Preparing for your future by understanding the past.
History at Ulster will develop a wide range of written, verbal, and analytical skills through the study of the historical processes that have shaped modern society. You will explore topics such as Film and the Vietnam Conflict, Witchcraft and Magic, the Russian Revolution, United States’ Foreign Policy and many more.
We are the highest ranked History course in Northern Ireland and amongst the highest ranked in the UK for student satisfaction meaning you will study with leading historians who are nationally recognised for the quality of their teaching.
We present History in unique and exciting ways. You will learn mainly in interactive workshops rather than in lectures and seminars. You will create podcasts and digital presentations, design websites, organise conferences and produce research portfolios.
Our recent graduates are in high demand from employers who recognise the fundamental skills of writing and presentation, research and time management, critical thinking and independence, that our History degree provides. If you have a passion for knowledge, are a critical thinker and want to better understand the past and its influence on the present and the future then this course is for you.
Taking English as a Minor will allow you to develop a critically-informed knowledge of English literature in its historical range and depth. Through the study of literature across different genres, you will hone the ability to analyse text and form critical arguments, both in spoken and written form. A Minor in English comprises of two from the total of six modules you complete per year (three each semester). These draw on extensive staff expertise and internationally-recognised research. In addition to compulsory modules, you can pursue your own interests through a range of optional modules including 'Restoration & 18th-century Literature’ in second year, or 'Words in Freedom: Modernist Revolution in Literature’ in third year, among others. A Minor in English ensures you are well-equipped for the wide variety of careers that require advanced communicative skills, including publishing, journalism and the media, public relations, the creative arts, marketing and retail, arts administration, and many sectors of the civil service.
We know that choosing to study at university is a big decision, and you may not always be able to find the information you need online.
Please contact Ulster University with any queries or questions you might have about:
For any queries regarding getting help with your application, please select Admissions in the drop down below.
For queries related to course content, including modules and placements, please select Course specific information.
We look forward to hearing from you.
In this section
History at Ulster gives you the freedom to choose the topics that interest you most. We teach early modern, modern and contemporary histories and provide a broad range of optional modules. You can study the history of Britain and Ireland, the United States, Russia and the Soviet Union, the Middle East, and many more. In your final year you can design your own research project. We have expertise in medical history, gender history and social and political history.
Diploma in Professional Practice DPP
Diploma in International Academic Studies DIAS
Diploma in Professional Practice International DPPI
3 years (or 4 years if you take the option of a year abroad)
Our course is taught by leading historians. We publish books and articles, create digital content, and provide expert analysis for national and international media outlets. Some recent examples include:
The University employs over 1,000 suitably qualified and experienced academic staff - 59% have PhDs in their subject field and many have professional body recognition.
Courses are taught by staff who are Professors (25%), Readers, Senior Lecturers (20%) or Lecturers (55%).
We require most academic staff to be qualified to teach in higher education: 82% hold either Postgraduate Certificates in Higher Education Practice or higher. Most academic staff (81%) are accredited fellows of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) by Advanced HE - the university sector professional body for teaching and learning. Many academic and technical staff hold other professional body designations related to their subject or scholarly practice.
The profiles of many academic staff can be found on the University’s departmental websites and give a detailed insight into the range of staffing and expertise. The precise staffing for a course will depend on the department(s) involved and the availability and management of staff. This is subject to change annually and is confirmed in the timetable issued at the start of the course.
Occasionally, teaching may be supplemented by suitably qualified part-time staff (usually qualified researchers) and specialist guest lecturers. In these cases, all staff are inducted, mostly through our staff development programme ‘First Steps to Teaching’. In some cases, usually for provision in one of our out-centres, Recognised University Teachers are involved, supported by the University in suitable professional development for teaching.
Figures correct for academic year 2021-2022.
A laid-back campus at the heart of a global tourist attraction.
Find out more - information about accommodation
Our Campus in Coleraine boasts a variety of indoor and outdoor facilities that are open all year round to students and members of the public.
Find out more - information about sport
At Student Wellbeing we provide many services to help students through their time at Ulster University.
Find out more - information about student wellbeing
The feeling of community at our campus makes for a warm and welcoming student experience.
