History BA (Hons) (with Foundation Year)
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UCAS Code: V101|Duration: 4 years|Full Time|Hope Park
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
The study of History helps you to understand how individuals, communities and societies have lived in the past and how those past experiences have helped to shape the present world. History helps us make sense of our world and understand what may lie ahead because the future is shaped by its history in so many ways. Our History degree gives you the opportunity to study a wide-range of historical periods from the Early Modern period to more recent contemporary historical issues and events. You will encounter important themes such as nationalism and imperialism; colonisation and decolonisation; gender and identity. Our course will encourage you to engage with, and challenge, existing views of the past: history is always controversial and contested.
Liverpool’s long-standing connections with Ireland and many other places across the globe, and its diverse traditions and cultures, make it a fascinating place to study history. Historic sites in the University’s local area, Childwall – which is mentioned in Domesday Book – form part of our programme of study visits, which also includes the city’s impressive Museum of Liverpool, International Slavery Museum and the World Museum, and sites further afield, such as the Elizabethan wonder that is Hardwick Hall.
History at Liverpool Hope is part of the supportive and friendly environment within the subject areas of History, Politics and International Relations. You will benefit from being taught by a team of recognised scholars, who have published widely in their fields and who are dedicated and experienced teachers. You will work with a wide variety of historical evidence throughout the whole of your degree programme, including rare books housed in our Special Collections.
Our course offers the option of a placement year so that you can practise your research and communications skills in a professional setting. Our close links with National Museums Liverpool also enable us to offer final-year dissertation topics linked to museum research projects, providing valuable experience of handling artefacts. Whatever you choose to work on for your dissertation, it will showcase the important skills that you have developed during your degree course that are much in demand with a wide range of employers.
Hear from one of our History students.
Course structure
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, seminars of smaller groups of around 15-20 students, and tutorials which typically have no more than 10 students. You also have the opportunity to have a one-to-one meeting with your tutor each week.
If you are studying History as a single honours degree, in your first year there are approximately 12 teaching hours each week, which reduces to approximately 10 teaching hours in your second and third years. If you are studying History as a combined honours degree, in your first year there are approximately 6 teaching hours each week, which reduces to approximately 5 teaching hours in your second and third years.
On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend a number of hours studying independently each week, as well as group study to prepare for any group assessments you may have. You are expected to spend an average of 40 hours per week devoted to your studies, including taught hours and independent study.
Presentations and additional materials are uploaded to Moodle, the University’s online learning management system, on a weekly basis.
Assessment and feedback
Assessments are varied and consist of formal exams focusing on lecture topics, and a range of written coursework assignments. You will be given clear assessment criteria at the start of the degree and at appropriate points throughout your studies. In your final year, you will complete a special study or dissertation.
Assessment is regarded as an important aid to learning and the team recognises the importance of providing timely, high-quality, constructive written feedback to you that not only explains the strengths and weaknesses of the particular piece of work but which also makes clear what must be improved in future work. This also applies to exam scripts - feedback is given to you on a form and is discussed with you in the following autumn.
Feedback is provided verbally to the whole year group where possible, to emphasise points of general relevance. You will be provided with individual written feedback on your assignments and have opportunities in office hours to discuss your work privately with the tutor.
Curriculum overview
Please note topics marked with a * are studied by single honours students only.
Foundation Year
The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree. Further details can be found here.
Year One
Introduction to History
In your first year, you will begin to develop an understanding of the foundations of history. You will study Twentieth-Century Europe, examining the First World War and its consequences; the rise of fascism; the Spanish Civil War; Second World War; the Cold War; Europe in the 1960s-80s; post-war migration and hostile environments; and the revival of nationalism during the 1990s.
You will also study England c. 1530-1600, focusing on Henry VIII and the Reformation; Elizabethan England, Ireland and overseas expansion and Women’s history in the period.
Our Core 1 course allows you to develop your essay-writing skills, as well as engaging with sources such as texts, images, artefacts and architecture. You will also go on a number of fieldtrips in Liverpool and further afield.
If you study History as a single honours programme, you will also study:
A number of important topics, including methodological approaches to History and a series of historical case studies related to staff research and scholarly specialisms, including a study of The Troubles in Northern Ireland, The Habsburg Empire, the Labour movement and international socialism, and the British Empire. This course includes museum visits and other field trips.
Year Two
The second year course builds on Introduction to History. Your second year deepens your knowledge of key themes in History. You study nationalism and imperialism from the late eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, exploring the origins of modern nationalism in the French revolutionary era, revolutionary developments in Europe and overseas colonies, and anti-colonial activism in the twentieth century. The second half of the course focuses on the relationship between Britain and Ireland from the Cromwellian era to the Troubles, exploring Irish nationalism, revolution and civil war, and the nature of politics and society in modern Ireland.
If you study History as a single honours programme, you will also study:
Witch beliefs and witch hunting in early modern England and America
This course explores the development of witch beliefs and witch hunting in early modern England and North America, ranging across the period from c.1540 to 1720. You will study the medieval background and the spread of witchcraft beliefs in Europe, before focusing on English and North American experiences.
Gender and politics in the twentieth century
Focusing primarily on the UK and USA, this course studies the different ways in which gender roles changed and were challenged from the late nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century. Both first wave and second wave feminism are explored, as well as changes and continuity in masculinity.
Year Three
In your final year, you will work closely with our research staff and study in-depth a number of topics choosing two seminars from the following:
- Ideology and reaction: Fascism, Nazism and the Holocaust 1919-45
- The Taste of War: the role of food in human conflict.
- The British Empire: Colonial Encounter, 1775-1947
- The Spanish Civil War and the Crisis of Democracy, 1936-1939
If you study History as a single honours programme, you will also study:
The Tudor Conquest of Ireland
This course explores the shaping of identities and ideologies through the impact of English colonial activity in Ireland. You will study religious change, plantations, resistance and warfare.
The British Empire: Colonial Encounter, 1775-1947
This course explores the history and historiography of the British Empire from the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) to the partition of India (1947). It uses different case-studies drawn from the Pacific, Africa, Australasia, America and Asia, as well from Britain, to help demonstrate how colonial encounters affected both coloniser and colonised.
Research Element
You will do either a 10,000-word dissertation in conjunction with your other subject, or a 5,000 words special study. You will receive guidance and individual support from an assigned tutor in the creation and completion of this work. You are expected to work, in the main, in an autonomous way on this work.
Entry requirements
There may be some flexibility for mature students offering non-tariff qualifications and students meeting particular widening participation criteria.
Careers
Past History graduates have gone on to have careers in the BBC, National Trust, National Monuments Commission, the Civil Service, national and local newspapers, banking and accountancy firms, and museums and galleries. Other graduates take the important transferable skills that are developed through studying History – the ability to read and analyse a wide range of evidence, and construct a clear and convincing argument – and build careers in different sectors such as commercial businesses and retail.
A number of graduates have also chosen to continue their studies by completing a postgraduate degree. At Liverpool Hope, we offer a number of MA degrees, including History, and Politics and International Relations.
Enhancement opportunities
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2025/26 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
As well as tuition fees, you also need to consider the cost of core textbooks and the cost of transport to fieldwork locations, which is approximately £60-£100 each year.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2025/26 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is also available with Foundation Year as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: