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Modern and Contemporary History

Entry Year: 2024

2 study options

Modern and Contemporary History BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
3 years
Start
September 2024
UCAS code
V140
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades ABB at A-Level. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£23,350
Funding information
Paying your fees

Modern and Contemporary History with Year Abroad BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
4 years
Start
September 2024
UCAS code
V141
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades ABB at A-Level. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£23,350
Funding information
Paying your fees

Year abroad cost

Finances for studying abroad on exchange

View details

Overview

Focus on the historical events that shaped the world we live in today.

Our BA in Modern and Contemporary History is taught by internationally renowned academics with expertise in modern British, European and American history and the international relations that have defined the world as we know it. You’ll build specialist knowledge of the history and historical techniques of the modern era, and apply a historical perspective to a sweeping range of contemporary issues.

You’ll choose from modules focusing on Europe and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, exploring leadership, government and broader social and cultural contexts. You’re also free to take modules which provide global perspectives or consider earlier historical periods. Your classes will teach you how to engage with contemporary history using critical analysis: whether biographical, such as Kennedy or Thatcher; national, such as British or American history; or thematic, such as the history of terrorism or political thought.

Structure

You can complete your Modern and Contemporary 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

  • Europe in a Global Context since 1800
  • History in Practice
  • Unravelling Britain: British History since 1801
  • Global Encounters: Conquest and Culture in World History

Choose from

  • Latin for Historians I
  • Building the American Nation: 1756-1900
  • Europe 1000-1500: The Middle Ages and their Legacy
  • Reformation to Revolution: Europe and the World, 1500-1800
  • 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

The latest version of our module directory is available online. Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 2

Compulsory:

  • History Research Project

Choose from over 30 modules, such as

  • A Century of Extremes: Germany 1890-1990
  • The Buildings of London II: From the Coming of the Railways to Gentrification
  • British Horror: Film, Television and Literature
  • Madness and Medicine in Modern Britain
  • Race in the United States: Slavery to Civil Rights
  • The Clinton Years
  • Globalisation: Capitalists, Colonisers and Crises in the Long Twentieth Century
  • The Buildings of London II: From the Coming of the Railways to Gentrification
  • A History of the Internet 
  •  Britain and Europe, 1945-2016

The latest version of our module directory is available online. Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 3

Compulsory

History special subject and dissertation module in one of 15+ subjects, which may include:

  • Making Thatcher's Britain: the Thatcher Revolution, 1975-1997
  • Race, Ethnicity and Immigration: Britain from the 1905 Aliens Act to Brexit
  • The 'Heart of Darkness'? Identity, Power, and Politics in the Congo c.1870-2010
  • The Kennedy Years
  • The War on Terror
  • Colonial Fascism: A Global History from Blackshirt Invasion to Black Power Antifascism

Choose from over 20 modules, such as

  • The Modern Caribbean: Migration, Radicalism and Revolt
  • Gotham: the Making of New York City 1825-2001
  • American Horror Stories: The Fiction and Film Worlds of Stephen King from Carrie to It
  • Inner City: Race, Representation and Renewal in Urban Britain, 1968 to the Present
  • The Germans and the Jews since 1871
  • The Supernatural in Modern Britain
  • The Bear Hug: Belarus and Ukraine in the Soviet Empire, 1917-1991

The latest version of our module directory is available online. Please note that all modules are subject to change.

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 Modern and Contemporary 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.

Testimonial

What I enjoy most about my course is the ability to tailor my degree to my interests, due to the vast range of modern and contemporary modules offered.

Hamuda Jafree, Modern and Contemporary History (2020)

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 School 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 stocked by the British Library, 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
  • opportunities to attend Public History Unit Lectures.

Entry requirements

A-LevelGrades ABB at A-Level. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
IBInternational Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 32 points overall, including 6,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects.
BTECSee our detailed subject and grade requirements
Access HEWe 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.
GCSEMinimum 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: Grades BBC at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

Our enhanced contextual offer (for care experienced students, refugee/asylum seekers or students who have completed Realising Opportunities or Access to Queen Mary): Grades BCC at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

More information on how this information is used for a contextual offer can be found on our contextualised admissions page.

A-LevelGrades ABB at A-Level. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
IBInternational Baccalaureate Diploma with a minimum of 32 points overall, including 6,5,5 from three Higher Level subjects.
BTECSee our detailed subject and grade requirements
Access HEWe 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.
GCSEMinimum five GCSE passes including English at grade C or 4.
EPQAlternative offers may be made to applicants taking the Extended Project Qualification. For further information please visit: qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry/epq
Contextualised admissionsOur standard contextual offer: Grades BBC at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

Our enhanced contextual offer (for care experienced students, refugee/asylum seekers or students who have completed Realising Opportunities or Access to Queen Mary): Grades BCC at A-Level. Excludes General Studies, Critical Thinking.

More information on how this information is used for a contextual offer can be found on our contextualised admissions page.

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

See our general undergraduate entry requirements.

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

As a history graduate, you can apply your degree knowledge directly to a career in museums, education or the arts and heritage sector. Our graduates are also highly employable in other sectors and commonly enter roles in publishing, journalism, policy, consumer and social research, management consulting and the Civil Service – making use of skills gained from the programme, including verbal and written communication, research, critical analysis and attention to detail.

Recent graduates from the School of History have been hired by:

  • Bank of England
  • Croud Marketing
  • Deutsche Bank
  • Gillamor Stephens
  • J.P. Morgan
  • LexisNexis.

 

 

Career support

The School of History has a dedicated Careers Consultant who can offer specialist advice. We hold an annual ‘History Futures’ event where you can meet former students and discover how their studies have helped them progress in their career.

The 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

Modern and Contemporary History - BA (Hons)

Modern and Contemporary History with Year Abroad - BA (Hons)

The Discover Uni dataset (formerly Unistats)

About the School

The School of History is one of the top 100 in the World according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021. Our staff are at the forefront of research in their respective fields - world-leading scholars engaged in innovative teaching and bringing history to the wider public on TV and radio. 

The diversity of our offering underpins our students’ ability to construct a degree that suits them. As a result, our undergraduate historians are consistently among the most satisfied in the Russell Group.

Our determination to combine wide-ranging excellence in research and teaching make us an exciting scholarly community. The diversity of ideas and experiences embodied in the School encourages all of us to understand history from new perspectives and enable students and staff alike to achieve insights into pasts that had been previously unthinkable.

Contact us

School of History

Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 8351

Contact us

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