English and History

English and history are disciplines that have always enriched each other. Literature shapes and records historical experience, while history provides the context within which literary works gain their full meaning. Together, they develop two of the most important intellectual capacities a university education can foster: the ability to read texts closely and the ability to situate events and ideas in their wider human context.

The combination produces graduates with strong writing, analytical, and research skills that are valued across a wide range of careers.

At the University of Derby, this three-year full-time programme with a foundation year is set in Derbyshire, a county with strong literary and historical associations, having inspired writers including Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and Henry James during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when it was one of the centres of the British Enlightenment. The foundation year provides a supported academic preparation before you enter the main degree, making the programme accessible to a wider range of students. A sandwich year and work placements are also available, giving you the opportunity to develop professional experience in a context that draws on your literary and historical skills.

You will read widely across literary periods and genres while also engaging with historical scholarship, developing both your interpretive and your research abilities.

Graduates from English and history programmes go on to careers in education, journalism, publishing, heritage, the civil service, the voluntary sector, communications, and the cultural industries. The combination of textual precision and historical awareness is particularly valued in research, archival, and editorial contexts, and many graduates find that the writing and analytical skills the degree develops serve them across a wide range of professional settings. Postgraduate study in English, history, education, or law is a common next step, and some graduates pursue academic careers in these fields.