Ancient History and History

With BA Ancient History and History, go on a journey through your favourite historical periods, from ancient Greece through Medieval Europe to Cold War Britain, with our highly regarded and award-winning teaching staff.

Your first year is about discovery and experimentation. You will address important modern questions and trace them back to their roots, exploring different periods of history through both literary and material sources. You can enhance your knowledge of the ancient world through Ancient History modules and optional Latin and Greek language modules, or deepen your understanding through hands-on experience with artefacts from the Ure Museum. 

Your History modules will lead you through the last thousand years, giving you the chance to explore different historical periods before pursing your own interests later in the course.

To complement your studies you can choose one of the Department of History's popular employability modules and gain useful transferable skills and work experience. The University also offers all students the chance learn a modern language alongside their core subjects.

You will be encouraged to gain direct experience of ancient sites through independent travel, for which you can apply for our annual travel bursary. You can also apply to study at the British School at Athens and the British School at Rome, which both offer summer school opportunities to University of Reading students.

In 2022, we achieved a 92% satisfaction score for BA Ancient History (National Student Survey 2022). In the same survey we achieved a 94% satisfaction score for BA History.

Placement

Work placements are encouraged and both Departments benefit from a dedicated placements officer to help with CV writing and letters of application. History's Discovering Archives and Collections module is ideal if you are interested in a career in libraries or archives, while Going Public: Presenting the Past, Planning the Future provides an insight into heritage and museum work. The University's museums also provide a number of voluntary placements.

If you would like to gain first-hand experience of life in another culture you can choose to study abroad for part of your degree.

For more information, please visit the Department of Classics website. 

Thanawiyah with an overall score of 78%/ GPA 2.8 if following the American system.

This combination of subjects will provide you with a range of transferable skills. Historians have to analyse a wide variety of sources to produce reasoned conclusions, and this helps develop clear thinking, written and oral communication skills, time management, adaptability, independence, and the ability to understand different cultures.

Additionally, if you choose to study abroad you will develop further desirable skills such as independence, knowledge of different cultures, international communication skills and adaptability.

Our previous graduates have gone on to a wide variety of careers, including work in accountancy and banking, the government and the civil service, law, heritage and museums, teaching, publishing, public sector management, libraries and archives, and media research and production. Past employers include GCHQ, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the University of Oxford, the British Museum, the NHS, the Environment Agency and Sotheby's.

Alternatively, you can choose to further develop your research skills by moving on to postgraduate studies.