Modern History with Year Abroad
VS91History helps us to better understand the past to make sense of the world we live in. Our BA in Modern History with Year Abroad opens a world of opportunities through an immensely varied and rich range of modules and the chance of experiencing at first-hand learning and living within different cultures and societies to your own.
Course overview
Our committed team of historians are passionate about their subjects, which cover a broad range of cultures, wars and traditions from around the globe. Studying alongside them, you can learn about the world at the time of the Reformation, the English Civil Wars, the Age of Revolutions, the rise and fall of empires; the creation of new-nation states, the history of anti-slavery, environmental and civil right movements, and much more.
You can choose to focus your studies on Britain, but you can also explore a variety of historical periods, events and cultures, including Europe, the Americas (North and South), Asia and Africa through a broad range of optional modules.
In Year 1, you take core modules that explore the nature of history as a discipline. You look at the changing assumptions, methods and definitions of history and explore the current concerns of historians.
Having acquired research skills and knowledge in Year 1, your studies in Years 2 and 4 are more specialised.
In Year 2, core modules in Reading History and Practising History deepen your understanding of the discipline. You also select from a range of optional modules that focus on the modern world, concentrating either on using original documents, or exploring continuity and change over long periods. Options may include The British Raj, the Modern Global Hispanic World, Nazism and the Holocaust, and Everyday Life in Post-war Britain.
In Year 3, you produce your dissertation and take core modules in Writing History and on how History Matters in the public sphere. Optional modules take the form of Depth Studies and Comparative Studies. An understanding of methodology is developed by Depth Studies, which establish a comprehensive knowledge of a particular period by evaluating the use of primary and secondary sources and any issues associated with them as evidence. While an area of historical concern across more than one country and culture is examined by Comparative Studies.
In Year 4, you produce your dissertation and take core modules in Writing History and History and the Public Sphere. Optional modules take the form of Depth Studies and Comparative Studies. An understanding of methodology is developed by Depth Studies, which establish a comprehensive knowledge of a particular period by evaluating the use of primary and secondary sources and any issues associated with them as evidence. While an area of historical concern across more than one country and culture is examined by Comparative Studies.
Depth Studies options may include The Global Age of Napoleon, The United States and the Cold War 1945-63, and Japan at War and Under Occupation 1937-52. Possible Comparative Studies options are Borderlands and Commodities in History, Minorities in the Past and Mediterranean Fascism: Conflict and Dictatorship in Spain and Italy 1914-1947.
Our degrees, combined with inspiring extracurricular activities, such as field trips both in the UK and abroad, offer a wide and deep experience that opens up numerous career paths. Many Winchester graduates carry on to teaching and heritage roles but our alumni can also be found in political think-tanks, the Civil Service, the BBC, automobile and insurance companies and publishing houses, to mention just a few destinations.
Find out more about the School of History, Archaeology and Philosophy
What you need to know
Course start date
September
Location
Winchester campus
Course length
- 4 years full-time
Apply
VS91
Typical offer
104-120 points
Fees
From £9,250 pa
Course features
- Learn about another culture on a year abroad
- Modern History achieved 91 % for developing knowledge and skills, one of the highest scores as rated by final-year undergraduate students in the 2023 National Student Survey
- Winchester students have secured work placements at leading historic, cultural and entrepreneurial venues such as the Mary Rose and British Museum
- Join a student-led history society on trips to sites of historical interest and talks by major historians
- Learn from expert tutors and their cutting-edge research
- Study in a beautiful city steeped in history
Course details
Our aim is to shape 'confident learners' by enabling you to develop the skills needed to excel in your studies here and as well as onto further studies or the employment market.
You are taught primarily through a combination of lectures and seminars, allowing opportunities to discuss and develop your understanding of topics covered in lectures in smaller groups.
In addition to the formally scheduled contact time such as lectures and seminars etc., you are encouraged to access academic support from staff within the course team and the wide range of services available to you within the University.
