History with a Foundation Year

History is the discipline that takes the full sweep of human experience as its subject. From the fall of the Roman Empire through the medieval period, the early modern transformations of trade, religion, and empire, the upheavals of industrialisation and revolution, and into the recent past, history asks how and why human societies have changed, what forces have shaped events, and what the past can tell us about the present. The discipline is as much about method as it is about content: historians are trained to read sources critically, construct arguments from evidence, and communicate their findings persuasively.

At Swansea University, this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, making it accessible to students who need additional preparation before entering the main degree. The foundation year supports your academic development and ensures you are ready for the analytical demands of undergraduate history. From there, you will explore more than fifteen hundred years of history, engaging with a wide range of periods, themes, and geographical areas, and developing your skills in research, source analysis, essay writing, and historical debate.

The programme at Swansea equips you with the transferable capabilities that employers across a range of sectors and professions recognise and value.

History graduates are employed in an unusually wide variety of fields. The civil service, journalism, law, teaching, publishing, archival and heritage work, politics, business, and the charitable sector all recruit historians, valuing their ability to research, to think analytically about complex problems, and to write clearly and persuasively. The discipline does not point to a single career path, which is both its challenge and its strength.

Many graduates pursue postgraduate study in history, international relations, law, public policy, or archival studies, building on the skills the undergraduate degree develops to move into more specialised academic or professional roles.