History

Canterbury is a remarkable place not just to study History, but to experience it, to see its effects on the world around us.

History is profoundly global, but we experience it locally. The city of Canterbury is an excellent example, it has roots in the Roman past, it features in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and it has played a central role in great dramas from the murder of St Thomas Beckett to the Baedeker raids during the Second World War.

Our degree is rooted locally but stretches globally and will help you to follow your studies wherever they lead.

In your first year you will sample a range of histories, from ancient civilisations to the Cold War. In years two and three you can specialise in a period of time, or even in a type of history writing.

Our experienced academics will help you develop skills to support both your academic learning and your graduate employability. These skills include problem-solving, attention to detail, finding vital information in a mass of data or sources, critical thinking and research methods.

History sits at the root of many academic disciplines and provides incomparable training in critical and contextual thinking, evidence-based argument, analysis, and social and cultural insight. Trained Historians take up a wide range of roles in academic and public life, within the heritage and cultural sectors, film and television, law, and business.

Top reasons to study with us

Our Canterbury Campus is in the heart of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine’s Abbey and St Martin’s Church. 90% of our History students were in jobs or further study 15 months after finishing their course. Graduate Outcomes Survey 2022 You’ll have the opportunity to go on study visits to places such as The National Archives, The Imperial War Museum and the Cathedral Archives in Canterbury, where you can interrogate how history is encouraged to come alive for diverse audiences.

Location This course is run at our Canterbury Campus in Kent. Canterbury is just 50 miles south-east of London and less than an hour by high-speed train from St Pancras. Located on a UNESCO World Heritage Site the campus offers state-of-the-art buildings, right in the centre of a vibrant and world-famous cathedral city. You’ll benefit from a campus with excellent learning and teaching resources, music venues, a superb sports centre, a well-stocked bookshop and plenty of coffee bars and places to eat. A short walk away is Augustine House our award-winning library and home to a vast range of learning resources and student support teams.