Go on a journey through your favourite historical periods, from ancient Greece through Medieval Europe to Cold War Britain, with our highly regarded and award-winning teaching staff. This course enables you to study the classical world alongside modern history. Ancient history gives you an understanding of the cultures and societies of the Greek and Roman worlds, a period spanning from 2000 BC to around 600 AD, while modern history focuses on the era from the Crusades to the 1960s. Your first year is about discovery and experimentation. You will address important modern questions and trace them back to their roots, exploring different periods of history through both literary and material sources. You can enhance your knowledge of the ancient world through optional Latin and Greek language modules, or deepen your understanding through hands-on experience with artefacts from the Ure Museum. Your History modules will lead you through the last thousand years, giving you the chance to explore different historical periods before pursing your own interests later in the course. To complement your studies you can choose one of the History Department's popular employability modules and gain useful transferable skills and work experience. The University also offers all students the chance learn a modern language alongside their core subjects. You will be encouraged to gain direct experience of ancient sites through independent travel, for which scholarships are available. You can also apply to study at the British School at Athens and the British School at Rome, which both offer summer school opportunities to University of Reading students.

This combination of subjects will provide you with a range of transferable skills. Historians have to analyse a wide variety of sources to produce reasoned conclusions, and this helps develop clear thinking, written and oral communication skills, time management, adaptability, independence, and the ability to understand different cultures. Additionally, if you choose to study abroad you will develop further desirable skills such as independence, knowledge of different cultures, international communication skills and adaptability. Our recent graduates have gone on to a wide variety of careers, including work in accountancy and banking, the government and the civil service, law, heritage and museums, teaching, publishing, public sector management, libraries and archives, and media research and production. Recent employers include GCHQ, The Foreign and Commonwealth, Office, Oxford University, the British Museum, the NHS, the Environment Agency and Sotheby's. Alternatively, you can choose to further develop your research skills by moving on to postgraduate studies.