Undergraduate Course

BA History and Literature

(Including Foundation Year)

Now In Clearing

Overview

The details

Course: History and Literature (Including Foundation Year)

UCAS code: QV2C

Start date: October 2020

Study mode: Full-time

Duration: 4 years

Location: Colchester Campus

Based in: Essex Pathways

On our four-year BA History and Literature (including foundation year), we work with you to develop your subject-specific knowledge, and to improve your academic skills. You receive a thorough grounding in these areas during your foundation year (known as Year Zero) to prepare you for a further three years of undergraduate study at Essex.

You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK.

Within your history modules you discover both the early modern and modern periods, and explore challenging questions concerning the impact of political, social and cultural change on individuals, social groups, and regions.

As part of our creative, practice-based Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, we encourage you to form your own critical and artistic responses to texts. We offer you the chance to write your own story in response to studying Arthurian Literature; to edit never-before edited sonnets from the 16th century; and to hold history in your hands by working with our valuable collection of original books from the time of Shakespeare.

Other topics from both history and literature you can choose from include:

Family and communal life in Victorian England
Colonialism and the British Empire
Renaissance Italy
Modernist cityscapes in literature
Writing of the US South

You are taught by award-winning academics from all over the world: our corridors are truly cosmopolitan. We also provide you with opportunities to explore local history and have close ties with the Essex Record Office, one of the best county record offices in the UK.

Our students love us too – 92% of our History students expressed overall satisfaction with their course (NSS 2020).

Our Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies offers a varied, flexible and distinctive curriculum, focused on developing your abilities in literature, as well as film, creative writing and drama.

Why we're great.

We equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed at Essex and beyond.
Guarantee your place on your chosen degree upon successful completion of your foundation year.
Small class sizes allow you to work closely with your teachers and classmates.

THE Awards 2018 - Winner University of the Year

Our expert staff

Our history staff are among world leaders in their field, and our enthusiasm for our subject is infectious. Our flexible course is combined with a supportive structure which helps you to pursue the modules best-suited to your interests. We take the time to get to know you as an individual, welcome you into our scholarly community, and value your views.

Our academic staff specialise in a range of areas including modernism, comparative and world literature, Shakespeare, the Renaissance, travel writing, nature writing, translated literature, cultural geography, Irish and Scottish writing, US and Caribbean literature, and the history of reading.

Specialist facilities

By studying within our Essex Pathways Department for your foundation year, you will have access to all of the facilities that the University of Essex has to offer, as well as those provided by our department to support you:

We provide computer labs for internet research; classrooms with access to PowerPoint facilities for student presentations; AV facilities for teaching and access to web-based learning materials
Our new Student Services Hub will support you and provide information for all your needs as a student
Our social space is stocked with magazines and newspapers, and provides an informal setting to meet with your lecturers, tutors and friends

Our Department of History and our Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies also offer excellent on-campus facilities:

We have several Special Collections in history, including the Essex Society for Archaeology and History Library, the Harsnett Collection, the Hervey Benham Oral History Sound Archive, the Bensusan Collection, and the Colchester Medical Society Library
Access the UK Data Archive, a national service provider digital resources for historians, which is particularly strong in 19th and 20th century economic and social history
Access a variety of textbooks and journals in our Albert Sloman Library which houses materials on Latin America, Russia and the US that are of national significance
Learn from leading writers and literature specialists at weekly research seminars
Our on-Campus, 200-seat Lakeside Theatre has been established as a major venue for good drama, staging both productions by professional touring companies and a wealth of new work written, produced and directed by our own staff and students

Your future

In addition to the opportunity to learn about the past and come to a better understanding of the present, a course in history also provides you with important skills that will be of value after leaving university. You learn to absorb, analyse and assess a wide variety of information and viewpoints, to express your arguments in oral and written form, and to think and work both independently and in co-operation with others.

