History and Sociology (Including Foundation Year) BA (Hons)

University of Essex

Our four-year BA History and Sociology (including foundation year), will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the three-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills in order to support your academic performance.

This four-year course includes a foundation year, followed by a further three years of study. During your foundation year, you study three academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory academic skills module, with additional English language for non-English speakers.

You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK.

After successful completion of your foundation year in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with our Department of History. When starting year one, you are encouraged to explore the ways in which the two disciplines influence and inform one another.

You discover both the early modern and modern periods, and explore challenging questions concerning the impact of political, social and cultural change on individuals, social groups, and regions.

Simultaneously you investigate what connects people with each other, as well as what divides them. We consider every aspect of our daily lives, from how we relate to politicians, celebrities and friends, to how we define ourselves, our families, and others. You study a wide-range of topics and specialisms, including colonialism, inequality, culture, identity, citizenship, multiculturalism and human rights.

You have the opportunity to choose modules from a wide range of specialisms, including:

• Colonialism and the British Empire
• Urban life in Germany
• Social divisions, inequality, the nature of work and commercial culture
• Culture, identity and subjectivity
• Citizenship, multiculturalism and human rights

Our Department of History has developed a strong research and teaching profile, with the majority of our research rated as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (REF 2014). We also have strong links with the Essex Record Office, which is one of the best county record offices in the UK. Our students love us too: 92% of our history students expressed overall satisfaction with their course (NSS 2020).

Our Department of Sociology is Top 10 in the UK for research quality (REF 2014) and the majority of its research is rated as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. We are also ranked among the top 50 departments in the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2020).