Ancient History and History BA

Course overview

This degree allows you to study history from the ancient world right up to the 20th century. You’ll have the chance to explore the civilisations of ancient Greece, Rome and Persia, as well as more recent history across the globe.

A combination of core modules will give you a good grounding in different types of historical research methods, archaeology, literary analysis and life in ancient Greek and Roman society. You’ll also choose from a range of optional modules covering Sparta to the Tudors, the history of Britain, modern Chinese history or black politics in the US to the present day. You’ll even have the chance to begin or continue with Latin or Ancient Greek throughout your degree. This degree allows you to combine the skills of the classicist and the historian to pursue your interests across periods and cultures.

Explore our libraries

Leeds has plenty of useful resources for History and Ancient History students. The world-class Brotherton Library holds a wide variety of manuscript, archive and early printed material in its Special Collections. You’ll be able to get hands-on experience of working with ancient manuscripts, coins and other artefacts, including one of the longest surviving inscriptions from ancient Britain. Our other library resources are also excellent, and the University Library offers a full training programme to help you make the most of them.

Take a look around our libraries:

• Brotherton Library
• Laidlaw Library
• Edward Boyle Library

Course details

A joint honours degree allows you to study the same core topics as students on each single honours course, but take fewer optional and discovery modules so you can fit in both subjects.

This combination will allow you to explore how ancient concepts, ideas, events, art, architecture and literature continue to influence the modern world.

From your first year, you'll develop your historical skills and knowledge, as well as an understanding of concepts like historiography. You’ll also gain an understanding of the development of Greek and Roman civilisation and literature.

Once you have this firm foundation, you’ll choose from a range of optional modules over the following two years, striking a balance across historical periods. You could study the Crusades, medicine in the Middle Ages, Victorian England, pre-colonial India, 20th-century African history, the fall of the Soviet Union, and more. You’ll also deepen your understanding of ancient political systems, societies, cultures and people, from great historical figures to under-represented and subordinate groups, broadening your knowledge of theoretical approaches to ancient sources.

By the end of your final year, you will have built a wide range of skills across disciplines, allowing you to research topics and think critically about what you find. You’ll apply these to an independently researched dissertation on a topic of your choice.

Classical sources are taught in translation, so you don’t need to have studied an ancient language. However, we offer Ancient Greek and Latin in every year of the degree, from Beginners to Advanced level, if you want to learn or continue with either.

Course structure

The list shown below represents typical modules/components studied and may change from time to time. Read more in our terms and conditions.

Year 1

Compulsory modules (20 credits each)

• The Greek World: An Introduction - This module provides a historical survey of events in the Greek world from the eighth to the fourth centuries BC, followed by a more detailed study of the social and cultural life of fifth- and fourth-century BC Athens

• The Roman World: An Introduction - The module is intended as a foundation for further study in all aspects of Roman civilisation. It will start with an introduction to the major periods in Roman history and the surviving ancient evidence which allows us to study them.

• Exploring History - This module equips all students with the fundamental skills, techniques, and knowledge to be able to flourish as an undergraduate student of history. You will discover the range of ways that the past is researched, analysed, and presented.

Optional modules (selection of typical options shown below, 20 credits each)

• Ancient Lives

• Introduction to Classical Archaeology

• Beginners Latin

• Beginners Ancient Greek (Level 1)

• Intermediate Latin (Level 1)

• Intermediate Ancient Greek (Level 1)

• Intermediate Latin (Level 1)

• Faith, Knowledge and Power, 1500-1750

• The Medieval World in Ten Objects

• Medieval Lives: Identities, Cultures and Beliefs

• Global Empires

• Global Decolonization

• The Making of the Twentieth Century

Year 2

Compulsory modules (20 credits each)

• Evidence and Enquiry in Classics - This module is designed to build on and enhance the skills which you have developed at level 1, and to prepare you to pursue independent research at level 3 with the help and guidance of an academic supervisor. It offers a survey of Classics today, of classes of evidence, and of the various areas of classical research.

• Ancient Empires: Power and Control - This module provides an overview of the hegemonic and imperial regimes of the classical world, covering Greece, Rome and Persia, and focussing particularly on the hegemonic leagues of Sparta and Athens, the Achaemenid empire and the rise of Rome as an imperial power.

• History in Practice - Through this core module you’ll have the opportunity to deepen your understanding of how history is made and communicated, such as working with archival material, learning digital humanities skills, or exploring heritage and the public face of history. You’ll have the opportunity to undertake a research project that presents your work to a wider audience or to apply what you have learnt across a range of innovative assessment tasks.

