BA History and Business - 2025 entry

Modules

Modules encourage you to think about long-term developments and processes of historical change, and to make comparisons between countries and cultures. We emphasise historical questions that require you to identify patterns across time or between countries, and to isolate common or competing trends, instead of concentrating on short-term or single explanations.

Teaching hours

You’ll have on average 1-3 teaching hours per module and will need to allow for up to nine additional hours of private study. You should expect your total workload to average about 40 hours per week during term time. As well as attending lectures and writing essays and assignments, you’ll be expected to make presentations in seminars or tutorials. We encourage your presentation work, because it involves you actively in the teaching and learning process and develops important life skills such as good verbal and visual communication and effective interaction with other people.

Personal tutor

You'll have a personal tutor as well as tutors in individual subjects and they will work with you to monitor your progress, as well as offering pastoral support and other help. You will have a chance to make your mark on the programmes through regular student evaluations and participation in the Student-Staff Liaison Committees and the student History Societies on both campuses.

How will I be assessed?

All the degrees in History have assessments and examinations each year. Although formal examinations are important tests of skill, up to 50 per cent of your marks will come from other forms of assessment, including coursework essays, projects, dissertations and measures of your skill in presentation and oral work. The exact balance will depend on the modules you choose, and you’ll be informed of the methods of assessment before making your choices.

Progression

You must pass your first-year assessment in order to progress to the second year, but the results do not count towards your degree classification. For three-year programmes, the assessments in the second and third years contribute to your final degree classification. For four-year programmes the assessments in the second, third and fourth years all contribute to your final degree classification.

Taking modules outside of your programme

Depending on your programme you can take up to 30 credits each year in another subject, for instance a language or business module, to develop career-related skills or widen your intellectual horizons.

Proficiency in a foreign language

You can boost your employability by using up to 30 credits each year to study a foreign language. If you study the language for more than one year you may be entitled to have ‘with proficiency in’ added to your degree certificate. The Language Centre will be offering modules in French and Spanish language from complete beginners up to advanced levels, plus German and Mandarin Chinese from beginner’s level.

If you achieve at least 60 credits in a language via our Language Centre you may be able to have the words ‘with proficiency in’ and the language added to your degree title.

Further details can be found on the Language Centre web pages.

Proficiency in Law

Students on this course are now able to add ‘with proficiency in Law’ to their degree title, by gaining a strand of additional legal knowledge and skills that adds value to their degree.

The ‘With proficiency in Law’ modules being offered to non-law students provide a theoretical and technical basis for understanding the regulatory and legal frameworks that you might encounter within your main field of study. These modules lend themselves strongly to students wishing to develop their skillset to work across the environment and sustainability sector and in wider business.

If you accrue at least 60 credits in elective law modules you will have ‘with proficiency in Law’ added to your degree title.

Optional modules outside of this course

Each year, if you have optional modules available, you can take up to 30 credits in a subject outside of your course. This can increase your employability and widen your intellectual horizons.

Proficiency in a second subject

If you complete 60 credits of modules in one of the subjects below, you may have the words 'with proficiency in [e.g. Social Data Science]' added to your degree title when you graduate.

• A Foreign Language
• Law
• Social Data Science
• Entrepreneurship
• Leadership

Find out more about proficiency options

Employer visits

We have a dedicated Careers Service, with offices at our Exeter and Penryn campuses, ensuring you have access to careers advisors, mentors and the tools you need to succeed in finding employment in your chosen field on graduation. We offer the Exeter Award and the Exeter Leaders Award which include employability-related workshops, skills events, volunteering and employment which will contribute to your career decision-making skills and success in the employment market. Our graduates compete very successfully in the employment market, with many employers targeting the University when recruiting new graduates. For further information please visit our Careers Service.

Career paths

You will be equipped with skills that are attractive to employers and relevant for a wide range of careers across the public, private and NGO sectors including graduate-level roles in the heritage and arts sectors as well as other fields of work, including education, retail management, recruitment, charities, finance and accounting, and journalism.

Example careers

• Account Manager
• Archivist
• Business Analyst
• Civil Servant
• Digital Marketing and Events Executive
• Event Project Manager
• Global Market Researcher
• Historian
• Parliamentary Researcher
• TV Researcher

Further study

A History degree may also lead to further study or research and recent graduates have progressed to postgraduate courses in:

• MA Conflict, Security and Development
• Graduate Diploma in Law
• MA English Literary Studies
• MA History
• MSc International Management
• PGCE