Independent learning
Over the duration of your course, you will be expected to develop independent and critical learning, progressively building confidence and expertise through independent and collaborative research, problem-solving and analysis with the support of staff. You take responsibility for your own learning and are encouraged to make use of the wide range of available learning resources available.
Overall workload
Your overall workload consists of class contact hours, independent learning and assessment activity.
While your actual contact hours may depend on the optional modules you select, the following information gives an indication of how much time you will need to allocate to different activities at each level of the course.
Year 1 (Level 4): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
- Teaching, learning and assessment: 228 hours
- Independent learning: 972 hours
Year 2 (Level 5): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
- Teaching, learning and assessment: 228 hours
- Independent learning: 912 hours
- Placement: 60
Year 3: Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
- Independent learning: 720 hours
- Placement: 480 hours
Year 4 (Level 6): Timetabled teaching and learning activity*
- Teaching, learning and assessment: 216 hours
- Independent learning: 948 hours
- Placement: 36
*Please note these are indicative hours for the course.
Location
Taught elements of the course take place on our King Alfred Campus Winchester) or at our West Downs Campus (Winchester)
Teaching hours
All class based teaching takes places between 9am – 6pm, Monday to Friday during term time. Wednesday afternoons are kept free from timetabled teaching for personal study time and for sports clubs and societies to train, meet and play matches. There may be some occasional learning opportunities (for example, an evening guest lecturer or performance) that take places outside of these hours for which you will be given forewarning.
Assessments
Our validated courses may adopt a range of means of assessing your learning. An indicative, and not necessarily comprehensive, list of assessment types you might encounter includes essays, portfolios, supervised independent work, presentations, written exams, or practical performances.
We ensure all students have an equal opportunity to achieve module learning outcomes. As such, where appropriate and necessary, students with recognised disabilities may have alternative assignments set that continue to test how successfully they have met the module's learning outcomes. Further details on assessment types used on the course you are interested in can be found on the course page, by attending an Open Day or Open Evening, or contacting our teaching staff.
Percentage of the course assessed by coursework
The assessment balance between examination and coursework depends to some extent on the optional modules you choose. The approximate percentage of the course assessed by different assessment modes is as follows:
Year 1 (Level 4)*:
- 63% coursework
- 4% practical assessment
- 33% written exams
Year 2 (Level 5)*:
- 67% coursework
- 13% practical assessment
- 20% written exams
Year 3*:
The Study Abroad year takes place at the end of level 5 study and before the start of level 6 and must be taken on a full-time basis only. The modules taken may be at any level but must be equivalent to 120 CATS credits in total and the marks/grades received will not contribute to the student’s award or classification; instead, the year will be graded pass/fail.
Year 4 (Level 6)*:
- 50% coursework
- 14% practical assessment
- 36% written exams
*Please note these are indicative percentages and modes for the programme.
Feedback
We are committed to providing timely and appropriate feedback to you on your academic progress and achievement in order to enable you to reflect on your progress and plan your academic and skills development effectively. You are also encouraged to seek additional feedback from your course tutors.
Further information
For more information about our regulations for this course, please see our Academic Regulations, Policies and Procedures
Modules
Please note the modules listed are correct at the time of publishing. The University cannot guarantee the availability of all modules listed and modules may be subject to change. The University will notify applicants of any changes made to the core modules listed. For further information please refer to winchester.ac.uk/termsandconditions
Modules
This module introduces students to the core skills required to study history successfully at degree level. History makes sense of the past by analysing surviving evidence. Such evidence is either secondary, which requires in-depth critical reading, or primary or original, which demands critical contextualisation and analysis. All such evidence has uses to the historian, not necessarily obvious, and all contains partiality, which historians are trained to overcome. Working in small groups with one staff member per group, there will be a balance between developing awareness of these overarching core skills (such as conducting research and mastering referencing conventions) and a case study where students work on academic reading connected to a particular topic. This intensive small group environment will help students adjust to the university environment and provide a venue for delivering other transitional and transferrable skills.