Here is a guide to the subjects studied on this course.
Courses are continually reviewed to take advantage of new teaching approaches and developments in research, industry and the professions. Please be aware that modules may change for your year of entry. The exact modules available and their order may vary depending on course updates, staff availability, timetabling and student demand. Please contact the course team for the most up to date module list.
In this section
Year: 1
Status: C
This module offers students a basic introductory guide to literary criticism and interpretation, focusing upon the ways in which the formal structures of poetry, fiction and drama contribute to a diversity of effects and levels of meaning.
Year: 1
Status: C
The module offers an introduction to the theory and practice of reading and criticism. It aims to enable students to work with a variety of approaches to texts, and to develop an informed awareness of the possibilities available to them as readers and critics.
Year: 1
Status: C
This module is designed to introduce students to the practical skills required for studying history at degree level and the methods and approaches that inform historical practice.
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
This module investigates the primary forces shaping Irish politics, political institutions and structures, political behaviour, the mass media and policy making.
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
The module will illustrate and analyse the key themes and issues in American history from colonial times to the present day. Patterns and problems in the development of America will be discussed, and consideration of differing interpretations and source evaluations are implicit throughout the course. By the end of the module students should understand how the history of America has been shaped by the key events and debates that have taken place over the last four hundred years.
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of modern Britain. It explores key themes such as industrialisation and urbanisation; reform and revolution; class and identity; religion, nationalism and unionism; war and empire. It utilises the latest historical scholarship and key primary sources delivered by research-active scholars via innovative lectures and seminars. The module brings to light the key events and historical processes which have shaped the Britain and Ireland of today.
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
The purpose of this module is to provide Level 4 History students with an introduction to some of the main developments in world and international history from the First World War onwards. It is one of a number of broad, survey courses, designed to provide the basis for further, more detailed, study in subsequent years.
Status: O
Year: 1
This module is optional
This module will explore the structures of society in early-modern Europe, and the nature of early-modern social mentalities, daily social realities and material culture, cultural attitudes towards the natural world, varieties of religious belief and practice, and the supernatural in the early modern period: from notions in Heaven and Hell, to Angels, demons, witchcraft and magic. It will trace the effect on these beliefs and attitudes by the social, intellectual and cultural shifts associated with the Enlightenment.
Year: 2
Status: C
This module combines theory, historical content, primary source analysis, and self-reflection to enable students to think effectively about the practice of history and the ways in which historical study can augment and enhance key transferrable and employability skills.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The module introduces students to the literature of the English Renaissance. Canonical and non-canonical poetry, prose and drama will be studied within a framework of instruction on the sweeping changes brought to England by sectarian tension, increased literacy, changing politics and cultural innovation.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module is designed to introduce students to the history of the development of early fiction in English, from the early adventure narratives of the Elizabethan era to the emergence of the novel as a leading literary genre in the mid-eighteenth century. It acquaints students with a range of thematic and formal sub-genres of fiction, ranging from tales of adventure to the philosophical romance, from religious allegory to the oriental tale, and from the picaresque to the epistolary.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module offers a broad survey of love poetry from its earliest foundations in ancient verse, through classical writing and philosophy, the great flowerings of the courtly and renaissance periods, to modernist and contemporary practice. Students will become aware of the historical significance of this sub-genre, familiar with its conceptual foundations and perennial features, as well as gaining an appreciation of its changing nature within different cultural contexts.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This practice-based module aims to advance the writing and editing knowledge and skills of students through lectures and workshops focusing on diverse genres of writing. Students are introduced to methods and techniques in the writing and editing processes. Instruction is given in the collaborative teamwork of writers and editors, with students adopting both roles during the course of the module. Formative assessment ensures that all students get a chance to edit and improve their own work (and some of each other's work) before final submission.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The module introduces students to the history of the development of modern western drama. After accounting for the ancient traditions of Greek and Renaissance drama there is a focus on the radical aesthetic and thematic developments brought by European giants such as Ibsen and Chekhov. The module then addresses the great period of American tragedy as typified by the work of Williams and Miller before engaging with post-war drama by non-male and non-white writers such as Delaney, Fornes and Hansberry.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