You therefore graduate prepared for a wide range of careers. Our graduates are currently employed in teaching, librarianship, museum and archive services, the Civil Service, local government, law enforcement, charity administration, banking, law, industrial and retail management, media research, electronic publishing, marketing, IT, health service administration, counselling, social work, and many other fields.

Our recent graduates have gone on to work for a wide range of organisations including:

Sage Publications
Royal College of Physicians Library
UK Anti-Doping

We also work with the university's Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.

Entry requirements

Clearing entry requirements

Specific entry requirements for this course in Clearing are not published here but for most of our degree courses you will need to hold a Level 3 qualification. If you are interested in applying and have already received your results, use our Clearing application form to apply for 2020 entry and find out if you are eligible. You will be asked to provide details of your qualifications and grades.

English language requirements

English language requirements for applicants whose first language is not English: IELTS 5.5 overall. Specified component grades are also required for applicants who require a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK.

Other English language qualifications may be acceptable so please contact us for further details. If we accept the English component of an international qualification then it will be included in the information given about the academic levels required. Please note that date restrictions may apply to some English language qualifications

If you are an international student requiring a Tier 4 visa to study in the UK please see our immigration webpages for the latest Home Office guidance on English language qualifications.

If you do not meet our IELTS requirements then you may be able to complete a pre-sessional English pathway that enables you to start your course without retaking IELTS.

Additional Notes

Our Year 0 courses are only open to UK and EU applicants. If you’re an international student, but do not meet the English language or academic requirements for direct admission to your chosen degree, you could prepare and gain entry through a pathway course. Find out more about opportunities available to you at the University of Essex International College.

Structure

Example structure

We offer a flexible course structure with a mixture of compulsory and optional modules chosen from lists. Below is just one example structure from the current academic year of a combination of modules you could take. Your course structure could differ based on the modules you choose.

Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore all modules listed are subject to change. Your course structure could differ based on the modules you choose. To view the compulsory modules and full list of optional modules currently on offer, please view the programme specification via the link below.

See full list of modules

1939–2019: Eighty Years in the Life of the United Kingdom

Britain has experienced unprecedented changes in the last 100 years. What has brought about these changes and how have they affected the Britain of today? This course will outline political, economic, social and cultural change in the UK during the Twentieth Century and beyond and offer an insight into Britain’s place in the modern world.

View 1939–2019: Eighty Years in the Life of the United Kingdom on our Module Directory

Research and Academic Development Skills

View Research and Academic Development Skills on our Module Directory

Becoming Enlightened Citizens: Foundations in Politics and Government (optional)

How did Plato and Aristotle influence Western political thought? How do you study class or gender today? What impact does globalisation have? Examine the history of social and political theory, critically analysing current issues. Understand key topics in politics and sociology for further study of the social sciences and humanities.

View Becoming Enlightened Citizens: Foundations in Politics and Government (optional) on our Module Directory

Major Writers in English Literature (optional)

Want to study Hamlet? And contemporary works by Angela Carter or Kazuo Ishiguru? Interested in World War One poetry? Study a range of drama, poetry and prose fiction. Describe, analyse and reflect on key texts from Shakespeare to the present day. Become familiar with the crucial terms for assessing literature.

View Major Writers in English Literature (optional) on our Module Directory

Modern Revolutions in Science, Politics, and Culture (optional)

Certain ideas shape the way we see ourselves and the world around us - ideas like democracy, free speech, individualism, free markets, and human rights. These ideas took their definitive modern form during a politically and intellectually revolutionary stretch of history known as the Enlightenment (ca. 1650-1800). This interdisciplinary module examines this period and thus serves as an essential prerequisite for students who want to understand the intellectual currents that run through the world they live in. Graduating students often rank it among the most useful modules they have taken.

View Modern Revolutions in Science, Politics, and Culture (optional) on our Module Directory

Origins and Transformations in Literature and Drama

Which writers re-worked Homer’s Odyssey? Or borrowed ideas from Dante’s Inferno? Examine how key literary texts and genres have been used by successive generations of writers up until the present day. Shift from classical text to a more modern example, studying the long cultural traditions that exist.

