BA History and English Literature
About this course
BA in English Language and Literature and History, combining the study of literature with historical inquiry. Core topics include Research Methods, Historical Research, and Critical & Analytical Thinking. The course spans three years, with first-year history modules exploring people, politics, and revolution through an individual research project. Optional language or university-wide modules can be taken alongside core study.
Written by AI from the university's course page and module list. It can get details wrong, so check the official course page before you rely on it.
Entry requirements
A level: BBB, including History or a humanities-based essay subject. Humanities-based essay subjects include: Classical Civilisation, English Language, English Literature, Geography, Philosophy, Politics, Religious Studies. IB: 30 points overall including 5 in History or a humanities-based essay subject at higher level.
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What students say
Based on about 72 final-year students who answered, across similar courses at this university
- Teaching on my course: 95%
- Learning opportunities: 91%
- Assessment and feedback: 90%
- Academic support: 97%
- Organisation and management: 91%
- Learning resources: 91%
- Student voice: 86%
Do students stay on the course?
Based on about 10 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Continued on course: 100%
What graduates do next
Based on about 18 graduates who answered, across similar courses at this university (a small group: a rough guide only)
- Working: 55%
- Working and studying: 5%
- Further study: 20%
- Unemployed: 10%
Most common jobs
- Administrative occupations: 20%
- Teaching Professionals: 20%
- Elementary occupations: 10%
- Business and public service associate professionals: 10%
- Teaching and Childcare Support Occupation: 5%
- Find their work meaningful: 80%
- Feel on track for their future plans: 55%
- Use what they learnt on the course: 50%
Where graduates work (5 years on)
Based on about 135 graduates, across similar courses at this university
- North East: 1%
- North West: 4%
- Yorkshire and the Humber: 3%
- East Midlands: 3%
- West Midlands: 4%
- East of England: 11%
- London: 21%
- South East: 33%
- South West: 12%
- Wales: 6%
- Scotland: 2%
- Northern Ireland: 1%
Who gets in
Based on about 15 students who started (a small group: a rough guide only)
- A levels: 100%
Accreditation & quality ratings
TEF 2023 (whole university): Silver overall, Silver for student experience, Silver for student outcomes.
Modules
- Perspectives in History
- Making History and You: Practices and Responsibilities
- Theory and Practice of Writing
- Poetry in English
- Arriving in Britain: A History of Immigration, 1685–2004
- Doomsday Dystopias: Nuclear Disaster in the Cold war Imagination
- Rape in the United States: From Colonisation to Civil Rights
- Warfare in Early Modern Europe, c.1500-1750
- Merlin the Magician
- Everyday Life in a Medieval Town: Reading, 1100-1500
- Introduction to Drama
- Modern American Culture and Counterculture
- US Environmental Diplomacy from Nixon to Obama
- Shelf Life
- Optional Language or University Wide Modules
- What Is Comparative Literature?
- Thinking Translation: History and Theory
- Going Public: Presenting the Past, Planning the Future
- Preparing for your Dissertation
- People, Power and Revolution: Political Culture in Seventeenth-Century England
- Kingship and Crisis in England, c.1154–1330
- ‘The brightest jewel in the British crown’: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1757-1947
- Europe in the Twentieth Century
- Revolutionary Cities
- American Century: United States history since 1898
- Black Britain: Race and Migration in Post-war Britain
- Women and Medieval History
- The Colonial Experience: Africa since 1879
- Hollywood Histories: Film and Past
- Rebel Girls: The Influence of Radical Women 1792-1919
- Reform and Revolt in the Modern Middle East: Egypt from Ataturk to the ‘Arab Spring’
- Encountering the Atlantic World, 1450-1850
- Being British, Representations of the People: Democracy and Society in Britain 1838-1928
- Noise Annoys: British Youth Culture, Popular Music and Social Change, 1950s-90s
- 'Apocalittici e integrati': Intellectuals and Society in Twentieth Century Italy
- Medieval Medicine
- Myth, Legend and Romance: Medieval Storytelling
- Modernism in Poetry and Fiction
- Contemporary Fiction
- Writing in the Public Sphere
- Victorian Literature
- Writing America: Perspectives on the Nation
- Critical Thinking
- Early Modern Literature
- The Crusades, 1095-1291
- Enlightenment Revolution and Romanticism
- The Business of Books
- Optional Language or University Wide Modules
- Dissertation in History
- Dissertation in English Literature
- Anarchy in the UK: Punk, Politics and Youth Culture in Britain, 1976-84
- Becoming a Revolutionary: the Old Regime and the French Revolution, 1787-1794
- Eugenics from 1865 to the Present Day
- Heretics and Popes: Heresy and Persecution in the Medieval World
- Slavery in America
- History Education
- Discovering Archives and Collections
- Medieval Magic and the Origins of the Witch-Craze
- Battle axes and Benchwarmers': Early female MPs 1919-1931
- Axis at War: Life and Death in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, 1936-45
- Politics and Popular Culture: Post-Arab Spring Egypt
- From Darwin to Death Camps? Evolution and Eugenics in European society, 1859-1945
- Ireland and the English in the Middle Ages
- The United States and the Cold War
- Modern Science and Empires, 1750-2000
- The Romantic Revolution: Culture, Environment and Society in England, c.1790-c.1900
- Sexual Politics: Gender, Sex, and Feminism in Britain after 1918
- Utopia: The Quest for a Perfect World
- Poor Law to Hostile Environment: Repatriation, Deportation and Exclusion from Britain 1800-2016
- Utopia and Dystopia in English and American Literature
- British Black and Asian Voices: 1948 to the Present
- Lyric Voices, 1340-1650
- Literature and Mental Health
- The American Civil War
- Gender in Africa: From Eighteenth Century ‘Amazons’ to Twentieth Century Child Soldiers
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Empire, Slavery, and Society, 1550-1750
- Religion and Politics in the Medieval West, 1050-1492
- Psychoanalysis and Text
- American Graphic Novels
- Medieval Other worlds
- Margaret Atwood
- Modern and Contemporary British Poetry
- Children's Literature
- From Romance to Fantasy
- Placing Jane Austen
- James Joyce
- The Bloody Stage: Revenge and Death in Renaissance Drama
- Decadence and Degeneration: Literature of the 1880s and 1890s
- Black British Fiction
- Writing Women: Nineteenth Century Poetry
- Optional Language or University Wide Modules
Questions about this course
How much do graduates of BA History and English Literature at University of Reading earn?
The median salary is £30,000 after 15 months, £25,000 after 3 years, £29,500 after 5 years. After five years the middle half of graduates earn between £25,000 and £36,000. The £29,500 median after five years is £1,500 more than the UK median for Literature in English.
What do graduates of BA History and English Literature at University of Reading do next?
85% were in work or further study 15 months after finishing (Graduate Outcomes 2023-24).
Are students happy with the teaching on BA History and English Literature at University of Reading?
95% of final-year students were positive about the teaching in the National Student Survey 2025-26.
What grades do I need for BA History and English Literature at University of Reading?
The typical offer is BBB at A level, or 30 points in the IB. The average entrant had 114 UCAS points.
Does BA History and English Literature at University of Reading include a placement year or year abroad?
The course has an optional placement year and an optional year abroad.
How many students continue on BA History and English Literature at University of Reading?
100% of students continued into their second year, and 0% left higher education.