Religion and sexuality are contested and related areas in American culture, not least because of the Puritan origins of the American self. This module explores the relationship between word and flesh in American writing from the colonial period to the present day. Studying poetry, fiction and non-fiction prose, students will consider the ways in which this Puritan heritage has been reproduced, challenged and changed, particularly in writings by women, African-Americans, and Native-Americans.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module studies writers of the Beat Generation, including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Gary Snyder. It also introduces the forerunners of the Beat generation (Thoreau, Emerson, Rimbaud), as well as its legacies at the end of the 20th Century (e.g. Burroughs' influence on punk), and after the millennium, for example in Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road (2006). The module uses interdisciplinary elements such as biographical studies, reference to film and music, and indications of the Beats' political and spiritual dimensions.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module enables students to engage with a wide range of writing by women from the 1790s to the end of the nineteenth century. By examining both poetry and prose, this module will uncover self-determined literary representation of female experience throughout the modern period, allowing students to engage with the central issues of gender and identity which affect women's writing.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The module introduces students to writers from Ulster, to representations of, and imaginative responses to, the north of Ireland, and to the central debates surrounding these representations and responses.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The module examine both European and non-European texts, many from genres beyond the literary mainstream (including science fiction, high fantasy and crime fiction). Representations in fiction of key themes and issues that arose in the post-war period in Europe, the Americas, and the Commonwealth countries will be examined, as well as questions of national and global identity as these influence novels from around the world.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module celebrates Samuel Beckett the man and artist, whose innovations in theme and form pushed the boundaries of literature, redefined the medium of theatre, and caused him to be considered as one of the most influential writers of the Twentieth Century. The module explores Beckett's works in the chronology of the composition; students will be introduced to their historical, cultural and philosophical influences and will be able to trace the development and impact of Beckett's oeuvre.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
Adaptation and Historical Fiction looks closely at the relationship between literature, history, film and television. The module explores how and why history provides material for fiction and explores the process of adaptation across different media. Texts include popular and experimental adaptations and re-imaginings of writers and historical periods from Shakespeare to Austen and beyond.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module surveys writing associated with Gothic and Romantic discourses, focusing in particular on the rise of the gothic novel at the end of the C18th, gothic imagery in Romantic writing, late-Victorian versions of the gothic, the concept of decadence both before and during the fin-de-siecle, and the rise of psychoanalytical models at the end of the C19th.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides students with an opportunity to undertake a semester or full year of the second year of their degree in study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of English whilst generating educational and cultural networks, and fulfilling the requirements of their second year programme.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides students with an opportunity to undertake a semester or full year of the second year of their degree in study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of English whilst generating educational and cultural networks, and fulfilling the requirements of their second year programme.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides students with an opportunity to undertake a semester or full year of the second year of their degree in study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of English whilst generating educational and cultural networks, and fulfilling the requirements of their second year programme.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides students with an opportunity to undertake a semester or full year of the second year of their degree in study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of English whilst generating educational and cultural networks, and fulfilling the requirements of their second year programme.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides students with an opportunity to undertake a semester or full year of the second year of their degree in study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of English whilst generating educational and cultural networks, and fulfilling the requirements of their second year programme.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module provides students with an opportunity to undertake a semester or full year of the second year of their degree in study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of English whilst generating educational and cultural networks, and fulfilling the requirements of their second year programme.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
Exploring English develops subject-based skills in the study of literature along with vocational skills for employment. The module encourages students to apply critical and innovative thinking to literary texts from before 1800 and to reflect on and develop their personal skills and attributes.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module will trace the development of detective fiction from the C19th to the present day, across a variety of forms and subgenres, and from a variety of different theoretical perspectives.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module explains what sets feminist writing apart from other literary movements of the time. It traces the evolution of feminist writing from the cusp of the second-wave up to the contemporary millennial feminist writings in evidence today. This module explores what we mean by the terms 'feminist' 'feminism' and 'feminist writings' - asking whether these literary classifications restrict or aid our understandings of contemporary North American literature.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
These modules provide an opportunity to undertake an extended period of study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. They are required modules for all History students on an intercalary study abroad semester or year during second year. They are not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of History whilst generating educational and cultural networks.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
