History (Graduate Certificate)

Exploring the past is exciting, thought-provoking and sometimes revelatory. Our Graduate Certificate in History will help you develop the skills needed to become a historian, with a taught foundation module in the first term that will acquaint you with the theory, tools, techniques and research skills of historical analysis.

We will look at the varied primary sources through which we study the past, from laws and official reports to diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers, oral testimony, paintings, cartoons, music, film, architecture, landscape, archaeological remains and the internet. We will consider how a secondary source differs from a primary one and the problems involved in interpreting a source and ascertaining its truthfulness and reliability.

Thereafter, the course offers two routes for you to choose between: the first route is research-focused and will support you in producing a dissertation of 7000 words on the historical subject that most interests you; the taught route lets you select one module from any of the extensive range of option modules offered by the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology.

This programme is ideal for those who wish to pursue their passion for the past, those who want to experience postgraduate historical study without committing to a full Master’s degree, and those who are changing direction and moving to history from a different undergraduate subject.

This is an undergraduate-level qualification that will prepare you for postgraduate study. Graduate Certificates/Diplomas typically take one to two years to complete and are made up of two, three or four modules at final-year undergraduate degree level (worth 60, 90 or 120 credits).