Programme Specifications

N/A

History, 18 Dec 2019

September 2023

The Programme aims to deepen learners’ knowledge and understanding of modern history. It offers learners a choice of modules relating to political culture and political power in a range of social contexts. Core modules focus on the development of historical research skills and an understanding of historiographical issues relating to politics and modern society, while the dissertation offers learners an opportunity to develop their research skills still further through an intensive investigation of a chosen topic. In this way, the Programme aims to produce graduates who possess advanced research and interpretative skills, and who have developed an understanding of a complex body of knowledge, some of it at the current boundaries of the discipline. The analytical techniques and problem-solving skills developed in the course of this scheme can be applied in many types of employment.

The Programme is designed to provide an introduction to the study of the relation between politics and society in modern Britain and Europe. It seeks to break down the barriers between political history and social history narrowly defined and to investigate in its widest context the relationships between political systems and the societies that they claim to represent and serve. Themes to be investigated include the structures of representation and allegiance in society, the interactions between the communications media and the political process, the progressive politicisation of society, and the roles of class, ethnic, regional, and national identity.

• A1 ​Knowledge and understanding of modern history through advanced study of source materials, politics, organisational structures and society.​

• A2 ​A critical awareness of current problems and recent developments in the study of modern British and European history.​

• A3 ​An understanding of the debates surrounding the application of historical techniques to modern British and European history.​

• A4 ​The ability to evaluate critically current research in the field.​

• A5 ​Reflexive and critical awareness of the forces of historical change and the ways in which they are explained in historiographical debates.​

• A6 ​The ability to frame historical questions in relation to current academic debates.​

• A7 ​A practical understanding of the techniques of research and enquiry which are used to produce and interpret historical knowledge.​

• A8 ​The marshalling of lucid and coherent arguments in written form, both in the form of shorter essays and projects and in the form of a dissertation.​

• A9 ​The ability to engage in original historical research: to formulate appropriate questions; to locate, gather, select, organise and synthesise large bodies of evidence; and to construct an extended historical argument drawing on that evidence.

• B1 ​a willingness and ability to learn and acquire knowledge.

• ​B2 ​the ability to deal with complex issues systematically and creatively and make sound judgments in the absence of complete data.​

• B3​the ability to reason critically. ​

• B4 ​the application of historical methods and concepts at an advanced level.​

• B5 ​the ability to formulate researchable problems.​

• B6 ​self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks.​

• B7​the ability to communicate knowledge and ideas clearly in a style appropriate to purpos​

• C1 ​the ability to search out, sift, assimilate and deploy large bodies of historical evidence from a variety of sources, both written and non-written (e.g. images, landscape or artefacts).​

• C2 ​self-discipline in time-management and an ability to work independently.​

• C3 ​the ability to read secondary sources critically.​ C

• 4 ​the analysis of a primary sources in complex ways, including an ability to establish their provenance, analyse their content and language, cross-reference them with other primary and secondary sources, and use them in the formulation of an historical argument or present them in an interpretational project.​

• C5 ​the employment of a range of bibliographic skills.

• D1 ​initiative, self-motivation, and independent learning ability.

• ​D2 ​flexibility and independence of mind.​

• D3 ​effective presentation and communication skills, orally, visually and in writing.​

• D4 ​the ability to manage time and work to deadlines.​D5 ​the ability to search for and locate information in a wide variety of sources, including electronic media.​

• D6 ​contextualisation, evaluation and cross-reference diverse forms of (often incomplete) information.

• ​D7 ​the ability to work constructively in groups, and assess the value and relevance of the ideas and arguments of others.​

• D8 ​the formulation and management of a research project.