Course overview

This three-year joint honours degree focuses on developing your skills and abilities to critically analyse historical and political topics. You'll graduate as a confident independent learner with a specialist knowledge in areas of interest to you.

You'll be able to follow your own path, choosing to study modules which are closely related, or cast your net wide, studying topics that span six continents.

You’ll study in a research-led environment, alongside scholars at the forefront of their fields. You'll also improve your research skills, completing a range of research projects during your degree.

In history, you'll explore themes including revolution, slavery, radicalism, medical history, and religion across a variety of periods, geographies and cultures. In politics, you'll look at global politics, political philosophy and international relations.

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Quality and ranking

• top 200 – Arts and Humanities category – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2018
• top 20 in the UK – the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2020
• 90% overall satisfaction score – National Student Survey 2019
• top 200 – Social Sciences category – Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject 2018

Teaching excellence

TEF Gold

A ringing endorsement of Newcastle University’s long tradition of excellence in teaching.

Modules and learning

Modules

The information below is intended to provide an example of what you will study.

Most degrees are divided into stages. Each stage lasts for one academic year, and you'll complete modules totalling 120 credits by the end of each stage. 

Our teaching is informed by research, and course content changes periodically to reflect developments in the discipline, the requirements of external bodies and partners, student feedback, or numbers of students interested in an optional module.

Full details of the modules on offer will be published through the Programme Regulations and Specifications ahead of each academic year. This usually happens in May.

To find out more please see our terms and conditions.

You'll build a foundation to become an independent learner and critical reader/thinker through compulsory modules.

Optional modules give an overview of our range, whether that be the major pathways in Politics (such as political thought and international politics), or the chronological and cultural variety of History.

Compulsory Modules

• Evidence and Argument
• Order and Disorder: The Shaping of the 21st Century

Optional Modules

• What is History For?
• History Lab I
• History Lab II
• Historical Sources and Methods
• Public History
• Governing Under Pressure: The Politics of the UK & EU
• Introduction to International Politics
• Politics: Essential Research Study Skills
• Power, Participation and Democracy: Comparative Perspectives
• Foundations of Modern Political Thought

In Stage 2, you will select six optional modules – three from each subject. These are designed to deepen your subject knowledge and build on your skills from Stage 1.

You'll critically engage with the topics you're studying, and become a confident participant of our learning community through seminars, in readiness for an optional research project in Stage 3.

Optional Modules

• Prehistoric Europe
• Aegean Prehistory
• Archaeologies of the Roman Empire: The Roman World from Augustus to Justinian
• The Medieval World: AD 400-1500
• Historical Archaeology of the Modern World (post 1492)
• Hellenistic Empires from Alexander to Cleopatra
• Slavery in Greco-Roman antiquity
• Caesar's Gift: Rome under the Emperors
• Drinking Histories: British, Irish and imperial society and alcohol, c. 1750 - present
• Oral History and Memory
• Greece from ancient times to the 21st century: Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the past
• 1968: A Global Moment?
• Prayer, Poetry and Travel: Communication in the Medieval World 
• A History of Radical vs Conservative Thought, 1640-1917
• Contesting Reproductive Rights in the UK and Ireland
• Crafting History: The Dissertation Proposal 
• Disability Histories: War and its Aftermath on Minds and Bodies in Russia and the United States
• Hunger, Death, and Politics: Famines in History 
• Germany and Central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries
• History and Film: Representing the Past
• Ideas and Belief in Medieval and Early Modern East Asia
• Land and Society in the USA, Ireland and Scotland, c. 1840-1922
• Modern Times: The History of Interwar Europe, 1918-1939
• The Reformation World: Europe and America, 1450-1650
• The Sea in History 
• War, Revolution and Union in 17th-century Britain: the Stuart Ordeal
• Violence and Non-Violence in the American South
• Researching History
• Postwar Societies: Restitution, Reconstruction, and Trauma in Europe and Asia after 1945
• Comparative History of Hispano-America and Brazil: from Independence to the Mexican Revolution (17889/1810-1917)
• Politics of the Middle East
• Government and Politics of the USA
• The Politics and Policy of the European Union
• British Politics: State and Society
• Critical International Politics
• Research Methods in Politics
• Political Violence and the Modern State
• Contemporary Russian Politics
• The Politics of Africa: Africa's place in Global Politics
• Contemporary Political Philosophy
• Security Studies
• Sex, Gender, and Power
• Career Development for Second Year Students
• Developing Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Employability
• Politics Work Placement
• Erasmus Student Exchange
• Erasmus Student Exchange

In Stage 3, all of your modules are optional. You can choose to specialise in one discipline by undertaking an independent research project in history or politics, or you can split your modules evenly between the two. 