Optional modules (selection of typical options shown below, 20 credits each)

• Traversing Time: The Voyage of Argo

• The Athenian Empire

• Herodotus and the Beginning of History

• The Rise of Rome: Myth and History

• Invisible Greeks and Romans

• Roman Comedy

• Augustus and his Legacy

• The Ancient Greek Novel

• Screening Antiquity

• Heroines: Representations of Mythological Women from Antiquity to the Present

• The Image of Sparta

• Greek Art and Society

• Intermediate Ancient Greek (Level 2)

• Intermediate Latin (Level 2)

• Beginners Ancient Greek (Level 2)

• Beginners Latin (Level 2)

• The Tudors: Princes, Politics and Piety, 1485-1603

• Colonial Encounters: France and its Empire, 1830-1945

• Sin in Spanish America, 1571-1700

• Medieval Romans and the shape of Afro-Eurasia today

• Britain and the Industrial Revolution

Year 3

Compulsory modules

• Final year project in History (40 credits) - This final year project option allows you the freedom to design and carry out a piece of extended independent research with the individualised support of a supervisor with research expertise in your chosen area.

• Major Research Project in Classics (40 credits) - The major dissertation requires the student to design their own 12,000-word project on any topic, subject to approval from a potential supervisor and the module coordinator.

• History Special Subject (40 credits), a typical selection of streams or pathways:

  • Dividing India: The Road to Democracy in South Asia, 1939-1952

  • The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

  • Body, Mind and Senses: The Social and Cultural History of Disability in Britain, 1833-1998

  • Black British Culture and Black British Cultural Studies

  • The Soviet Sixties: Politics and Society in the USSR, 1953-1968

  • The Photographic Age: Photography, Society and Culture in Britain, 1839-1945

  • Early Modern Media: Printing and the People in Europe c.1500-c.1800

  • White Africans: Intimacy, Race and Power

  • Georgians at War

  • The Later Elizabethan Age: Politics and Empire

  • The Korean War

Optional modules (selection of typical options shown below, 20 credits each)

• The Athenian Empire

• The Ancient Greek Novel

• Screening Antiquity

• Heroines: Representations of Mythological Women from Antiquity to the Present

• The Image of Sparta

• Plato on Love

• Greek Religion

• Greek Tragedy

• Intermediate Ancient Greek (Level 3)

• Intermediate Latin (Level 3)

• Beginners Ancient Greek (Level 3)

• Beginners Latin (Level 3)

• Advanced Latin

• Traversing Time: The Voyage of Argo

• Medieval Women Mystics: Visionaries, Saints and Heretics

• War, Regicide and Republic: England, 1642-1660

• Mapping the Middle Ages: Space and Representation from the Pacific to the Atlantic

• Nazism, Stalinism and the Rise of the Total State

Learning and teaching

Our tutors are experts in their subjects whose teaching is informed by high-quality research. We use different teaching and learning methods to help you benefit from their knowledge and experience. These include lectures, seminars and tutorials, and occasionally workshops. However, independent learning is also an important part of the degree since this is where you build your critical and research skills.

The University offers a variety of tailored support for ancient and modern historians; the University Library runs free classes and workshops so you can learn how to use them.

On this course, you’ll be taught by our expert academics, from lecturers through to professors. You may also be taught by industry professionals with years of experience, as well as trained postgraduate researchers, connecting you to some of the brightest minds on campus.

Assessment

We use diverse types of assessment designed to deliver key skills essential for the world of work: to think clearly and critically, to speak well, and to write persuasively. Exams and essays are a part of this, but we also use poster presentations, reflective commentaries and narrated slideshow presentations; some modules will include group work, oral presentations, wikis, student surveys and online discussion forums. We aim to make sure you develop skills not only in your chosen subjects, but also ones which you can take into your future career.

We offer additional support in relevant areas – for example, we run extra classes on skills such as public speaking, structuring essays and exam techniques that you’ll be able to attend throughout your time at Leeds.

Entry requirements

A-level: AAB

Other course specific tests:

Where an applicant is taking the EPQ in a relevant subject this might be considered alongside other Level 3 qualifications and may attract an alternative offer in addition to the standard offer. If you are taking A Levels, this would be ABB at A Level and grade A in the EPQ.

We welcome applications from mature students with Access qualifications, and from students with a wide range of qualifications.

Alternative qualification

Read more about UK and Republic of Ireland accepted qualifications or contact the School’s Undergraduate Admissions Team.

Alternative entry

We’re committed to identifying the best possible applicants, regardless of personal circumstances or background.

Access to Leeds is a contextual admissions scheme which accepts applications from individuals who might be from low income households, in the first generation of their immediate family to apply to higher education, or have had their studies disrupted.

Find out more about Access to Leeds and contextual admissions.

Typical Access to Leeds offer: BBB and pass Access to Leeds

Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

This course is designed for students whose backgrounds mean they are less likely to attend university (also known as widening participation backgrounds) and who do not currently meet admissions criteria for direct entry to a degree.

The course will give you the opportunity to be taught by academic staff and provides intensive support to enable your development of academic skills and knowledge. On successful completion of your foundation year, you will progress to your chosen degree course. Find out more about the Arts and Humanities with Foundation Year

International

We accept a range of international equivalent qualifications. Contact the Undergraduate Admissions Office for more information.

