Thank you for considering an application
To apply you’ll need to:
- Make note of the Queen Mary institution code: Q50
- Make note of your chosen course UCAS code:
History
- V101 — BA (Hons)
- V111 — BA (Hons) with Year Abroad
- Click on the link below:
Have further questions? How to apply | Entry requirements
History
2 study options
History BA (Hons)
Key information
- Degree
- BA (Hons)
- Duration
- 3 years
- Start
- September 2026
- UCAS code
- V101
- Institution code
- Q50
- Typical A-Level offer
- Grades BBB at A-Level.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions) - Home fees
- £9,535
- Overseas fees
- £26,950
Funding information
Paying your fees
History with Year Abroad BA (Hons)
Key information
- Degree
- BA (Hons)
- Duration
- 4 years
- Start
- September 2026
- UCAS code
- V111
- Institution code
- Q50
- Typical A-Level offer
- Grades BBB at A-Level.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions) - Home fees
- £9,535
- Overseas fees
- £26,950
Funding information
Paying your fees
Overview
Build your degree around the areas of history that excite you most, with an exceptional choice of modules.
Explore the past, encounter diverse societies and explain cultural changes.
Studying in a city steeped in history, surrounded by outstanding museums and resources, you’ll expand your knowledge as you explore different histories and perspectives from Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. You’ll have an expansive choice of modules that cover the Soviet Union, Muhammad to the Ottomans, Japanese film history, the theory of Totalitarianism, technology and the modern world – which ones will ignite your interest?
Learn from experts who care about providing impactful research. Our historians carry out ground-breaking research in the archives and bring that to the public in their prize-winning books, popular documentaries, and engagement with media and society.
Focusing on your future.
We embed graduate attributes throughout our degrees, so you’ll develop knowledge, skills, adaptability, and resilience to succeed in an ever-changing global job market and become active global citizens. We work in conjunction with the Careers and Enterprise Centre to ensure you know how to communicate your competitive edge in the job market.
You’ll acquire vocationally crucial skills such as critical thinking, information analysis, communication, deadline management, and an understanding and respect for other values and cultures — key requirements for operating in a globalised world.
We offer many ways for you to apply your knowledge into action. From our History & Heritage Internship module that offers you the unique opportunity to complete a placement with one of our 60+ internship partners in the heritage sector, to contributing your writing and editing skills for our Queen Mary history journal stocked by the British Library, or by offering professional insights for a range of projects with qHeritage.
Structure
You can complete your History degree in three or four years. If you choose to study abroad, this will take place in Year 3 and Year 3 modules will instead be studied in Year 4.
Year 1
Compulsory
- History in Practice
- Unravelling Britain: British History since 1801
- Global Encounters: Conquest and Culture in World History
Choose from
- Building the American Nation: 1756-1900
- Europe in a Global Context since 1800
- Screening History: Representing the Past in the Contemporary Historical Film
- The Foundations of Modern Thought: Introduction to Intellectual History
- Controversies of Science and Technology in the Making of the Modern World
- Europe 1000-1500: The Middle Ages and their Legacy
- Reformation to Revolution: Europe and the World, 1500-1800
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Year 2
Compulsory
- History Research Project
Choose from our extensive range of modules, such as
- Women and Gender in Medieval Islam
- Violence in Early Modern Europe
- Piracy and Civilisation: Antiquity to the Golden Age
- Life and Death on the Middle Sea: The Mediterranean, 1453-1803
- London on Film: Representing the City in American and British Cinema
- Human Rights in History: Origins, Foundations, Prospects
- Marie-Antoinette to Coco Chanel: A Cultural History of France from the Revolution
to the Second World War - The Soviet Union: Red Flag Unfurled, 1917-1991
- The American Century: The History of the United States, 1900-2000
- Kingdoms, Empires and Colonisation in African History
The latest full list of our module directory is available here.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Year 3
Compulsory
- History Research Dissertation
Special Subject module options (you choose one)
In your final year, you will take a Special Subject module, where you closely examine a theme or period of history, taught by an expert researcher in the field. Special Subjects are intensely source-based and will give you the opportunity to work closely with a large number of primary materials.