This module takes a broadly chronological approach to world history, examining key themes, events and ‘turning points' from the Classical world to the present day. It will consider the rise and fall of civilizations in Europe and around the world, including Ancient Greece, Rome, China, and the Americas, before moving on to consider the ‘global Middle Ages’, the emergence of more complex states and empires, religious reformations in the Christian and Islamic worlds, scientific and technological innovations, and increasing global connectivity and exchange during the early modern period. Finally, it will address the ‘rise of the modern’ through urbanization, industrialization, and mass politics, including its diffusion, resistance, and the alternative paths societies around the world have taken to get to the present.
This module builds upon Sources & Approaches in History, further developing students’ skills as independent researchers, and giving students an opportunity to do research of a critical nature, using both primary and secondary sources. Continuing to work in the same Case Study groups as, and on a related topic to, Sources & Approaches, students undertake an individual research project, on a topic negotiated with a tutor. In addition, there will be an element of group work as students combine their individual findings, presenting on a subtopic of the module’s overarching theme. As this module concentrates upon developing skills there is an emphasis on training for future employment. Students will be expected to engage with careers service activities in semester 2 and to report their activities in a reflective blog.
This module builds on Perspectives in World History by taking a more thematic approach to the broad sweep of global history. It introduces first year history students to important themes in global history, and challenges them to think critically about the contours that have shaped different cultures over time. It encourages students to explore how various factors have developed and travelled across different social and cultural contexts, placing strong emphasis on the interconnections of societies in the past. This is done with a focus on various themes for example, technology and economy, ecology, disease and famine, migration, gender and religion. Students are encouraged to make comparisons that will enable them to deconstruct the simplistic binaries of ‘science’ vs ‘religion’ and ‘modern’ versus ‘traditional’ societies, to explore more fully how cultural and material exchange occurred between different societies.
- Introductory Module: Early Medieval Britain 400-1066 - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: The United States - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Early Modern Europe - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Europe 1300-1500 - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: English History 1272-1500 - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Victorian Britain 1815-1914 - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: East Asia 1900-present - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Tudor and Early Stuart England 1500-1660 - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Rise and Fall of Modern Empires, 1783 - 1997 - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Uniting The Kingdom? Britain, 1660-1837 - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Modern Europe, 1789-2001 - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Seventeenth century England - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Britain in the Twentieth Century - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Europe and The Americas (1763-1914) - change and interchange - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Europe in the Early Middle Ages (c.400-c.888) - 15 Credits
- Introductory Module: Europe in the Central Middles Ages (c.888-1200) - 15 Credits
Modules
Practising History 1 provides an overview of ‘doing History’ from the Classical period onwards. It examines the ideas that have underpinned historical research and writing, from Herodotus to Post-Modernity, as well as recent theories of history (many of which have been drawn from other disciplines and including post-colonialism, gender and identity, spatial theory) as they have been used by historians. It provides students with an opportunity to think reflexively about the nature of the historical enterprise. Students are encouraged to link their studies in Practising History 1 with their other second-year modules. This module principally examines the ways in which British historians have worked from the early medieval period to c.2000. It investigates the influences which shaped their approaches (including, e.g., the work of foreign scholars such as Leopold von Ranke and the historians of the French Annales School). It also investigates theories of history – e.g. Marxist ideas. It emphasizes the expansion of historical interests and the methodologies which have permitted fresh areas of study in the last thirty years and looks at the current practice of history.
This module considers the planning and preparation of research and the methods and skills used, with particular reference to – but not sole consideration of – the dissertation. A wide range of historical approaches and methods are assessed, including use of local and national archives, databases and online sources, media and newspapers, visual images, standing remains, landscape and the material environment, public history, oral sources and scientific data. Ethics in historical research are also examined.