International Foundation Year

International students who do not meet the academic requirements for undergraduate study may be able to study the University of Leeds International Foundation Year. This gives you the opportunity to study on campus, be taught by University of Leeds academics and progress onto a wide range of Leeds undergraduate courses. Find out more about International Foundation Year programmes.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5 overall, with no less than 6.0 in any component. For other English qualifications, read English language equivalent qualifications.

Improve your English
If you're an international student and you don't meet the English language requirements for this programme, you may be able to study our undergraduate pre-sessional English course, to help improve your English language level.

Fees

UK: To be confirmed

International: £26,000 (per year)

Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2024/25
Tuition fees for UK full-time undergraduate students are set by the UK Government and will be £9,250 for students starting in 2024/25.

The fee may increase in future years of your course in line with inflation only, as a consequence of future changes in Government legislation and as permitted by law.

Tuition fees for UK undergraduate students starting in 2025/26
Tuition fees for UK full-time undergraduate students starting in 2025/26 have not yet been confirmed by the UK government. When the fee is available we will update individual course pages.

Tuition fees for international undergraduate students starting in 2024/25 and 2025/26
Tuition fees for international students for 2024/25 are available on individual course pages. Fees for students starting in 2025/26 will be available from September 2024.

Tuition fees for a study abroad or work placement year
If you take a study abroad or work placement year, you’ll pay a reduced tuition fee during this period. For more information, see Study abroad and work placement tuition fees and loans.

Read more about paying fees and charges.

Part-time fees
Fees for part-time courses are normally calculated based on the number of credits you study in a year compared to the equivalent full-time course. For example, if you study half the course credits in a year, you will pay half the full-time course fees for that year.

There may be additional costs related to your course or programme of study, or related to being a student at the University of Leeds. Read more on our living costs and budgeting page.

Scholarships and financial support

If you have the talent and drive, we want you to be able to study with us, whatever your financial circumstances. There is help for students in the form of loans and non-repayable grants from the University and from the government. Find out more in our Undergraduate funding overview.

Applying

Apply to this course through UCAS. Check the deadline for applications on the UCAS website.

Read our guidance about applying.

International students apply through UCAS in the same way as UK students. Our network of international representatives can help you with your application. If you’re unsure about the application process, contact the admissions team for help.

Read about visas, immigration and other information in International students. We recommend that international students apply as early as possible to ensure that they have time to apply for their visa.

Admissions policy

University of Leeds Admissions Policy 2025

This course is taught by

School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
School of History

Contact us

School of Languages, Cultures and Societies Undergraduate Admissions

Email: artsadmissions@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone:

Career opportunities

A degree in Ancient History and History crosses disciplines and gives you a wide range of knowledge and skills.

You’ll be capable of researching complex topics independently and thinking critically about information from different sources. You’ll be analytical and have highly developed communication skills. You’ll also have organisational and time management skills. In addition, studying for a joint honours degree allows you to become intellectually versatile as you switch between different disciplines.

Graduates from the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures go on to a wide range of careers, including publishing, the armed forces, journalism, law, curatorship, the civil service, advertising and marketing, education, business and finance and the charity sector. Some of our graduates progress onto postgraduate study.

We do everything we can to help prepare you for your career. Student-run career groups allow you to get together with other students who share your career ambitions. At the same time, you could also become a peer mentor under our scheme or apply for one of the internships offered every year.

You can read more about the range of careers our Ancient History and History graduates progress into, as well as the support we offer you throughout your degree.

The School of Languages, Cultures and Societies careers and employability support includes promoting internships, providing opportunities to work for the School and employer-led workshops and events.

Careers support

The School of Languages, Cultures and Societies regularly hosts employability events where you can listen to Leeds alumni talking about their careers and ask them for advice.

We encourage you to prepare for your career from day one. That’s one of the reasons Leeds graduates are so sought after by employers.

Leeds for Life is our unique approach to helping you make the most of University by supporting your academic and personal development. Find out more at the Leeds for Life website.

The Careers Centre and staff in your faculty provide a range of help and advice to help you plan your career and make well-informed decisions along the way, even after you graduate. Find out more about Careers support.

Study abroad and work placements

Study abroad

On this course you have the opportunity to apply to spend time abroad, usually as an extra academic year. We have over 300 University partners worldwide and popular destinations for our students include Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa and Latin America. 

Find out more at the Study Abroad website.

Ancient History and History at Leeds has exchange links with Verona University (Italy) and modern language classes are available before you go to prepare you for the experience. There are also opportunities at our partner universities across the world where courses are taught in English.

Work placements

Practical work experience can help you decide on your career and improve your employability. On this course you have the option to apply to take a placement year module with organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors in the UK, or overseas.

Find out more about work experience on the Careers website.

A work placement year is a popular choice with our students as it provides an opportunity to gain invaluable work experience as part of your degree. As with study abroad, you don't have to decide whether to pursue this before coming to Leeds.

You'll apply for the work placement year when you are already here and settled into your degree. If you are successful, you'll work in a graduate-level role and return to Leeds to complete your final year.

Hannah spent a year working for an integrated marketing group.