History with Politics

History and politics is among the most natural of intellectual pairings at university level. History provides the long perspective needed to understand how political systems and ideas have developed over time, how present arrangements came to be, and how societies have responded to crisis, change, and the demands of different groups and interests across generations. Politics provides the analytical and theoretical frameworks needed to examine those systems in the present, evaluating institutions, ideologies, and the distribution of power in contemporary democratic and non-democratic societies.

Together, the two disciplines develop graduates who can think both critically and historically about how the world is governed.

At the University of Buckingham, this three-year full-time degree takes advantage of the university's distinctive tutorial-intensive approach to higher education, which places you in close intellectual contact with tutors throughout your studies and develops independent, critical thinking of the kind that employers across many sectors value. You will develop the capacity to analyse historical sources, construct sustained arguments from evidence, understand political systems and ideas comparatively, and communicate your reasoning clearly and persuasively in writing. The combination of historical depth and political analytical skill provides a genuinely versatile intellectual formation.

Graduates enter careers across a remarkably wide range of fields. The civil service, journalism, law, politics, education, think tanks, international organisations, heritage, publishing, and management consultancy all regularly recruit graduates with history and politics backgrounds. The ability to think historically about the present, to evaluate competing accounts of events and processes, and to reason clearly about political institutions and values is valued in many professional contexts.

Many graduates also continue to postgraduate study in history, political science, international relations, public policy, or law, using the analytical and research skills the degree develops as a foundation for specialist academic or professional careers.