You will deepen your topic knowledge through seminar discussions in specialist history subjects, or by taking specialised politics options. 

You can also consider the uses and abuses of history in public life and political policy through History and Society.

Compulsory Modules

• History and Society
• Reading History

Optional Modules

• Early Medieval Britain
• The Archaeology of Byzantium and its Neighbours
• Frontier Communities of Roman Britain
• Historical Archaeology of Britain 1500-Present
• Origins and Transformations: Early Prehistoric Europe
• Sex, bodies and identities in Classical Greece
• The Life and Afterlife of Alexander the Great
• Geographical Knowledge in the Ancient World
• Celluloid History II
• Elizabeth I: the Politics of Religion
• China in Revolution
• The Great Patriotic War and its Aftermath
• The Nazi New Order in Europe
• The American Civil War, 1861-1865
• Madness, Nerves and Narratives in Georgian Britain, c. 1714-1830
• The English Revolution, 1640-1660
• The Irish Revolution, 1879-1923
• Reconstruction and the New South, 1865-1914
• Living together: Christians, Muslims and Jews in Medieval Iberia
• British Foreign Policy since Suez
• Birth Control in the 19th & 20th Centuries
• Jarrow Crusade
• The Spanish Second Republic and Civil War, 1931-1939
• Civil Rights and Armalites: Northern Ireland since 1969
• Genocide and Justice in the 20th Century: From the Armenian Genocide to the International Criminal Court
• Civil Rights in America, 1948-1975
• The Mexican Revolution
• Post-Revolutionary Mexico: From Zapata to the Zapatistas
• Royal Portraits: Christian Kings and Kingship, c. 870-c. 930
• Viking-Age Scandinavia
• Women in Colonial South Asia: Tradition, Reform and Modernity
• Imagined Futures
• Islamism and its Origins
• God's Terrible Voice: the experience and impact of Plague in England, 1500-1722
• Talking Cures and Troubles: An Oral History of Health and Medicine in Britain, c. 1948-2000
• Punishing the Criminal Dead: Crime, Culture, and Corpses in Modern Britain
• Russian Cities and Culture from Peter the Great to the Revolution
• Lunatic to Citizen Madness and Society since 1900
• The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1961-1990
• Inter-American Relations from the Spanish-American War (1898) to the end of the Cold War (1989/1991)
• Democracy and the Constitution
• The Government and Politics of Italy
• Political Parties and Elections in the UK
• The Fall and Rise of China
• Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies
• The Politics of the Far Right in Europe
• Gender, Campaigns and Media
• International Organisation and Diplomacy
• UK Parliamentary Studies
• Animal and Environmental Ethics
• The Ethics of War
• Politics of Immigration
• Environmental Governance and Policy
• Politics of Happiness
• Mexican Politics: Authoritarianism & Democracy
• Writing History
• Dissertation in Politics
• Project in Politics: Semester 1
• Project in Politics: Semester 2
• Community-based Research in Politics
• Career Development for Final Year Students
• Applied Entrepreneurship

Teaching and assessment

Teaching methods

Most of your modules will be delivered through lectures and seminars. Seminars become more important in Stage 2 and 3, reflecting your development into a confident and skilled independent learner and part of the School's wider learning community. 

In Politics, you'll also focus on public speaking, with in-class debates used to test, defend and refine your ideas.

Assessment methods

You'll be assessed through a combination of:

• 

  Essays

• 

  Examinations – practical or online

• 

  Group work

• 

  Presentations

• 

  Projects

Skills and experience

Practical skills

You'll benefit from a range of field trips to places such as:

• local museums
• castles
• broadcasters

You'll also have the opportunity to gain first-hand experience carrying out community-based politics research. You'll support a local institution or non-governmental organisation and apply some of your learned skills in the workplace.

Research skills

You'll be able to choose to complete an independent research project in Stage 3. You can either complete a dissertation, or the more practical option of hands-on research within the community.

You'll learn to plan, develop and implement a project, while contributing to academic knowledge, or having an impact on the community.