The range of Special Subject modules on offer varies per academic year, below is a sample of previous modules chosen by our students:
- Beer, Porcelain, Longbows: Rewriting the History of Medieval and Early Modern Objects
- Internationalisms: People, Power and Politics Beyond Borders
- A History of Palestine, 300-1800
- Making Thatcher's Britain: The Thatcher Revolution, 1975-1997
- The Kennedy Years
- The War on Terror
- From Pinny to Hot Pants? Women in Britain, 1945-1970
Optional modules
- Medieval Worlds on Film
- The Germans and the Jews since 1871
- The Supernatural in Modern Britain
- Cold War America 1945 – 1975
- Gotham: The Making of New York City 1825 – 2001
- The History of Emotions
The latest full list of our module directory is available here.
Please note that all modules are subject to change.
Study options
Apply for this degree with any of the following options. Take care to use the correct UCAS code - it may not be possible to change your selection later.
Year abroad
Go global and study abroad as part of your degree – apply for our History BA with a Year Abroad. Queen Mary has links with universities in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia (partnerships vary for each degree programme).
Find out more about study abroad opportunities at Queen Mary and what the progression requirements are.
The biggest factor that pushed me to study at the Department of History at Queen Mary University London was the huge variety of modules available to choose from. It meant that I had a chance to explore areas of history that I had not yet had a chance to or even knew existed.
Teaching
Teaching and learning
For each module you’ll usually receive two hours of weekly contact time, typically comprising a one-hour lecture followed by a one-hour seminar.
Formal teaching is supplemented by one-to-one discussions in staff office hours and feedback sessions.
For every hour spent in class, you'll complete a further two to three hours of independent study. This time is spent reading, preparing for study sessions, working on projects and revising for exams.
Assessment
Assessment is designed around a series of programme-level essays. These are based around your teaching and learning in modules, along with additional support outside modules. You choose which modules to write essays on, and deadlines are spaced so you can receive feedback on each essay before writing the next one.
In addition, module-level assessment can involve a wide range of assessment activities, including source analyses, book reviews, blog posts, learning logs, and presentations.
In your final year you’ll work on a dissertation worth 25% of your final year mark, researching a specialised area of history that particularly interests you.
Resources and facilities
The Department offers excellent resources to aid your studies, including:
- membership of the Queen Mary Library, the University of London Library at Senate House, and reading access to other college libraries within the University of London
- a vibrant History Society
- the Queen Mary History Journal, a major scholarly publication, which is written, produced and edited entirely by students
- a central London location that offers ready access to a wealth of world-class libraries, archives, museums and galleries
Entry requirements
| A-Level | Grades BBB at A-Level. |
| IB | International Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 30 points overall, including 5,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects. |
| BTEC | See our detailed subject and grade requirements |
| Access HE | We consider applications from students with the Access to Higher Education Diploma. The minimum academic requirement is to achieve 60 credits overall with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 15 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. This must include at least 6 Level 3 credits in History modules at Distinction. |
| GCSE | Minimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4. |
| EPQ | Alternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification. For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq |
| Contextualised admissions | Our standard contextual offer: BBC at A-Level. Our enhanced contextual offer: BCC at A-Level. More information on our contextual offer criteria can be found on our contextualised admissions page. Please note that General Studies and Critical Thinking are excluded from any A-Level offer and cannot be considered. |
| A-Level | Grades BBB at A-Level. |
| IB | International Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 30 points overall, including 5,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects. |
| BTEC | See our detailed subject and grade requirements |
| Access HE | We consider applications from students with the Access to Higher Education Diploma. The minimum academic requirement is to achieve 60 credits overall with 45 credits at Level 3, of which 15 credits must be at Distinction and 15 credits at Merit or higher. This must include at least 6 Level 3 credits in History modules at Distinction. |
| GCSE | Minimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4. |
| EPQ | Alternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification. For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq |
| Contextualised admissions | Our standard contextual offer: BBC at A-Level. Our enhanced contextual offer: BCC at A-Level. More information on our contextual offer criteria can be found on our contextualised admissions page. Please note that General Studies and Critical Thinking are excluded from any A-Level offer and cannot be considered. |
Non-UK students
We accept a wide range of European and international qualifications in addition to A-levels, the International Baccalaureate and BTEC qualifications. Please visit International Admissions for full details.