Work Placement
Group Project
Field Trip
Histories on Screen
Exploring Past Localities
Volunteering for History
Source Studies:
The Golden Age of Spain
Religion, Politics & Society in Early Tudor England, 1485-1558
The Global Hispanic World (1760s-1980s)
Victorian Culture and Society
Imperial Japan
The British Raj, from the 'Indian Mutiny' to Gandhi - 1857-1947
The American South 1865-1970
Nazism and the Holocaust
From Austerity to Affluence: Everyday Life in Post-war Britain
From Dracula to Jack the Ripper: The Immigrant and the Imagination
Theme Studies:
The Renaissance Court: Power. Politics and Patronage
Culture, Society and Economy in Early Modern England
The Rise of the High-Speed Society (18th-20th centuries)
American Slavery
History’s Eye – Photography and Society
Sisterhood – Before and After: Feminism in Twentieth Century Britain
Political Violence in Twentieth Century Europe
‘Subordinate Independence’: Japan’s Relationship with the US 1945-present
Dreams and Nightmares: Britain in Twentieth Century Europe
Welcome to the Anthropocene: Histories for the Environmental Crisis
Modules
It is your year to study at your chosen university abroad.
Modules
The Dissertation (Extended Independent Study) is an 8,000 -10,000 thesis on a subject of a student’s choice. It makes an original contribution to historical knowledge and understanding. It demonstrates an advanced capacity to work as a historian and to employ the conventions of a historian. Students must produce by due deadlines a proposal acceptable to internal scrutineers, evidence of substantial progress by the end of the first module as part of the assessment for the Research Methods module, and a record of supervision completed by the supervisor with the Dissertation.
This module is taught through small seminar groups only. In these groups, students will be able to explore the nature of historical research and historical debate through reflection on their own dissertation and the sharing of best practice with other students. It will allow a more supportive learning environment whilst ensuring a more active engagement with individual research.
History Matters asks to students to engage with the process of accessing the past both through History as an academic discipline and alternatively in public history. Through the study of a variety of uses of the past in areas such as politics, journalism and popular media, students will engage with the methodological problems and nuances in studying History at degree level. This module will allow students to develop a more nuanced understanding of both popular and academic approaches to the past and to consider the applicability of academic history in more popular arenas.
Work Placement
Field Trip
Depth Studies:
Civil War, Revolution and Republic in the British Isles
The United States and the Cold War 1945-63
Japan at War and Under Occupation 1937-52
Genocide in History and Memory
The Age of Napoleon in Global Perspective
The Post-war Teenager, 1945-1979
The Maghreb, Colonialism and Its Aftermath in North Africa and France 1827-Present
Comparative Studies:
Supernatural and Witchcraft Beliefs in the British Isles, Continental Europe, and America c.1450-1800
Mediterranean Fascism: Conflict and Dictatorship in Spain and Italy 1914-1947
War Crimes Trials and Memories of War: Japan and Germany
The Monstrous Regiment: Gender and Authority in Early Modern Europe
Holocaust Memory and Representation in Europe, the United States & Israel
Ideas, Ideologies and Colonial Organisation in the British and French Empires
Borderlands and Commodities in History
The ‘Swinging’ Sixties
Forced to Flee: Refugees in a Century of Crisis
Entry requirements
Our offers are typically made using UCAS tariff points to allow you to include a range of level 3 qualifications and as a guide, the requirements for this course are equivalent to:
- A-Levels: BCC-BBB from 3 A Levels or equivalent grade combinations (e.g. BBB is comparable to ABC in terms of tariff points)
- BTEC/CTEC: DMM from BTEC or Cambridge Technical (CTEC) qualifications
- International Baccalaureate: To include a minimum of 2 Higher Level certificates at grade H4
- T Level: Merit in a T Level
Additionally, we accept tariff points achieved for many other qualifications, such as the Access to Higher Education Diploma, Scottish Highers, UAL Diploma/Extended Diploma and WJEC Applied Certificate/Diploma, to name a few. We also accept tariff points from smaller level 3 qualifications, up to a maximum of 32, from qualifications like the Extended Project (EP/EPQ), music or dance qualifications. To find out more about UCAS tariff points, including what your qualifications are worth, please visit UCAS.