These modules provide an opportunity to undertake an extended period of study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. They are required modules for all History students on an intercalary study abroad semester or year during second year. They are not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of History whilst generating educational and cultural networks.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
These modules provide an opportunity to undertake an extended period of study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. They are required modules for all History students on an intercalary study abroad semester or year during second year. They are not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of History whilst generating educational and cultural networks.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
These modules provide an opportunity to undertake an extended period of study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. They are required modules for all History students on an intercalary study abroad semester or year during second year. They are not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of History whilst generating educational and cultural networks.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
These modules provide an opportunity to undertake an extended period of study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. They are required modules for all History students on an intercalary study abroad semester or year during second year. They are not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of History whilst generating educational and cultural networks.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
These modules provide an opportunity to undertake an extended period of study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland. They are required modules for all History students on an intercalary study abroad semester or year during second year. They are not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of History whilst generating educational and cultural networks.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module examines the role of the state in molding the history of the family and sexuality in Britain between 1860-1925. It looks at the forces which have influenced state policy as well as the impact on issues such as prostitution, homosexuality, gender roles and childhood.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The module tracks the emergence of an internationally powerful British nation state by examining key issues and events from c.1630-1730. It will explore governance in contested kingdoms and diverse societies, the rise of the fiscal-military state and parliamentary monarchy, religious confessionalism and religious pluralism. It will also examine the early modern family, the emergence of the middle class, social and economic improvement, and the Early Enlightenment.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module is designed to help fill a still largely existent gap in human historiography by introducing students to the other side of the coin of human development: the human 'instinctive imperative' towards peace and through contrasting this with the roots of war, promote an understanding of the patterns in war and peace & advancement in the course of human history, with a particular focus on the post-1648, post-1815, post-World War One, post-World War Two and post-Cold War/post-9/11 periods.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module explores the impact of the West on the Middle East and its contribution to conflict in the region since the end of the 19th Century.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
The module explores the history, media, film and political culture in the context of America's involvement in the Vietnam War. The module explores major debates in the historiography of the era. Film representations of the war are subject to scrutiny for what they reveal about American society, and how they depict the changing perspectives of the "history" of the conflict. The module also follows the way in which the war developed and the changing attitudes it provoked at home and abroad.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This course examines the rise to power of the Spanish Empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and its subsequent decline from the seventeenth century onwards. The following issues will be emphasized: Spain's Empire building; the image of Spain in the European political discourse; the military, economic, and social crises of the seventeenth century; the Spanish Golden age in art and literature vis-à-vis the concept of decadence; the importance of honor and religion in all realms of society; the racial issue: from the convivencia to the Inquisition; the court of the Habsburgs; and the cultural impact of Spain in the early modern world. In addition, the course will consider the diverse populations constituting the Spanish World, stressing such social and cultural strains as those between: center (Castille), and periphery (for example, Catalonia, Naples, and The Netherlands); Christians and converted Jews/Muslims; Spanish Conquistadores and indigenous populations; and the various racial castes created in the Americas.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module introduces students to key themes and topics on the history of death and illness in the long nineteenth century. Drawing from social, medical and Victorian history, students will explore themes such as murder in the Victorian city, ghosts, asylums, suicide, Victorian funerals and bodysnatching. Students will examine interdisciplinary sources including literature and art, as well as standard historical sources.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
This module examines Revolutionary Russia from the last Romanov ruler through to the establishment of Stalinism in the USSR. Key historiographical debates will be examined and assessed. The political, economic, and social and cultural aspects of this period will be covered.
Status: O
Year: 2
This module is optional
Race remains one of the most contentious issues in United States society. It has had a profound impact on America's domestic political process and culture and the way in which the US is perceived by the rest of the world. This module seeks to provide insight and understanding into the questions raised by the African American struggle and race relations in America and the continuing problems faced by Black Americans. The module proceeds chronologically through Black history from slavery through to the present day. This module also assesses the cultural contribution of African Americans in the United States in the twentieth century, and explores the legacy of the slave experience. It is interdisciplinary in method and will examine such issues as rebellion and assimilation, black nationalism, family, gender, film and popular culture.
