By: Dr Stewart McCain
Most students study history at university because they are passionate about it. How people in the past lived or why events happened is fascinating. Our students enjoy examining many countries and periods with a historian’s eye.
However, you want your time at University to lead to a rewarding career. Before choosing to study history with us, you might want to know what our graduates go on to do, and how we help prepare them for their working life.
Our students’ work in areas like heritage and conservation, teaching, recruitment, marketing, advertising, and law. They get jobs in these areas partly because of the skills we help them develop.
Sometimes their jobs are related directly to what they studied in history. Jobs in heritage institutions involve directly applying knowledge acquired with us about the public role of history. For example, we take our students on field trips to major London museums and heritage sites, like the British Museum, the Imperial War Museum and the V&A. Our students also do work placements at local heritage institutions. This helps our students to develop relevant skills and understand the role of history in these public institutions.
But to succeed in most fields, you need the skills and talents you develop studying history, such as critical thinking and analysis, intellectual independence, the ability to research issues in depth, and how to use evidence you find to construct an argument. You need to communicate your ideas clearly, work well with others, and understand why different people and groups act differently.
We’ve tried to build these skills into every aspect of our history programme. You will give presentations and do group work to develop your communication and team working skills. You will write in of different ways, for different audiences. You will research subjects that interest you, developing your skills in critical thinking and your intellectual independence.
This is one reason why we use very few exams on our degree- there is only one in the entire three years. After all, how can several hours of panic-stricken scribbling in a hall develop your critical thinking or communication skills?
We also realise that you will do your best work when you study something that interests you. That is why our history programme allows you to study as many different historical topics as possible, from the Medieval period to today, and regions including Britain, Europe, America, the Middle East, and Australia. We hope this helps you sustain your interest in history while you learn the skills you need for the world of work!
About the author
Dr Stewart McCain works on the social and cultural history of Western Europe, with a particular focus on the relationships between linguistic diversify and state building in nineteenth century France.