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English and History

Entry Year: 2025

2 study options

English and History BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
3 years
Start
September 2025
UCAS code
QV31
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£25,000
Funding information
Paying your fees

English and History with Year Abroad BA (Hons)

Key information

Degree
BA (Hons)
Duration
4 years
Start
September 2025
UCAS code
QV3Y
Institution code
Q50
Typical A-Level offer
Grades ABB at A-Level. This must include A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. Excludes General Studies and Critical Thinking.
Full entry requirements (including contextual admissions)
Home fees
£9,250
Overseas fees
£25,000
Funding information
Paying your fees

Year abroad cost

Finances for studying abroad on exchange

View details

Overview

Interpret texts with skill and a critical eye while exploring diverse societies and cultural changes throughout history

Whats the relationship between a piece of literature and the time it was written in? How are writers affected by their circumstances? What influence do literary texts have on social, cultural and political life? Study this combination of subjects to link the social and political history of a period with its literary texts, giving you the chance to reflect on these questions and more. 

Surrounded by outstanding museums and resources, youll expand your knowledge as you explore different histories and perspectives from Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. At the same time, youll unravel cultural history and the historical approach to literature, social justice, mixed media and more.  

Register your interest

Exciting career opportunities ahead

Our English teaching team is made up of 40 academics who are either world experts or rising stars – you might have already come across them on the radio or TV. The history team are equally expert. One of our history professors wrote and presented the BBC series ‘Suffragettes Forever! The Story of Women and Power’. Both subjects are a fantastic launchpad into many careers. You could apply your knowledge directly in a museum or heritage role. Or use your communication and analytical skills in a career in publishing, policy making, social research or the Civil Service. With our support, you’ll soon be creating your own history.

Structure

You can complete your English and History degree in three or four years. If you choose to do a year abroad this will take place in Year 3 and Year 3 modules will instead be studied in Year 4.

Year 1

In English, you will take the following modules (all compulsory):

  • Poetry (15 Credits)
  • London Global (30 Credits)
  • Literatures in Time Epic and Romance in the Middle Ages (15 Credits)

In History, you will take the following compulsory module:

  • History in Practice (15 Credits)

You then select one of the following modules: 

  • Unravelling Britain: British History since 1801 (15 Credits)
  • Global Encounters: conquest and Culture in World History (15 Credits)

You choose your remaining credits from a selection of Level 4 History modules that changes each year. 

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 2

In English you will take one 30 credit module from List One or Two, and at least one module from Lists Three or Four:

List One: Medieval and Early-Modern Studies

  • Chaucer: Gender, Faith, Identity 
  • Renaissance Drama
  • Renaissance Literary Culture

List Two: Eighteenth Century Studies, Romanticism, Nineteenth-Century Studies

  • Representing London: Writing the Eighteenth Century City
  • Romantics and Revolutionaries
  • Victorian Fictions  

List Three: Modern, Contemporary, and Postcolonial Studies 

  • The Long Contemporary
  • Modernism
  • Postcolonial and Global Literatures 

List 4: Special Options (Modules offered on this list changes each year). Modules may include:

  • American Romanticsm
  • Art Histories: an Introduction to the Visual Arts in London
  • Global Shakespeare
  • James Baldwin and American Civil Rights
  • Terror, Transgression and Astonishment: the Gothic in the Long Nineteenth Century
  • The Crisis of Culture: Literature and Politics, 1918-1948
  • The Thousand and One Nights

In History you will take this compulsory module:

  • History Research Project

You then select your remaining credits from a selection of Level 5 History modules that changes every year. Modules may include: 

  • A Century of Extremes: Germany 1890–1990 
  • Angels, Spinsters and Whores: British Women and Gender from Victoria to the Vote 
  • Chartists, Rebels and Suffragettes: Democracy in Britain, 1830–1928 
  • London on Film: Representing the City in British and American Cinema 
  • Race in the United States: Plantation Slavery to #BlackLivesMatter 
  • The Buildings of London I: From the Ashes of Fire to the Capital of Empire 
  • Violence and Modernity in Twentieth-Century India 
  • Women and Gender in Medieval Islam

You choose further modules from a wide range of options that changes each year.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Year 3

You will choose from:

  • English Research Dissertation
  • History Special Subject

You choose your final-year elective modules from a wide range of options that changes each year. In English, one module selected must normally be a 30 credit option. 