Status: O
Year: 3
This module is optional
This module provides students with an opportunity to undertake an extended period of study outside the UK and Republic of Ireland (one full academic year). It is a required module for all History students on an intercalary study abroad year between second (level 5) and final year (level 6). It is not open to non-study abroad students. Students will develop an enhanced understanding of the academic discipline of English whilst generating educational and cultural networks.
Year: 4
Status: C
The history dissertation module revolves around the construction of a thesis. Students will identify a suitable topic or issue in history that they would like to study and to plan and execute that study. Students will be allocated a dissertation supervisor who will advise them on their work, both in terms of relevant source materials, approaches and form of the dissertation, but it will be the student's responsibility to identify and locate sources, to subject these to critical evaluation and then to structure and present their dissertation in such a way that you communicate clearly your aims, objectives, evidence and conclusions - and all to an agreed schedule of drafts.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
The module is designed to introduce students to the history of English literature of the nineteenth century. It will trace, through the study of a selection of celebrated and representative works of the period's poetry and prose, the rise and development of Romanticism and its continuation - and gradual transformation - in the writings of the Victorian era.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
The module offers a broad survey of significant works of English literature written during the twentieth century. It will describe, through the analysis of a selected works by celebrated and representative writers of the period, some of the major cultural developments and thematic preoccupations of modern literature in English, in particular the attitudes and aesthetics associated with late-Romanticism, modernism, twentieth-century realism, post-modern and multicultural writing.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
The urge to be modern was a defining characteristic of a group of creative artists christened, by Gertrude Stein, the 'Lost Generation'. Born towards the end of the 1800s and reaching maturity around the time of the First World War, these groundbreaking writers modernized English literature (and themselves) through the 1910s and 1920s. Looking at both poetry and fiction, we will explore the breaking of sexual taboos, the impact of psychoanalysis, the trauma of the Great War, the rise of the New Woman, and avant-garde aesthetics (including free verse, streams of consciousness and unreliable narrators). In all cases we will seek to appreciate how these dynamic authors challenged stale cultural norms left over from the previous century.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module is designed to introduce students to the thematic and formal diversity of early and mid-Victorian fiction, as illustrated through the works of the leading novelists of the period. The key themes studied will include, among others, the social problems of mid-nineteenth-century Britain, 'the woman question', the role of religion in society, and the operation of the literary market; in aesthetic terms, the novels on the module will exemplify a range of formats and story-telling conventions, from the psychological novel to the sensation novel, from realism to symbolism, and from comedy of manners to naturalism.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
Students on this module learn about the functions, and apply some of the methods, of professionals in the publishing process (by undertaking tasks associated with writers, literary agents, editors, etc.). They workshop their own and each other's writing, and edit texts to publication standard and requirements. At this level a relatively sophisticated degree of self-assessment is required regarding their accumulated insights into writing and publishing.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module examines American literature of the nineteenth century in its social, historical and cultural contexts.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
The module examines twentieth-century American literature and its engagement with the key social and political events of the country during that period. The post-World War 1 resurgence of America in the jazz age and the subsequent financial depression will be studied. The post-war rise of America as a global superpower and the impact of this perception on its writers will also be explored. The psyche of a country living the American Dream will be explored, mainly through its impact on minorities and on immigrant aspirations and experiences.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
A survey of ideas about the human body, mind and soul in texts ranging chronologically from Joseph Addison and Richard Steele's Spectator (1711) to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1814). It investigates the links between literature and medicine, psychology and philosophy, and will be of interest to students who want to explore how literature engages with issues such as belief, education, pain, pleasure, sexuality and disease.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
The module introduces students to the history of Ulster-Scots literature from the middle of the eighteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first century. It will trace the relationship of Ulster writing to Scottish and Irish cultural, literary, political, philosophical and linguistic influences in this period. The module will investigate the development, revivals and transformations of Ulster-Scots literature through an examination of its most representative and important authors.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module will enable students to engage with a variety of writing, in different genres, by women writers of the modern and the postmodern period, and will develop their understanding of the ways in which new political, social and sexual freedoms impacted upon women in the last century and beyond.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module celebrates three of the most influential (Irish) writers of the Twentieth Century, W B Yeats, James Joyce and Samuel Beckett. Through an examination of poetry, drama and prose we will consider the development of each writer's work, explore their relationship to Ireland and Europe and examine some of the most significant and innovative writing of the twentieth century.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
