Program Overview

---

BA (Hons) History with Foundation Year

Overview

History is important: it shapes our lives and moulds our identities. This fascinating and thorough course allows you to examine a wide range of themes and issues in the history of Britain, Europe and the Americas from the sixteenth century to the present day. Focusing on the cultural, political, social and economic aspects of historical change, you will be encouraged to study particular areas of historical interest and controversy in depth.

Why choose this course?

• 100% for 'Academic Support' (NSS, 2024)

Course Details

• Award: BA (Hons)
• Start date(s): 15 September 2025
• UCAS Code: V101
• Course length: Full-time (4 years), Part-time (8 years)
• Campus location: University: City Campus
• School: School of Social Science and Humanities

Course Modules

Year 1

• Contemporary Social Issues
  • Module: 3GK015
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 1
  • Type: Core
• Preparing for Success at University
  • Module: 3GK012
  • Credits: 40
  • Period: 1
  • Type: Core
• Project-Based Learning
  • Module: 3GK013
  • Credits: 40
  • Period: 1
  • Type: Core
• Wolverhampton and its People
  • Module: 3GK014
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 1
  • Type: Core

Year 2

• Britain and the World
  • Module: 4HS005
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 2
  • Type: Core
• Changing Times: Twentieth Century Histories
  • Module: 4HS007
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 2
  • Type: Core
• Europe and the Americas
  • Module: 4HS004
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 2
  • Type: Core
• Moments in History: Historical Case Studies
  • Module: 4HS009
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 2
  • Type: Core
• Understanding the Early Modern World
  • Module: 4HS006
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 2
  • Type: Core
• Witnesses to History: Archives and Oral History
  • Module: 4HS008
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 2
  • Type: Core

Year 3

• Research in Action
  • Module: 5HS014
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Core
• America and the Cold War
  • Module: 5HS001
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Optional
• Campaigning and Citizenship: Womens Activism, 1790s - 1970s
  • Module: 5HS013
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Optional
• Consuming the World: Drink, Drugs and Shopping in the Long Eighteenth Century
  • Module: 5HS015
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Optional
• Histories of the Great War
  • Module: 5HS010
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Optional
• Migrant Stories. Itinerants, Migrants and Refugees in the 19th and 20th Centuries
  • Module: 5HS008
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Optional
• The World at War
  • Module: 5WR009
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Optional
• Volunteering in Action
  • Module: 5SL008
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Optional
• Working Class Britain: Life, Politics and Culture 1880s-1980s
  • Module: 5HS006
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 3
  • Type: Optional

Year 4

• Ending Empire in South Asia
  • Module: 6HS017
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional
• From Unification to Auschwitz. Germany
  • Module: 6HS010
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional
• Humanitarianism and Protest: Campaigning for Change in Modern British History
  • Module: 6HS015
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional
• Independent Study in History
  • Module: 6HS004
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional
• Modern America: The Rise of a Superpower
  • Module: 6HS001
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional
• Public History
  • Module: 6HS018
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional
• Sex and Family in Britain
  • Module: 6HS019
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional
• Understanding the Holocaust
  • Module: 6HS016
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional
• Youth Culture and Popular Music in Twentieth Century Britain
  • Module: 6HS006
  • Credits: 20
  • Period: 4
  • Type: Optional

Potential Career Paths

The skills, competencies and knowledge you learn through historical study are directly relevant to a wide variety of careers. Librarianship and information work, archive management, museum administration and heritage management are professions that actively employ our history graduates.

History also provides the key analytical and digitally literate skills that are much sought after in the fields of local government, the civil service, the media and a wide range of business and commercial activities. In addition, history is an ideal course for students wishing to enter the teaching profession. Many of our graduates have taken a PGCE course or further teaching qualifications and have become successful teachers in the primary sector and history specialists in secondary schools and FE colleges. A sizeable number of our graduates have also chosen to extend their interest in the subject by undertaking applied historical research at postgraduate level.

Additional Information

Why Wolverhampton?

The course allows you to study a full range of historical topics in an innovative, supportive and exciting environment. You will be taught by leading scholars and academic experts, with a proven and respected research and publications record. You will be able to study particular themes and issues that interest you, rather than undertaking surveys of long periods of history, and you will develop key historical and transferable skills in a stimulating environment that is geared towards academic achievement, personal development and future employability.

What skills will you gain?

As a graduate of this course you will be able to demonstrate:

1. A critical understanding of the problematic nature of interpreting the past, the variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to the subject, and the multiplicity of sources available to historians.
2. An informed appreciation of the processes of continuity and change over an extended time-span and how these have been affected by the contested exercise of power.
3. The ability to analyse the historical construction and changing nature of identities, as defined principally by place, ethnicity, gender and class.
4. A critical engagement with key historiographical debates and the ability to address these in depth using primary and secondary sources.
5. The use of appropriate technologies in digitally literate and enterprising ways to support historical research, process data and produce written work and presentational material.
6. An understanding of the value of civic responsibility in your outlook toward and relationships with others in a global context.

Course Fees and Finance

• Location: Home
• Mode: Full-time
• Fee: £9250 per year
• Location: Home
• Mode: Part-time
• Fee: £4625 per year
• Location: International
• Mode: Full-time
• Fee: £14950 per year

Entry Requirements

We will consider applicants who have not achieved 48 UCAS points (equivalence) from prior level 3 qualifications, if you have a keen interest in this subject area or hold relevant experience. You will be required to attend and pass a compulsory Prepare For Foundation assessment day where you will take part in a variety of activities which will assess your suitability for the course. If you would like more advise and guidance about this admissions pathway, please contact the Gateway team to discuss and support you in making an application to us.

Funding

• Tuition Fees Loan (Home Fee Status): Most students will be able to apply for a loans to pay for these subject to eligibility. To find out more information please refer to the government Student Finance website.
• Changes for EU students: The UK government has confirmed that EU students starting courses from 1 August 2021 will normally be classified as having Overseas Fee status. More information about the change is available at UKCISA.
• Self-funding: If you don’t want to take out a loan to pay your fees or if you aren’t eligible to receive a loan, you might want to take advantage of the University’s scheme to pay by instalments: See How to pay.
• Your employer, embassy or organisation can pay for your Tuition fees: If your employer, embassy or organisation agrees to pay all or part of your tuition fees; the University will refer to them as your sponsor and will invoice them for the appropriate amount.