and 17 in Writing.
Trinity ISEPassTrinity College Integrated Skills in English (ISE) Level III with a Pass in all 4 components.

Student Outcomes

Operated by the Office for Students

There is no data available for this course. For further information visit the Discover Uni website.

Fees and funding

Tuition fees

EU £9535 Year 1
England £9535 Year 1
Northern Ireland £9535 Year 1
Scotland £9535 Year 1
Wales £9535 Year 1
Channel Islands £9535 Year 1
Republic of Ireland £9535 Year 1
International £17200 Year 1

Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .

Additional fee information

Students who are resident in EU countries: please note that the net fee is inclusive of the Transition Scholarship Placement Year and Year abroad (at the time of publishing for 2024/25): UK/Channel Islands and Isle of Man students – £1,385 EU – £1,385 (including Transition Scholarship) International (Non-EU) – £2,875. Fees are accurate at the time of publishing and are subject to change at any time without notice. All fees are subject to annual increase. For more information about fees, go to port.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/undergraduate-fees-and-student-finance/tuition-fees-living-costs-and-other-study-costs
History at University of Portsmouth - UCAS