The module is designed to introduce students to the thematic and formal diversity of late Victorian and Edwardian fiction, as illustrated through the works of the leading novelists of the period. The key themes studied will include, among others, the late Victorian crisis of values, the changing position of women in society, the implications of the growth of the British Empire, and the increasing interest in psychology; in aesthetic terms, the novels on the module will exemplify a range of formats and story-telling conventions, from the scientific romance to the Bildungsroman, from realism to symbolism, and from fantasy to naturalism.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module immerses students in the aesthetically and thematically plural worlds of Shakespearean drama and poetry. Many plays and poems are addressed; issues raised will include canonicity, genre, public and private performance, theatre as propaganda and/or resistance, women's roles, sexual license, censorship, animals and the environment, authorial celebrity, collaboration, anonymity, textual authority, nuances of dialogue and the historicising of drama and poetry.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module invites students to explore a diverse range of literary texts and other media through which the history and legacy of the Atlantic slave trade has been represented.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module utilises documentary, digital, and audio-visual sources to explore life in Ireland during the revolutionary years, 1913-1923. The period is brought to life through narratives of key events and the analysis of primary source material from the time.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module examines the attempts of the post-Stalin leadership to manage, reform, and improve the prosperity of Soviet domestic communism. The political, economic, and social and cultural policies of the three main general secretaries - Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev - will be examined and assessed critically.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module provides a comprehensive overview of US Foreign Policy since 1945. It considers the United States' place in the global political structure. It will examine defining moments in the history of US Foreign Policy, including the Cold War, Post-Cold War, and post-September 11th eras, analysing the administrations of Presidents from Harry S. Truman to Barack Obama.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module will use the study of women in Irish society from 1850-2000 to consider the role of women in areas such as politics, religion, culture, work and sexuality and how their role and experiences changed over the period. It will allow students to gain an alternative historical perspective on the major political and societal changes of the period. Though the use of oral history students will gain a personal understanding of female experience in the past.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module will examine the historical process since 1945 whereby European colonial powers either withdrew or were driven from formal occupation of their overseas possessions. The module will not only examine various interpretations of imperial disengagement but will also provide an in-depth study of the actual mechanics of European decolonisation for particular territories in South and South East Asia, Africa and the Pacific. It also aims to enhance student skills in evaluating interpretations put forward by historians through allowing them to make a detailed study of one particular colonial possession.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This is an interdisciplinary study of one of the most significant events in the history of the United States since 1900, the Depression that began in 1929 and lasted until the USA entered the Second World War in 1941. This course will examine the turbulent years of the Great Depression and the New Deal. It will cover political, social, economic, and cultural aspects of the events and circumstances that led to the Depression, the election of FDR in 1933, and the formulation of the New Deal as national policy. It will then look at various aspects of New Deal policies and will assess the achievements and limitations of those policies.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
This module examines the dramatic changes in experiences of health and illness that occurred in the twentieth century. Focusing on Britain and America, it explores how our attitudes to matters such as sex, death, eating, disability and mental health were revolutionized in the twentieth century. The module also looks at ethical problems issues such as Cold War human experimentation. Students will engage with broader themes such as class, gender and race relations.
Status: O
Year: 4
This module is optional
The early modern period is often seen as the era of the European 'witch-panic', which saw around 40,000 people executed for the crime of witchcraft. This module will examine the many facets of the witchcraft experience in Europe and New England using a variety of contemporary sources: from images and printed books and pamphlets, to court records and private correspondence. It will examine patterns of witchcraft accusation and prosecution, the intellectual context of witchcraft beliefs, the connection between witchcraft and women, the decline in educated belief, and the continuation of popular notions and traditions. Early modern witchcraft will also be located in its wider magical context by exploring both popular magic. Developments in witchcraft and magic in the early modern period will also be linked to wider societal, cultural and religious changes.
