History

History is the study of past events, giving you the opportunity to investigate the story of recorded human existence. You might end up focusing on the Ancient Greeks or Romans, modern America or China and everything or anything in between. Almost everything has its own history, so you can end up sampling or specialising in many different aspects, be it political history, economic history, gender history, cultural history, religious history, fashion history, food history, political thought, sports history or the history of science.

History leads to many different career paths. Around a third of graduates carry on with their studies to Master’s level or above. Some will go off in other directions after completing these while others will become teachers, academics or independent researchers. Large numbers of History graduates retrain as lawyers and go into the legal profession, while many others will do professional training in management consultancy, banking and investment and accountancy. Others will go into charity work, while publishing and journalism also remain popular destinations. 

You will need to have studied History before. Other essay-based subjects such as English or humanities subjects such as Geography and Religious Studies also offer good preparation before a History degree.