View Origins and Transformations in Literature and Drama on our Module Directory

The Making of the Modern World since 1750 (optional)

Gain a deep insight into the origins of today’s world. This module presents a chronological overview of the key events in western history from the last 200 years. Look at how ideas, cultures, and economies of different peoples intersected, and changed, through the conflicts brought on by capitalism, imperialism, war, and revolution. You develop a solid foundation to study modern history.

View The Making of the Modern World since 1750 (optional) on our Module Directory

Becoming a Historian

Gain the necessary tools with which to study history at university level. You will be introduced to history as an academic discipline and will develop the skills employed by professional historians, as well as gaining key transferable skills. This module has no single geographical focus, but uses examples from a range of different historical themes, time periods and countries.

View Becoming a Historian on our Module Directory

Contemporary Texts and Contexts (optional)

What is contemporary writing? And how is it characterised? Don’t just study known “traditional” genres of literature, what about the emerging new genres of writing that are challenging readers? Analyse contemporary English writing, published within the last ten years, looking at themes, forms, issues and language.

View Contemporary Texts and Contexts (optional) on our Module Directory

History Works: Career Portfolio

View History Works: Career Portfolio on our Module Directory

Approaches to History

This module will illuminate everything you study in history. It encourages you to think about the many and diverse ways in which historians approach the writing of history. You’ll be introduced to important historical concepts that have shaped recent historical writing, such as microhistory, class, gender and race, or to an important historical theme, such as consumption, literary history and global history.

View Approaches to History on our Module Directory

History Works: Career Portfolio

View History Works: Career Portfolio on our Module Directory

Modernism (optional)

View Modernism (optional) on our Module Directory

Love and Death in the Renaissance (optional)

View Love and Death in the Renaissance (optional) on our Module Directory

Choosing Your Past: How to Design and Manage a Research Project (optional)

Building on the skills that you have gained in your first year of study on (HR101: Becoming a Historian), this module helps you to prepare for successful completion of your Research Project (HR831) in your final year. The module explains the purpose of the Project, and provides a sense of how researchers develop research projects, from methodology and literature reviews to thinking about language, using primary sources and archives, and managing time and planning effectively.

View Choosing Your Past: How to Design and Manage a Research Project (optional) on our Module Directory

Gender in Early Modern England (optional)

You will look at the roles of women and men in early modern England between 1550 and 1750. In this period men were to rule and women were to be obedient to them. But the reality was often very different to this. The practical realities of economic life and the disruptions of Civil War and Reformation meant relations between women and men varied and adapted in a period of great cultural, political, economic, social, and religious change.

View Gender in Early Modern England (optional) on our Module Directory

Self, Society and Stigma: Psychological Health in Twentieth-Century Britain (optional)

View Self, Society and Stigma: Psychological Health in Twentieth-Century Britain (optional) on our Module Directory

"I, too, sing America": Identity, Diversity, and Voice in United States Literature (optional)

What are the major US texts since 1850? And what problems are connected to them? Study a varied spectrum of US literature, looking at issues such as the relationship between American writing and history, American “difference” and differences within American society, nationalism and regionalism, and conflicts of race and gender.

View "I, too, sing America": Identity, Diversity, and Voice in United States Literature (optional) on our Module Directory

London 1500-1700: Reformation, Wealth and Destruction (optional)

London is more than just a normal city: its scale, diversity, cultural and economic might put it on a different scale to anywhere else in Britain. This module focuses on the story of London's cultural, economic and political growth, and its relationship with the rest of Britain, and Europe. We explore London's status as a 'free' city, its relationship with the church and Reformation, the life of migrants and marginal communities, theatre and trade.

