English and History

English and history are two disciplines that share a deep concern with how human experience has been recorded, interpreted, and transmitted over time. English literature asks you to read carefully, interpret richly, and engage with the ways writers use language to make meaning, from Shakespeare to science fiction, Romantic poetry to contemporary poetry, or Victorian novels to Hollywood films. History asks you to work with evidence about the past, evaluate sources critically, and construct arguments about what happened and why.

Together they develop an exceptionally strong set of analytical and communication skills.

At the University of Dundee, this four-year full-time programme allows you to pursue both disciplines to a high level, with a range of modules giving you the option to study across a wide breadth of literary periods, genres, and critical approaches alongside historical study spanning multiple periods and thematic areas. A year abroad is built into the programme, giving you the experience of studying English and history in a different national and academic context. Entry typically requires around 168 UCAS tariff points.

Graduates of English and history go on to careers in journalism, publishing, education, the civil service, law, heritage and archives, museums, communications, and a very wide range of roles in which the ability to read closely, research rigorously, and write clearly is valued. The dual depth the degree develops, in both literary and historical thinking, is a distinctive qualification. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in English, history, or interdisciplinary programmes in the humanities.