Program Overview

BA History and Economics

The BA History and Economics program at the University of Reading offers students the opportunity to understand the cultures and societies that shaped the past and explore the critical economic issues that influence the world today.

Overview

With this joint degree, students can discover a thousand years of history whilst experiencing all the specialist areas on offer at the University of Reading. The Department of History's expertise covers a wide range of regions, from Europe and Africa to America, South Asia, and the Middle East. Module choices cover diverse periods and topics, from the Crusades to Cold War Berlin and from Medieval Magic to the Rwanda Crisis.

Structure

The program is divided into three years, with compulsory and optional modules in both History and Economics.

Year 1

• Compulsory modules:
  • Perspectives in History
  • Making History and You: Practices and Possibilities
  • Principles of Economics 1
  • Principles of Economics 2
  • Quantitative Methods and Data Analysis
• Optional modules:
  • After Malthus: Sex, Society, Sustainability and the Politics of Population in the Long Nineteenth Century
  • Doomsday Dystopias: Nuclear Disaster in the Cold War Imagination
  • Rape in the United States: From Colonisation to Civil Rights
  • Warfare in Early Modern Europe, c.
  • Merlin the Magician
  • Everyday Life in a Medieval Town: Reading
  • US Environmental Diplomacy from Nixon to Obama

Year 2

• Compulsory modules:
  • Intermediate Microeconomics
  • Intermediate Macroeconomics
• Optional modules:
  • Going Public: Presenting the Past, Planning the Future
  • Preparing for your Dissertation
  • People, Power and Revolution: Political Culture in Seventeenth-century England
  • Kingship and Crisis in England, c.1154–1330
  • 'The brightest jewel in the British crown': The Making of Modern South Asia
  • Europe in the Twentieth Century
  • Revolutionary Cities
  • American Century: United States History since 1898
  • Black Britain: Race and Migration in Post-war Britain
  • Women and Medieval History
  • The Colonial Experience: Africa Since 1879
  • Hollywood Histories: Film and Past
  • Rebel Girls: The Influence of Radical Women
  • Reform and Revolt in the Modern Middle East: Egypt from Ataturk to the 'Arab Spring'
  • Encountering the Atlantic World
  • Noise Annoys: British Youth Culture, Popular Music and Social Change, 1950s-90s
  • 'Apocalittici e integrati': Intellectuals and Society in Twentieth Century Italy
  • Medieval Medicine
  • Being British, Representations of the People: Democracy and Society in Britain
  • Business Economics
  • Games and Economic Behaviour
  • Economics of Social Policy
  • Economic History
  • Optional Language or University Wide Modules

Year 3

• Compulsory modules:
  • Dissertation in History
  • OR
  • Dissertation in Economics
• Optional modules:
  • Anarchy in the UK: Punk, Politics and Youth Culture in Britain
  • Becoming a Revolutionary: the Old Regime and the French Revolution
  • Eugenics from 1865 to the Present Day
  • Heretics and Popes: Heresy and Persecution in the Medieval World
  • Slavery in America
  • History Education
  • Discovering Archives and Collections
  • Medieval Magic and the Origins of the Witch-Craze
  • Battleaxes and Benchwarmers': Early Female MPs
  • Axis at War: Life and Death in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany
  • Politics and Popular Culture: Post-Arab Spring Egypt
  • From Darwin to Death Camps? Evolution and Eugenics in European Society
  • Ireland and the English in the Middle Ages
  • The United States and the Cold War
  • Modern Science and Empires
  • The Romantic Revolution: Culture, Environment and Society in England, c.1790-c.1900
  • Sexual Politics: Gender, Sex, and Feminism in Britain after 1918
  • Utopia: The Quest for a Perfect World
  • Poor Law to Hostile Environment: Repatriation, Deportation and Exclusion from Britain
  • The American Civil War
  • Public Economics
  • Environmental Economics
  • Behavioural Economics
  • Industrial Organisation
  • Financial Economics
  • International Economics
  • Development Economics
  • Money and Banking
  • Reasoning and Choice: Game Theory for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
  • Religion and Politics in the Medieval West
  • Gender in Africa: From Eighteenth Century 'Amazons' to Twentieth Century Child Soldiers
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Empire, Slavery, and Society
  • Optional Language or University Wide Modules

Entry Requirements

• A Level: BBB, including History or a humanities-based essay subject
• International Baccalaureate: 30 points overall, including 5 in History or a humanities-based essay subject at higher level
• GCSE: Maths at grade B (6)
• Extended Project Qualification: In recognition of the excellent preparation that the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) provides to students for University study
• BTEC Extended Diploma: DDM (Modules taken must be comparable to subject specific requirement)
• English language requirements: IELTS 7.0, with no component below 6.0

Fees

• New UK/Republic of Ireland students: £9,790 (2026 entry)
• New international students: £25,850 (2026/27)
• Tuition fees are subject to annual increases in subsequent years of study

Careers

Throughout the degree, students complete career and skills-related modules, encouraging them to think about their desired career and the skills they will need. The program develops a broad range of transferable skills in research, analysis, presenting, and working in groups. Overall, 94% of graduates from the Department of History are in work or further study within 15 months of graduation, and 93% of Economics graduates are in work or further study within 15 months of graduation.

Related Subjects

• Economics
• History