Elective modules may include

  • British Fictions of the 1960s
  • Feminism(s)
  • Guillotines, Ghosts and Laughing Gas: Literature in the 1790s
  • Shakespeare: the Play, the Word and the Book
  • The Modern Caribbean: Migration, Radicalism and Revolt
  • Victorian Sensation Fiction
  • American Horror Stories: The Fiction and Film Worlds of Stephen King from Carrie to It 
  • Empire and Political Thought 
  • Islam in Africa and the Indian Subcontinent: Conquest, Islamisation and Co-existence 
  • Searching For Sisterhood: Feminist Activism in Britain 1968-1988 
  • Time, Narrative, Culture
  • Witches, Demons and Magic in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe 
  • Writing Empire: the Eighteenth Century

This is a sample of modules from our full module directory.

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 English and 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. 

Additional Costs

A few modules may require you to buy tickets to shows or exhibitions (often at a discounted rate) as well as pay for travel within London.

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Testimonial

Studying history has given me the chance to explore civilisations I never even knew existed. From medieval monks to modern day Britain, my eyes have been opened to a vast array of cultures.

Fatima Moosa, History (2019)

Teaching

Teaching and learning

You'll receive approximately 10 hours of weekly contact time, comprising lectures, smaller seminar groups, field trips, tutorials and workshops.

For every hour spent in class, you'll complete a further four to six hours of independent study.

Assessment

Assessment typically includes a combination of coursework (essays, projects, presentations, log books and portfolios) and exams.

Resources and facilities

The Schools offer excellent on-campus and London-based resources to support your studies, including:

  • access to Senate House Library and the British Library – the most important intellectual resources in London
  • opportunities to meet visiting publishers, curators, archivists, poets, novelists, activists and filmmakers
  • proximity to specialist archives and collections such as the BFI National Archive, Poetry Library, Women’s Library, National Art Library and the Warburg Institute
  • opportunities to write, edit and publish for student newspapers and magazines
  • field trips to London's museums and archives as well as walking seminars

Entry requirements

A-LevelGrades ABB at A-Level. This must include A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. 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. This must include Higher Level English A.
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 English Literature or Literacy 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: BBC including English Literature or English Language at A-Level.

Our enhanced contextual offer: BCC including English Literature or English Language at A-Level.

More information on our contextual offer criteria can be found on our contextualised admissions page.

Please note that General Studies and Critical Thinking are excluded from any A-Level offer and cannot be considered.

A-LevelGrades ABB at A-Level. This must include A-Level English Literature, English Language and Literature or English Language. 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. This must include Higher Level English A.
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 English Literature or Literacy 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: BBC including English Literature or English Language at A-Level.

Our enhanced contextual offer: BCC including English Literature or English Language at A-Level.

More information on our contextual offer criteria can be found on our contextualised admissions page.

Please note that General Studies and Critical Thinking are excluded from any A-Level offer and cannot be considered.

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

Our English and History graduates go on to work in a variety of roles in many different sectors, including teaching, publishing, media and communications, and arts and heritage.

Recent graduates from our English and History degree have gone on to work for:

  • Curzon PR
  • Harper Collins
  • Historic Royal Palaces
  • The Independent
  • Penguin Random House
  • Shakespeare’s Globe

Career support

You’ll have access to bespoke careers support during every step of your degree, including personal academic support from experts in both history and English literature. A practical third-year module will prepare you for the transition from university to working life by researching career, entrepreneurial and postgraduate study prospects.

Our careers team can also offer:

  • specialist 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

English and History - BA (Hons)

English and History with Year Abroad - BA (Hons)

The Discover Uni dataset (formerly Unistats)

About the Schools

School of the Arts

The School of the Arts combines innovation, discovery and excellence in education and research in Drama, Film, Modern Languages, English & Comparative Literature, Creative Writing, Linguistics and Liberal Arts. We rank in the top 100 worldwide for Arts and Humanities (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024)

School of History

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. 

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