You can also apply for a vacation scholarship, where you can work alongside researchers. You'll gain first-hand experience of working on a project and develop key skills, such as:

• researching new material
• collecting, analysing and interpreting social data
• carrying out research in challenging environments

Opportunities

Study abroad

Experience life in another country by choosing to study abroad as part of your degree. You’ll be encouraged to embrace fun and challenging experiences, make connections with new communities and graduate as a globally aware professional, ready for your future.

You can choose to spend up to a year studying at a partner institution overseas.

If you choose to study abroad, it will extend your degree by a year. 

Find out more about study abroad

Work placement

Get career ready with a work placement and leave as a confident professional in your field. You can apply to spend 9 to 12 months working in any organisation in the world, and receive University support from our dedicated team to secure your dream placement. Work placements take place between stages 2 and 3.

You'll gain first-hand experience of working in the sector, putting your learning into practice and developing your professional expertise.

If you choose to take a work placement, it will extend your degree by a year. A work placement is not available if you're spending a year studying abroad. Placements are subject to availability.

Find out more about work placements

Facilities and environment

Facilities

You'll be based at our city-centre campus between the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, in the historic Armstrong Building and the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, in the recently refurbished Henry Daysh Building.

You'll have access to a range of on-campus facilities, including:

• the Great North Museum: Hancock, with its Antiquarian Library and range of artefacts
• the Special Collections in the Robinson Library

Support

You'll have the support of an academic member of staff as a personal tutor throughout your degree to help with academic and personal issues.

Peer mentors will help you in your first year. They are fellow students who can help you settle in and answer any questions you have when starting university.

Your future

Our Politics and History graduates are in high demand when they complete this course. 89% of our graduates were in work or further study within six months of graduating*.

*Destinations of (undergraduate, UK and EU) Leavers from Higher Education Survey 2016/17

Join our network of successful graduates

On graduation from our degree courses, you will have the proven ability to think critically, assess complex material and data, carry out research, construct a well-informed argument and articulate it on paper and in person.

Some of our graduates have used this powerful combination of skills to progress directly into careers in politics, economics and international relations – for employers such as the Houses of Parliament, HM Treasury, local government, the Civil Service, inter-governmental organisations and public affairs consultancies.

Others have applied their skills with equal success in the media, law, finance, management consultancy, education, human resources, marketing, business and academia.

Our Politics graduates include MPs in Westminster, fast-track civil servants in the Cabinet Office and Department for Work and Pensions, parliamentary researchers, and Brussels-based public affairs consultants.

Our staff also maintain strong links with governmental bodies such as the UK and Scottish Parliaments, NATO and the EU.

Make a difference

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Careers support

You'll benefit from targeted careers support throughout your degree. In your induction week, you'll explore potential career paths.

In Stage 2, you can apply for a work placement with a local political party or charity, and in Stage 3 you can boost your prospects by conducting policy research on behalf of a local community organisation.

Our award-winning Careers Service is one of the largest and best in the country, and we have strong links with employers. We provide an extensive range of opportunities to all students through our ncl+ inititiative.

Visit our Careers Service website

Tuition fees and scholarships

Tuition fees for 2020 entry (per year)

UK Students

£9250

International Students

£18000

The maximum fee that we are permitted to charge for UK students is set by the UK government.

As a general principle, you should expect the tuition fee to increase in each subsequent academic year of your course, subject to government regulations on fee increases and in line with inflation.

Read more about fees and funding

You will be charged tuition fees for each year of your degree programme (unless you are on a shorter exchange programme).

The tuition fee amount you will pay may increase slightly year on year as a result of inflation.

Read more about fees and funding

Year abroad and additional costs

For programmes where you can spend a year on a work placement or studying abroad, you will receive a significant fee reduction for that year. 

Some of our degrees involve additional costs which are not covered by your tuition fees.

Find out more about:

• different tuition fees
• additional costs

Scholarships

Find out more about:

• scholarships for UK, EU and international students
• scholarships for students applying to study at our London campus
• Student Loans and Government financial support for UK and EU students

How to apply

Apply through UCAS

To apply for undergraduate study at Newcastle University, you must use the online application system managed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). All UK schools and colleges, and a small number of EU and international establishments, are registered with UCAS. You will need:

• the UCAS name and institution codes for Newcastle University (NEWC/N21)
• the UCAS code for the course you want to apply for
• the UCAS 'buzzword' for your school or college

If you are applying independently, or are applying from a school or college which is not registered to manage applications, you will still use the Apply system. You will not need a buzzword.

Apply through UCAS

Apply through an agent

International students often apply to us through an agent. Have a look at our recommended agents and get in touch with them.

Visit our International pages