In addition to level 3 study, the following GCSE’s are required:
GCSE English Language at grade 4 or C, or higher. Functional Skills at level 2 is accepted as an alternative, however Key Skills qualifications are not. If you hold another qualification, please get in touch and we will advise further.
If you will be over the age of 21 years of age at the beginning of your undergraduate study, you will be considered as a mature student. This means our offer may be different and any work or life experiences you have will be considered together with any qualifications you hold. UCAS have further information about studying as a mature student on their website which may be of interest.
If English is not your first language, a formal English language test will most likely be required and you will need to achieve the following:
- IELTS Academic at 5.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in all four components (for year 1 entry)
- We also accept other English language qualifications, such as IELTS Indicator, Pearson PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced and TOEFL iBT
If you are living outside of the UK or Europe, you can find out more about how to join this course by contacting our International Recruitment Team via our International Apply Pages.
Additional costs
As one of our students all of your teaching and assessments are included in your tuition fees, including, lectures/guest lectures and tutorials, seminars, laboratory sessions and specialist teaching facilities. You will also have access to a wide range of student support and IT services.
There might be additional costs you may encounter whilst studying. The following highlights the mandatory and optional costs for this course:
Optional
- Dissertation work: Students working on dissertations in Year 3 may incur costs (mainly travel) of visiting archives, dependent upon the specific nature of the dissertation and availability of online resources for a specific subject. This would typically involve either travel to a local archive (e.g. Southampton, Portsmouth or further afield if the student chooses to study a locality away from Winchester) or a national archive, usually in London (TNA, British Library, Women's Library, etc.). If the dissertation work is based in Winchester then costs will be far less.
- Field Trip: Optional week long History Fieldtrip in Year 2 - costs vary depending on location and number of students going on the trip. Indicative costs vary between £300-£700.
- Placement: If students decide to complete an optional History Work/Volunteering Placement it may incur travel costs, which are dependent upon where the student undertakes the placement (if local it may be zero, but costs go up when public transport is used to travel). Students will have a say in where their placement is located. Indicative cost: £0 - £300, dependent on location of placement and number of visits required.
- Year Abroad: Students going on a year abroad pay significantly reduced tuition fees for that year but will need to cover costs for health and travel insurance, accommodation and living expenses; travel costs; visa costs. These will vary depending on which country you are travelling to.
Visit the Study Abroad as part of your degree page for the latest information.
Mandatory
Core texts: Any core reading is made available through the library or on module pages. Students may sometimes be given recommendations for further reading, which they may obtain freely through the library or by paying a very small fee through an inter-library loan, or they can choose to purchase (this can often be done at considerably reduced rates second hand).
SCHOLARSHIPS, BURSARIES AND AWARDS
We have a variety of scholarship and bursaries available to support you financially with the cost of your course. To see if you’re eligible, please see our Scholarships and Awards page.
CAREER PROSPECTS
Graduates have become historians working in museums, heritage sites, teaching and in many other sectors including in retailing, the arts, press, publishing, marketing and in governmental and non-for-profit organizations at local, regional, national and international level.
The University of Winchester ranks in the top 10 in the UK for graduates in employment or further study according to the Graduate Outcomes Survey 2021, HESA.
Pre-approved for a Masters
University of Winchester students studying Bachelor Honours degrees are pre-approved to start a Masters degree at Winchester. To be eligible students must apply by the end of March in their final year and meet the entry requirements of their chosen Masters degree.
OUR CAREERS SERVICE
Things in the medieval past and in the early modern past actually happened here’. Hear from our students and staff on what you can expect studying History at Winchester.