If your qualifications are not accepted for direct entry onto this degree, consider applying for a foundation programme.
English language
Find out more about our English language entry requirements, including the types of test we accept and the scores needed for entry to the programme.
You may also be able to meet the English language requirement for your programme by joining a summer pre-sessional programme before starting your degree.
Further information
Funding
Loans and grants
UK students accepted onto this course are eligible to apply for tuition fee and maintenance loans from Student Finance England or other government bodies.
Scholarships and bursaries
Queen Mary offers a generous package of scholarships and bursaries, which currently benefits around 50 per cent of our undergraduates.
Scholarships are available for home, EU and international students. Specific funding is also available for students from the local area. International students may be eligible for a fee reduction. We offer means-tested funding, as well as subject-specific funding for many degrees.
Find out what scholarships and bursaries are available to you.
Support from Queen Mary
We offer specialist support on all financial and welfare issues through our Advice and Counselling Service, which you can access as soon as you have applied for a place at Queen Mary.
Take a look at our Student Advice Guides which cover ways to finance your degree, including:
- additional sources of funding
- planning your budget and cutting costs
- part-time and vacation work
- money for lone parents.
Careers
Preparing you for your future
In East London, surrounded by stories of power, struggle and change, Queen Mary history students are using the past to understand the present, and shape the future.
When you study with us, you’ll learn the skills of a historian; to understand evidence, think critically and identify the detail and the big picture – which is crucial in a world being shaped by technology. You’ll be prepared to apply these skills, and more, into practice across a range of careers, including journalism, law, and public policy.
Embedding opportunities for real world application
Demonstrate the skills you learn in lectures on our unique History and Heritage internship module through a placement. You can work with national organisations like the Science Museum or the British Library, or grassroots, community led organisations like Tower Hamlets Archives.
Or get involved with extracurricular activities like qHeritage, our award-winning, student knowledge exchange programme. Where you’ll work in an interdisciplinary team on a project which help solves problems and delivers real benefits to heritage initiatives.
Where our graduates are now
- International Onboarding Analyst, J.P.Morgan
- Global Microsoft Alliance Director, EY
- Communications Manager, Remitly
Career support
You’ll have access to a dedicated Careers Consultant who can offer specialist advice, helping you navigate your own path. Plus, you’ll meet alumni at our annual ‘History Futures’ event, where you can ask our former students about their career journeys, and how they forged their career paths after graduation.
Our Queen Mary careers team can also offer:
- Advice on choosing a career path
- Support with finding work experience, internships and graduate jobs
- Feedback on CVs, cover letters and application forms
- Interview coaching
Learn more about career support and development at Queen Mary.
Data for these courses
History - BA (Hons)
History with Year Abroad - BA (Hons)
The Discover Uni dataset (formerly Unistats)
About the School
School of Society and Environment
At Queen Mary’s School of Society and Environment, we explore the big questions shaping our world - past, present, and future. From medieval Europe to modern America, from global environmental change to the politics of the Middle East, our programmes blend rigorous scholarship with real-world impact.
Our academics are among the world’s leading researchers, and our departments consistently rank among the best in their fields (QS World University Rankings; Research Excellence Framework). Students also rate our teaching highly (National Student Survey), recognising our commitment to an engaging, high-quality learning experience.
Located in London, home to Parliament, political think tanks, cultural institutions and global businesses, we offer excellent opportunities to collaborate with local, national, and international partners. Here, you’ll apply your learning beyond the classroom, gain hands-on experience, and join a diverse, inclusive community that will challenge your perspective and equip you with the skills to make a difference.
You’ll also have access to the Mile End Institute, a major policy hub at Queen Mary that connects policymakers, academics, and local communities to address pressing national issues.