We recognise a range of qualifications for admission to our courses. In addition to the specific entry conditions for this course you must also meet the University’s General Entrance Requirements.
In this section
Grades CCC.
Applicants may satisfy the requirement for the final A level grade C by substituting a combination of alternative qualifications to the same standard as defined by the University.
*** To note that only qualifications defined as “Applied General” will be accepted for entry onto any undergraduate course at Ulster University.***
BTEC Awards
QCF Pearson BTEC Level 3 Extended Diploma/ OCR Cambridge Technical Level 3 Extended Diploma (2012 Suite)
Award profile of DMM
RQF Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma/ OCR Cambridge Technical Level 3 Extended Diploma (2016 Suite)
Award profile of MMM
QCF Pearson BTEC Level 3 Diploma/ OCR Cambridge Technical Level 3 Diploma(2012 Suite)
Award profile of Distinction Merit plus A Level Grade C or award profile of Distinction Merit plus A Level Grade C
RQF Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Diploma/ OCR Cambridge Technical Level 3 Diploma (2016 Suite)
Award profile of Merit Merit plus A Level Grade C
QCF Pearson BTEC Level 3 Subsidiary Diploma / OCR Cambridge Technical Level 3 Introductory Diploma (2012 Suite)
Award profile of Merit plus A Level Grades CC
RQF Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Certificate/ OCR Cambridge Technical Level 3 Extended Certificate (2016 Suite)
Award profile of Merit plus A Level Grades CC
Diploma, National Diploma and Subsidiary Diploma applicants may satisfy the requirement for an element of the offer grade profiles (equating to the final A-level grade stated in the standard 3A level offer profile - Grade C) by substituting a combination of alternative qualifications to the same standard as defined by the University.
96 UCAS tariff points to include a minimum of five subjects (four of which must be at higher level) to include English at H6 if studied at Higher level or O4 if studied at Ordinary Level.
Preference may be given to candidates with a H4 at higher level in History and/or English.
The Scottish Highers requirement for this course is grades
CCCCC
Applicants may satisfy the requirement for an element of the offer grade profiles (equating to the final A-level grade stated in the standard 3A level offer profile - Grade C) by substituting a combination of alternative qualifications to the same standard as defined by the University.
Preference may be given to candidates Grade C in History and/or English Literature.
The Scottish Advanced Highers requirement for this course is grades;
DDD
Applicants may satisfy the requirement for an element of the offer grade profiles (equating to the final A-level grade stated in the standard 3A level offer profile - Grade C) by substituting a combination of alternative qualifications to the same standard as defined by the University.
Preference may be given to candidates with Grade D History and/or English Literature.
Overall International Baccalaureate profile is minimum 24 points (including 12 at higher level)
Overall profile of 55% (120 credit Access Course) (NI Access course)
Overall profile of 45 credits at Merit (60 credit Access course) (GB Access course)
For full-time study, you must satisfy the General Entrance Requirements for admission to a first degree course and hold a GCSE pass at Grade C/4 or above English Language.
Level 2 Certificate in Essential Skills - Communication will be accepted as equivalent to GCSE English.
English language requirements for international applicants
The minimum requirement for this course is Academic IELTS 6.0 with no band score less than 5.5. Trinity ISE: Pass at level III also meets this requirement for Tier 4 visa purposes.
Ulster recognises a number of other English language tests and comparable IELTS equivalent scores.
HND - Overall Merit with distinctions in 15 Level 5 credits for entry to Year 1.
HNC – Overall Merit with distinctions in 45 Level 4 credits for entry to Year 1.
You may also meet the course entry requirements with combinations of different qualifications to the same standard as recognised by the University (provided subject requirements as noted above are met).
Foundation Degree
An overall mark of 40% in Level 5 modules for Year 1 entry.
APEL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning)
The University will consider applications on the basis of experiential learning for those who do not hold the normal entry qualifications.
Transfer from degree level study at other institutions
Those applicants seeking entry with advanced standing, (eg. Transfer from another institution or year 2 entry) will be considered on an individual basis.