View London 1500-1700: Reformation, Wealth and Destruction (optional) on our Module Directory

Unquiet pasts: controversies of twentieth-century Britain (optional)

This module looks at moments in the history of twentieth-century Britain that were not only controversial in their own time, but have continued to trouble us. From the Easter Rising to Hillsborough, this is a past that does not lie quietly. Historians, politicians, the media and the public have all been involved in debating not only 'what actually happened' but also how particular events should be interpreted, where they fit in longer views of British history and what they mean for present-day British society.

View Unquiet pasts: controversies of twentieth-century Britain (optional) on our Module Directory

Shakespeare: The Tragedies (optional)

To what degree are Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello tragedies? How useful is this term in understanding them? Undertake a close reading of Shakespeare’s four great tragedies. Critically discuss recent issues about each, in groups and in your own work. Gain an understanding of their enduring and/or present significance.

View Shakespeare: The Tragedies (optional) on our Module Directory

American Film Authors (optional)

How powerful is Hollywood? How do directors construct an image of the USA? Examine how directors have created America in the popular imagination. Study Hollywood auteurs (such as Chaplin, Hawks, Hitchcock, Welles and Ford) alongside others (such as Scorsese, Allen and Lee) while covering the breadth of US film history.

View American Film Authors (optional) on our Module Directory

Research Project (optional)

History is actively constructed and not simply rediscovered in the records of the past. Historical research involves a process of selection and interpretation, and there is an active exchange between theory and empirical data. The Research Project gives you a unique opportunity to explore the making of history. You undertake a piece of detailed, critical and/or possibly original historical research. Meetings and workshops provide practical guidance on formulating a topic, researching, writing and presentation.

View Research Project (optional) on our Module Directory

Fictions of Empire (optional)

Our visions of the world, our very sensibilities, have been fashioned to some degree by the imperial world, and yet we are often unaware of this. By considering five works of fiction, you’ll explore key aspects of the imperial experience. You’ll study colonial attitudes and policies, and investigate the experience of colonisers and colonised, mainly in the British Empire. You’ll develop a sense of the complexity of imperialism and its cultural legacy.

View Fictions of Empire (optional) on our Module Directory

Teaching

Your teaching mainly takes the form of lectures and classes, the latter involving about 20 students
Innovative ways of engaging with texts include editing 16th century sonnets and archival research
A typical timetable includes a one-hour lecture and a one-hour class for each of your four modules every week
Any language classes involve language laboratory sessions
Our classes are run in small groups, so you receive a lot of individual attention

Assessment

Your assessed coursework will generally consist of essays, reports, in-class tests, book reviews, individual or group oral presentations, and small scale research projects

Fees and funding

Home/EU fee

£9,250

International fee

£16,050

Fees will increase for each academic year of study.

Home and EU fee information

International fee information

What's next

Our events are a great way to find out more about studying at Essex. We run a number of Open Days throughout the year which enable you to discover what our campus has to offer. You have the chance to:

tour our campus and accommodation
find out answers to your questions about our courses, student finance, graduate employability, student support and more
meet our students and staff

Check out our Visit Us pages to find out more information about booking onto one of our events. And if the dates aren’t suitable for you, feel free to book a campus tour here.

How to apply during Clearing

Once you’ve checked that we have the right course for you, applying couldn’t be simpler. Fill in our quick and easy Clearing application form with as much detail as you can. We’ll then take a look and get back to you with a decision. There’s no need to call us to apply; just do it all online.

Find out more about Clearing

Interviews

We don’t interview all applicants during Clearing, however, we will only make offers for the following course after a successful interview:

BA Multimedia Journalism
BSc Nursing (Adult)
BSc Nursing (Mental Health)
BA Social Work

The interview allows our academics to find out more about you, and in turn you’ll be able to ask us any questions you might have. Further details will be emailed to you if you are shortlisted for interview.

Apply now

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The Campus is set within 200 acres of beautiful parkland, located two miles from the historic town centre of Colchester – England's oldest recorded town. Our Colchester Campus is also easily reached from London and Stansted Airport in under one hour.

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