Department of History
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An outline of our degree programme
To give you an idea of what studying history at Bristol is like, the following sections explain our degree programmes, teaching methods, the different types of history units we run and our assessment process. This is not a formal handbook but you can also examine the current Undergraduate Prospectus for the History BA and, if you wish to examine our syllabus and programme structure in detail, you might consult the pages provided for 'Current Undergraduates' (though please note that this gives details of the programme for the current year, and this is subject to change in future years).
This page considers the nature of the teaching you might receive here at Bristol under the following headings:
Degree Programme
We currently have one main single honours undergraduate degree programme: History.
In addition, the Department of Historical Studies offers undergraduate studies in History of Art. Please see the History of Art pages for details.
Teaching Methods
Teaching in the History degree takes place through a combination of lectures, seminars, 'lecture-response' sessions, tutorials and workshops. In a typical week a student will have about six 'contact hours' with members of staff in the Department (rather more in their first year, less by their third year when they will be undertaking a major piece of individual research). The rest of the time will be spent in directed preparation for seminars, essays and projects. Students may also spend a fair amount of time in front of a computer, writing up the results of their research in the form of essays, projects and dissertations. While much of a student's time will be spent in the university library, students also conduct research using archives, electronic databases and the Internet.
Lectures are 50 minutes long and vary in size from 30-100 students. They provide the basic information for the Outline units in the first year of study and for our Skills units in the first year ('Approaching the Past'), in the second year ('Rethinking History'), and in the final year ('Researching History').
Lecture-response sessions are essentially a combined lecture and seminar typically attended by between 25 and 35 students. They last for two hours and offer students the opportunity to discuss, both between themselves and with their lecturer, the subject of the lecture.
Seminars contain 12-15 students and offer a chance to examine a subject in greater depth. Our Specials are taught entirely through seminars and offered in all three years of the degree, with one two-hour class being held each week. The presence of 'specials' in all three years of the programme is a particular feature of the Bristol degree. Our 'Reflective History' Skills units in the third year are also taught through seminars.
Tutorials at Bristol typically involve one-to-one sessions with a tutor. Formal tutorials are not counted in the 'contact hours' figure quoted above. They are often conducted to help students prepare for essays, projects, and presentations, and to give feedback on formal pieces of written work. Although students will normally only have a few formal tutorials each term, they are also able to attend informal tutorials, by visiting a tutor during their 'office hours'. Since every member of the teaching staff sets aside a number of hours each week for such informal consultations, all students get plenty of opportunity to discuss their work.
Types of History Units
The main types of history units are the first-year Outlines, second- and third-year Lecture-response units, and in all three years the Skills units and the Specials . In addition students undertake a number of major research projects during their course of study.
Outlines are taught in the first year and cover broad chronological periods, such as 'Introduction to Medieval History', 'Introduction to Early-modern History' or 'The British Empire: Rise, Fall and Legacies'. They are taught primarily through lectures and are intended to introduce students to different periods and different approaches to the study of history. Work conducted in associated seminars and for essays provides students with a chance to study and discuss particular aspects of a subject in greater depth.
Lecture-response Units, offered in the second and third years of study, are more focused in terms of time period and/or topic. They offer the students the chance to be introduced to a topic and engage in discussion about that topic with their lecturer.
Skills Units are taught in all three years. In the first year, we ensure that you are equipped with the basic skills of an historian. In the second year, we engage more deeply with the idea of historiographical debate with a range of 'Rethinking History' units on offer that engage with the rich debates that have occupied historians for the past forty years or so and consider the practise of the craft of history. In the third year, we offer a 'Researching History' unit to prepare you fully for your Dissertation and offer a range of 'Reflective History' units that are designed to help you to reflect on the nature and practice of history.
Specials provide students with a chance to become involved with cutting edge research with a tutor who is an expert in the field. These units introduce students to the process of conducting research and involve primary sources. Extended primary-source based projects are attached to the first and second year Specials. These offer students the opportunity to conduct original research. The Specials, in effect, thus give students the opportunity to do history, rather than simply study it. These units are taught entirely through seminars and individual tutorials. At Bristol, we pride ourselves on our Specials and regard them as one of the strongest features of our degree programme. Most University history departments only offer their students a 'Special' in their final year. At Bristol they are taken in each of their three years.
Projects and Dissertations. In addition to the taught units, in all three years of their study at Bristol students also undertake substantial pieces of independent research. All students undertake a projects related to Specials in their first two years as well as a 10,000 word dissertation in their third year. In addition, second-year students undertake a Group Project, which is assessed by means of a presentation. Work undertaken for the projects and for the dissertation is supervised by a tutor.
More detail about specific units
If you would like to see details of the units that are running this year, you can do so by looking at the unit descriptions page of our website. Please note that units may change from year to year.
Assessment
Assessment takes place through a combination of exams, essays, projects, and a dissertation. Approximately sixty per cent of the final degree result is based on essays and research projects and forty per cent on exams.
Only the second and third year marks count towards the final degree result. This provides first year students with time to make the adjustments necessary for studying history at university. For students graduating from 2013, second year results will account for forty per cent of the degree, while third year marks will count for sixty percent. This shift in the weighting (away from our current fifty/fifty split) is to ensure that our students' final results reflect more accurately their capabilities at the end of the degree programme.