In this section
Graduates from this course are now working for:
With this degree you could become:
£4,710.00
£9,250.00
£15,840.00
We offer prizes to award our highest achieving students across all three years of study. As examples:
There are none.
It is important to remember that costs associated with accommodation, travel (including car parking charges) and normal living will need to be covered in addition to tuition fees.
Where a course has additional mandatory expenses (in addition to tuition fees) we make every effort to highlight them above. We aim to provide students with the learning materials needed to support their studies. Our libraries are a valuable resource with an extensive collection of books and journals, as well as first-class facilities and IT equipment. Computer suites and free Wi-Fi are also available on each of the campuses.
There are additional fees for graduation ceremonies, examination resits and library fines.
Students choosing a period of paid work placement or study abroad as a part of their course should be aware that there may be additional travel and living costs, as well as tuition fees.
See the tuition fees on our student guide for most up to date costs.
We know that choosing to study at university is a big decision, and you may not always be able to find the information you need online.
Please contact Ulster University with any queries or questions you might have about:
For any queries regarding getting help with your application, please select Admissions in the drop down below.
For queries related to course content, including modules and placements, please select Course specific information.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Robert Hunter (recent History graduate)
‘I am really enjoying studying History at Ulster. It offers lots of interesting modules that cover a wide variety of eras and cultures, taught by helpful expert staff. It has taught me transferable skills such as how to analyse, interpret and present information that will be valuable when it comes to seeking employment after graduation. History at Ulster has also given me access to amazing travel opportunities. In the summer of 2019 I was awarded a bursary to work in the “In Flanders Fields Museum” in Ypres, Belgium for three weeks where I helped to digitise the records of Irish soldiers who died during the First World War’.
Karolina Stonkute (recent History graduate)
‘During my three years on the History course at Ulster, I have never felt unsupported. The History lecturers have continuously provided me with help whether it was academic or personal. They strive to push their students to achieve grades that they believe best represents their skills. I would not have the experience nor the confidence to enter the next chapter of my career without them.’
Orin McIvor (recent History graduate)
‘At the end of my second year studying History at Ulster in 2018 I applied for the ‘study abroad’ programme and spent a year at university in America. I had an incredible time. It was truly a life changing experience that boosted my self-esteem and confidence. It was amazing being able to experience different cultures and to meet people that I would become friends with that I would have had no opportunity to do so before. I miss the experience a little more every day and still catch up with the friends I made. It was an experience that I feel anybody with even a hint of interest in studying abroad should go for as they will not regret it’.
Jordan Bertuccelli (PhD student in History)
‘Studying History at Ulster was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. The staff go above and beyond to ensure you have the best experience possible. The modules on offer are diverse and allow for a wide-reaching examination of historical concepts and themes, many of which I had never had the opportunity to study before going to university. While that may seem like a daunting prospect, it was actually a relief as finally it felt like I could study the history that I had an interest in and not just what a school textbook dictated. The freedom and range of topics meant that every day was a learning day and I can safely say that I enjoyed every minute of every module.
History at Ulster is about more than just gaining a degree. It encourages you to reach goals that you maybe thought were unattainable. The lecturers are exceptional, and they often provide opportunities for students to do something a little different, all they ask in return is that you challenge yourself to do them. I served as a course representative and always felt that staff valued my comments and suggestions. I was encouraged to come out of my shell and I have gained vital skills and confidence, including establishing a History advice centre in the university, organising conferences, and creating websites and exhibitions. I went on to complete a Masters and am now in my first year of a PhD. I never would have thought this possible when I first started studying here.
If you choose to study History at Ulster you will be embarking on a journey of exploration and discovery, one that is fulfilling, challenging and provides great rewards. Whether you are new to History, an avid historian or simply someone who has an interest in History, this is the course for you!’
Sorcha Belallia (recent part-time History graduate)
‘I am in my fifth year at Ulster and studying History here has been an enjoyable experience due to the wide variety of modules on offer. The part time study option has provided me a great degree of flexibility in completing the course. I still study the same modules and receive the same degree as the full-time students and I have access to the same facilities and opportunities. I am a course representative and I have been on the organising committee of the final-year conference.’
